fell after it and lay
bleeding on the grass. The mother picked it up and carried it away,
leaving the head behind her. She ran towards the house, but stumbled
against a tree and fell flat on the snow, where she lay in a swoon,
while the father struggled between two soldiers.

Some of the younger peasants threw stones and blocks of wood at the
Spaniards, but the horsemen all lowered their lances together, the
women fled and the priest began to cry out in horror with his
parishioners, all among the sheep, the geese and the dogs.

However, as the soldiers were once more moving down the street, the
folk stood silent to see what they would do.

The band entered the shop kept by the sacristan's sisters and then
came out quietly, without harming the seven women, who knelt on the
doorstep praying.

Next they went to the inn owned by the Hunchback of St. Nicholas. Here
also the door was opened directly, to appease them; but they
reappeared amid a great outcry, with three children in their arms and
surrounded by the Hunchback, his wife and his daughters, clasping
their hands in token of entreaty.

On reaching the old man, the soldiers put down the children at the
foot of an elm, where they remained, sitting on the snow in their
Sunday clothes. But one of them, who wore a yellow frock, rose and
toddled towards the sheep. A man ran after it with his naked sword;
and the child died with its face in the grass, while the others were
killed not far from the tree.

All the peasants and the inn-keeper's daughters took to flight,
shrieking as they went, and returned to their homes. The priest, left
alone in the orchard, besought the Spaniards with loud cries, going on
his knees from horse to horse, with his arms crossed upon his breast,
while the father and mother, sitting in the snow, wept piteously for
the dead children that lay in their laps.

As the soldiers ran along the street, they remarked a big blue
farm-house. They tried to break down the door, but it was of oak and
studded with nails. Then they took some tubs that were frozen in a
pool in front of the house and used them to climb to the upper
windows, through which they made their way.

There had been a kermis at this farm; and kinsfolk had come to eat
waffles, ham and custards with their family. At the sound of the
broken panes, they had assembled behind the table covered with jugs
and dishes. The soldiers entered the kitchen and, after a desperate
struggle, in whi