aceful
citizens and country-people, and last, though not least, the
true-hearted miners. These, with the help of a few cannon and a
limited supply of ammunition, were holding shattered heaps of ruins
against an unwearied foe. But the Freibergers threw into the scale on
their side, loyalty to their prince, love for fatherland, for hearth,
and home, and liberty; and thus the balance weighed in their favour.

With thoughts like these present in many minds, passed away the
daylight hours of that memorable 16th of February, and the night
appointed for the general assault came down at last. Eight captains,
each with a hundred and twenty men, a company of seventy or eighty
picked men with hand-grenades, and as many more with axes, were told
off to make the first attack, their advance being supported by four
thousand men of the main storming party. In the evening, Torstenson
had, by a great effort, ridden quite round the town, marking out the
points to be specially attacked, assigning his troops their respective
places, and ordering several new batteries to be placed in position.
As Wallenstein once before Stralsund, so now Torstenson before
Freiberg, swore to take the city, even though it were under the special
protection of Heaven itself.

The besieged were aware, both through their prisoners and by other
means of information, that the most desperate of all their struggles
awaited them to-night, and they did not attempt to conceal from
themselves the terrible peril in which they stood. They spent a social
hour at home with wife and children, took what might well prove a final
farewell, and then each man went forth to his dangerous post with the
stedfast determination to die rather than yield. And among those ranks
of silent, resolute men in the deadly breach, was seen the reverend
figure of good Master Spelling, in his preacher's robe, the book of the
Holy Gospels in his hand.

'My beloved brethren in Christ!' he cried; 'if we live we live unto the
Lord, and if we die we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore,
or die, we are the Lord's. Yea, the Lord is our strength and our
shield; and though we wander through the valley of the shadow of death,
we will fear no evil, for His right hand hath holden us up that we
should not fall. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to
all that call upon Him in truth. He will hear their cry and will save
them. "Call upon me," saith He, "in the day of trouble; I