themselves to create an insurrection against the garrison of the
League, whom they still feared, but they whispered to each other:
"Brother, wait a little, and we'll soon have an opportunity to show
those Leaguists what we Stuttgardters are made of."

The insurrectionary spirit of the burghers did not escape the notice of
Christoph Schwarzenberg, the Leaguist governor. He perceived, but too
late, the mistake that had been committed in disbanding the army. He
applied to the representatives of his party assembled at Noerdlingen for
assistance, but gave them no hope of holding Stuttgardt unless they
sent immediate relief. Scarcely had he time to make some feeble
preparations for defence, when the rapid advance of the Duke checked
his ardour. Perceiving he could not trust the citizens, that the nobles
would not stand by him, and aware that the garrison was not strong
enough even to ensure the safety of the gates of the city, he absconded
in the night with the state council to Esslingen. Their flight was so
sudden and secret, that their families even were ignorant of it, and no
one in the town suspected the intentions of the governor and his
senate. The partisans of the League, therefore, never dreaming of the
desertion of their chiefs, treated the news of the approach of the Duke
with indifference, for they did not believe the report of his being in
the immediate neighbourhood.

The market-place in those days stood in the heart of the city. But even
then two considerable suburbs, the Saint Leonhard and the field of
tournament, were built around the town, provided with outer ditches,
walls, and strong gates, which gave them also the appearance of
fortified cities. They were separated from the old town which possessed
its own walls and gates, and its inhabitants looked down with contempt
on those of the suburbs. The market-place was the spot where the
burghers were accustomed to assemble, according to the fashion of olden
times when any extraordinary occurrence took place; and therefore, on
the eventful evening before the day of the Assumption of the Virgin,
the citizens streamed in crowds to this central point. Though every man
in those days carried arms with impunity, which gave to an assembled
multitude a fearful appearance, still the honest burghers of Stuttgardt
would not have dared to utter, in the day-time, what they now ventured
to do in the dusk. Had many of them been asked their opinion of the
Duke in the forenoon,