Robert Barr

“ And now, Fraülein Gretchen, I suspect your lover had been sowing sedition in my unhappy city, and that the charges of stupidity levelled against me are received through you at second hand."
"No, my lord; I alone am talking sedition. My lover never did so, but he is a man of genius, and has a thousand plans for saving Ebernburg."
"One will be sufficient. Fraülein. Captain Dorn tells me it will take a hundred men to get him out of the Town Hall. I shall do it without a man at all. ”

“ Indeed, my lord, they know such is not the case, but are convinced that Bernard would himself die before he allowed that mammoth boar to be slain. It is of the wild breed that haunts the Rheingau forests, as savage as a trooper of Traves to others, but tame as a cat with him; so, between love of the man and fear of the brute, 'twould be difficult to find a dozen soldiers to attack the pair, and it will take at least fourscore to get him out of the Town Hall, where he and the boar are securely barricaded. ”

“ I did not say so, my lord, but I affirm that while a man may be a good general without imagination, he never can become a great general lacking it. There, for instance, is the Archbishop of Traves, a fighting man and a man of imagination. With half the men engaged in this siege, I believe he could crumple up both you and Mayence. ”

“ My Lord Archbishop,—I counsel you not to attack the troops that surround our town of Ebernburg. It would be a mere waste of men. I have swine-flesh enough to last me for a year, and can hold the Archbishop of Mayence where he lies, because those who have deserted us will report to him that we are starving. ”

“ He, having been imprisoned four months, knows nothing of our straits, for the food in his cell is no more scanty than it was in the beginning. I shall press on him the bread and wine, urging him to eat and drink in abundance, and he leaves this town at midnight imagining he quits a garrison plenteousiy provided with food and drink. Thus is his imagination stimulated. Now let us tackle the Archbishop of Traves. I ask you, my lord, to write as follows—
To the most eminent the Elector-Archbishop of Traves, Prince of the Church, and Overlord of the Moselle Valley, greeting. ”

“ He has forty thousand men around us, and Mayence lies open to your march. The city of Mayence can be taken at the blast of a trumpet, as fell the walls of Jericho. Once you are in Mayence, I shall issue forth, and you and I will crush the Archbishop of Mayence as between the upper and nether millstones.
" (Signed) ⁠Von Sickingen."
"But—but——" protested the Baron, "Traves is my enemy, and Cologne is my friend. Mayence knows that if I made an appeal, it would be to Cologne. Both Mayence and Cologne mistrust Traves."
"Cologne dare not march to your assistance. Here stands Ebernburg ”

“ Ah, there we are not such fools. I could not risk half a thousand fine animals scattered over the countryside. Once outside the gates, we could never get them in again; but to-day I have to slaughter twenty-five pigs, and for your delectation I shall do so each morning outside the gates instead of inside them. ”

“ The double line of lance knights took their position, with the points of their pikes on the floor, the lance shaft being inclined at an angle of forty-five up under the arm of each man, ready for instant use should there be need of it. ”