nation of the authorities and pastors, as being
fantastic and immoral. To us it appears as the characteristic evil of a
time when the old independence of the German citizen was crushed.

When an army approached a town, the traffic with the country almost
entirely ceased, the gates were carefully watched, and the citizens
maintained themselves on the provisions that had been collected. Then
began the levying of contributions, the passage and quartering of
friendly armies, with all its terrors. Still worse was the passage of
the enemy. They uselessly endeavoured to purchase safety--it was a
favour if the enemy did not set fire to the town woods or cut them down
for sale, or carry off the town library on his baggage waggon;
everything that was inviting to plunder, such as the organ or church
pictures, had to be ransomed, even to the church bells, which,
according to the custom of war, belonged to the artillery. The cities
were not in a position to satisfy the demands of the Generals, so the
most considerable of the citizens were dragged off as hostages till the
sum exacted was paid.

If a town was considered strong enough to resist the enemy's army, it
was always filled with fugitives at the approach of the enemy, the
number of whom was so great that the citizens could not think of
providing for them. There came to Dresden, for example, in 1637, after
the capture of Torgau in the course of three days, from the 7th to the
9th of May, twelve thousand waggons with fugitive country people. The
enemy surrounded the over-filled place; round the walls the battle
raged, and within, not less voracious, hunger, misery and sickness. All
the fugitives who were capable of bearing arms were employed in severe
siege service; the nobility also of the neighbourhood sometimes
assisted. If the siege lingered long, the high prices were followed by
shameless usury, the millers ground only for the rich, and the bakers
made exorbitant demands. The pictures of famine, such as was then
experienced in many towns, are too horrible to dwell upon. When at
Noerdlingen a fortified tower was taken by the besiegers, the citizens
themselves burnt it down, hungry women fell upon the half-roasted
bodies of the enemy and carried pieces home for their children.

But if a town was taken by storm it experienced the fate of Magdeburg;
the mowing down of masses, the dishonouring of women, horrible torments
and mutilations; and, added to all this, pestilence. To