ld out
for years but for the pinch of famine. The effect of this was
temporarily obviated by driving all the old men and the women who could
be spared beyond the walls; but despite this the grim figure of
starvation came daily nearer and nearer, and the day of surrender or
death steadily approached.

A year at length went by, the famine growing in virulence with the
passing of the days. Hundreds perished of starvation, yet still the
people held out with a fanatical courage that defied assault, still
their king kept up their courage by divine revelations, and still he
contrived to keep himself sufficiently supplied with food amid his
starving dupes.

At length the end came. Some of the despairing citizens betrayed the
town by night to the enemy. On the night of June 25, 1535, two of them
opened the gates to the bishop's army, and a sanguinary scene ensued.
The betrayed citizens defended themselves desperately, and were not
vanquished until great numbers of them had fallen and the work of famine
had been largely completed by the sword. John of Leyden was made
prisoner, together with his two chief men,--Knipperdolling, his
executioner, and Krechting, his chancellor,--they being reserved for a
slower and more painful fate.

For six months they were carried through Germany, enclosed in iron
cages, and exhibited as monsters to the people. Then they were taken
back to Muenster, where they were cruelly tortured, and at length put to
death by piercing their hearts with red-hot daggers.

Their bodies were placed in iron cages, and suspended on the front of
the church of St. Lambert, in the market-place of Muenster, while the
Catholic worship was re-established in that city. The cages, and the
instruments of torture, are still preserved, probably as salutary
examples to fanatics, or as interesting mementos of Muenster's past
history.

The Muenster madness was the end of trouble with the Anabaptists. They
continued to exist, in a quieter fashion, some of them that fled from
persecution in Germany and Holland finding themselves exposed to almost
as severe a persecution in England. As a sect they have long since
vanished, while the only trace of their influence is to be seen in those
recent sects that hold the doctrine of adult baptism.

The history of mankind presents no parallel tale to that we have told.
It was an instance of insanity placed in power, of lunacy ruling over
ignorance and fanaticism; and the doings of John o