first to be thawed by the use
of fire, two hours had not passed away before the untiring energy of
the miners had driven a heading of tolerable length, the foremost man
in which stood Roller.

'We too may yet find that this is our last day,' said Roller composedly
to the man working behind him. 'Every man's day is coming, whether he
likes it or not. And besides, if the Swedes can give up their lives
for mere money, cannot we do as much for fatherland, and wife and
child? Therefore to work with a will! So long as we can hear the
Swedes tunnelling, there is no need to light the match.'

'Now the sounds have ceased,' he muttered to himself after a short
interval. 'It will soon be all over with us.' And he picked and
shovelled away with redoubled energy, lest his comrades should abate
their efforts on noticing that the Swedes had ceased work.

'The earth gets loose and spongy,' he said a little later. 'We must be
approaching the Swedish mine. Now then for water, and hot water first
of all, so as to get through the earth the quicker!'

Some of the miners went above ground and passed a long trough through
the heading. This they sloped and kept constantly filled with water,
which rushed gurgling down at the lower end, for the purpose of
drowning the Swedish mine. Among those busy bringing the water in
firemen's buckets and other utensils, was the miller of Erbisdorf, who
had harnessed a team of his donkeys into a large sledge, loaded with
steaming hot water.

'Slow and steady wins the race,' was his greeting to Roller, as he
pointed to his long-eared friends. 'Our wives are brewing away yonder
as though they had their coppers full of good wort instead of water out
of the Muenzbach. Well, the Swedish tipplers are quite welcome to have
it all in their mine.'

As Roller and the miller were just in the act of lifting the heavy cask
from the sledge to the trough, a dull report was heard under the earth.
The ground quivered, then opened, and a red stream of fire gushed
forth, accompanied by clouds of smoke and stones. The Swedes had
observed the presence of an unusual number of people at this point, and
had exploded an already prepared mine. There was one loud, involuntary
cry from those injured by the explosion, then all was still.

The dead might try to make their way out of the grave itself with as
good hope of success as there was for the imprisoned Freibergers to
force a passage through the mass of _debri