they were Conrad Schmidt and Dollie. Close at their heels
followed a man in a dusty coat, the miller of Erbisdorf.

'Out of the way directly!' he shouted to the thoughtless youngsters.
'Do you both want to be killed? This is no child's plaything.' So
saying, he carefully poured into the hole a large bucketful of water he
had brought with him, and then set about digging out the expected shell.

'Well, upon my word!' he cried, in a tone of such astonishment that the
Burgomaster paused in curiosity. 'How long have they used bombs with
iron rings to catch hold of them by? Why, as sure as I'm here, it is
nothing in the world but a lumbering old iron hundred-weight, that the
Swedes must have stolen out of some good Saxon's shop to batter our
heads in Freiberg with.' While the worthy miller was still expressing
his astonishment over this new kind of missile, Dollie's father, the
miner Roller, appeared coming down the street, grasping some heavy
object with both hands. When he recognised the Burgomaster, he let his
burden drop on the ground, and proceeded respectfully to remove his hat.

'What have you got there?' cried the miller, who was near enough to
hear Roller's salutation of the magistrate. 'A blacksmith's anvil?'

'The end of one, at all events,' replied Roller. Then, turning to
Schoenleben, he added, 'Only half a yard more, respected Herr
Burgomaster, and my poor head would have been shattered by this same
anvil. But it tells a welcome story too; for if the Swedes have to use
things like these to feed their cannon with, they must be running
pretty short of ammunition.'

'That seems to contradict you,' said Schoenleben pleasantly, indicating
the tremendous noise of the cannonade that filled the air on all sides.

'Ah, but it's beginning to slacken now, respected Herr Burgomaster,'
shouted the miller joyfully the next minute. 'Don't you hear that the
siege-guns have ceased firing?'

Roller looked thoughtfully up at St. Peter's Tower, from which a
blood-red flag now floated in the air. In a moment, from all the
hitherto silent towers and steeples, the bells clashed out an alarm.

'That is the signal of an attempt to storm,' said the Burgomaster; then
concealing his own agitation as best he might, he hastened from the
spot.

'A storm!' said Dollie wonderingly to Conrad. 'But there are no
clouds, and no wind; how could there be a storm?' At this point the
questioner was sent into the house by the mill