hey had been engaged.

"You are welcome," the host said, advancing towards them. "I have made
preparations for your coming; eat and drink as it pleases you."

Rushing to the wine casks, the soldiers appeased their thirst with long
draughts of wine, and then fell upon the eatables. Other bands followed,
and the house was soon filled from top to bottom with soldiers, who
ransacked the cupboards, loaded themselves with such things as they
deemed worth carrying away, and wantonly broke and destroyed what they
could not. The servants were all kept busy bringing up wine from the
cellars. This was of good quality, and the soldiers, well satisfied,
abstained from personal violence.

All night long pandemonium reigned in the town. Shrieks and cries, oaths
and sounds of conflict arose from all quarters, as citizens or their
wives were slaughtered by drunken soldiers, or the latter quarrelled and
fought among themselves for some article of plunder. Flames broke out in
many places, and whole streets were burned, many of the drunken soldiers
losing their lives in the burning houses; but in the morning the bugles
rang out, the soldiers desisted from their orgies, and such as were able
to stand staggered away to join their colours.

A fresh party marched into the town; these collected the stragglers,
and seized all the horses and carts for the carriage of the baggage and
plunder. The burgomaster had been taken before Tilly and commanded to
find a considerable sum of money the first thing in the morning, under
threat that the whole town would be burned down, and the inhabitants
massacred if it was not forthcoming.

A council of the principal inhabitants was hastily summoned at daybreak.
The syndics of the various guilds between them contributed the necessary
sum either in money or in drafts, and at noon Tilly marched away with
his troops, leaving the smoking and ruined town behind him. Many of the
inhabitants were forced as drivers to accompany the horses and carts
taken away. Among these were three of the syndic's serving men, Malcolm
being one of the number.

It was well that the Pomeranian dialect differed so widely from the
Bavarian, so Malcolm's German had consequently passed muster without
suspicion. The Imperialist army, although dragging with them an immense
train of carts laden with plunder, marched rapidly. The baggage was
guarded by horsemen who kept the train in motion, galloping up and down
the line, and freely admin