d buildings.

But Tilly's army was so strong that he was able continually to bring up
fresh troops to the attack, while the Scotch were incessantly engaged.
For eight-and-forty hours the defenders resisted successfully, but at
last, worn out by fatigue, they were unable to withstand the onslaught
of the enemy, and the latter forced their way into the town. Still the
Scots fought on. Falling back from the breaches, they contested every
foot of the ground, holding the streets and lanes with desperate
tenacity, and inflicting terrible losses upon the enemy.

At last, twelve hours later, they were gathered in the marketplace,
nearly in the centre of the town, surrounded on all sides by the enemy.
Several times the Scottish bugles had sounded a parley, but Tilly,
furious at the resistance, and at the loss which the capture of the town
had entailed, had issued orders that no quarter should be given, and his
troops pressed the now diminished band of Scotchmen on all sides.

Even now they could not break through the circle of spears, but from
every window and roof commanding them a deadly fire was poured in.
Colonel Lindsay was shot dead. Captain Moncrieff, Lieutenant Keith, and
Farquhar fell close to Malcolm. The shouts of "Kill, kill, no quarter,"
rose from the masses of Imperialists. Parties of the Scotch, preferring
to die sword in hand rather than be shot down, flung themselves into the
midst of the enemy and died fighting.

At last, when but fifty men remained standing, these in a close body
rushed at the enemy and drove them by the fury of their attack some
distance down the principal street. Then numbers told. The band was
broken up, and a desperate hand-to-hand conflict raged for a time.

Two of the Scottish officers alone, Captain Innes and Lieutenant
Lumsden, succeeded in breaking their way down a side lane, and thence,
rushing to the wall, leapt down into the moat, and swimming across,
succeeded in making their escape, and in carrying the news of the
massacre to the camp of Gustavus, where the tale filled all with
indignation and fury. Among the Scotch regiments deep vows of vengeance
were interchanged, and in after battles the Imperialists had cause
bitterly to rue having refused quarter to the Scots at New Brandenburg.

When the last melee was at its thickest, and all hope was at an end,
Malcolm, who had been fighting desperately with his half pike, found
himself for a moment in a doorway. He turned the handl