ns caused him; and for this purpose he assumed an extravagant
tone of gaiety, which often succeeded to blind himself, and make him
forget the precipice upon which he stood: and for the sake of
instilling confidence into the people, and into the army which he had
assembled in and about Stuttgardt, he determined to revenge himself
with double interest upon the League, for the depredations they had
committed in excursions from Esslingen. He beat and repulsed them
indeed, and wasted their territory; but when he returned in victory
from his expedition, he could not conceal from himself, that,
considering his own slender resources, the fortune of war might go
against him, when once the army of his enemies should be brought into
the field. His apprehensions were soon verified; for the rapid advance
of the League's troops towards the capital threatened the stability of
Ulerich's present doubtful position. Upon the turn of a battle, which
now seemed inevitable, depended his very existence.

Little or nothing was known in Stuttgardt of a summons which had been
sent to the Duke from the League. The court lived in its usual round of
gaiety; tranquillity and joy reigned in the town; when all of a sudden,
on the 12th, of October, the lansquenets which the Duke had encamped
near Cannstadt, a short distance from the capital, came into the town
in confusion, with the intelligence that they had been driven in by a
large force of the League. The inhabitants of Stuttgardt were now
convinced that an important crisis was at hand; they conjectured that
the Duke must long since have been aware of this threatening attack,
for he immediately assembled his officers, drew in his troops, which
were scattered about in quarters in the villages surrounding the
capital, passed his army in review, amounting to upwards of ten
thousand men, on the same evening; and in the night marched with a
large body of infantry, to reinforce the posts which a division of the
lansquenet still occupied between Esslingen and Cannstadt.

The departure of all the men, young and old, who could carry arms,
caused many a beautiful eye to weep that night, when they marched out
of Stuttgardt with the Duke, to the field of battle; but the wailing of
the women and young maidens was drowned in the warlike noise of the
marching army, resembling the sobs of a child amidst the raging of the
elements. Bertha's grief, though almost overpowering, was silent, as
she accompanied her husb