rning
objects which scattered sparks around them--bundles of hay caught by the
flames--from the convent barn to the Marienthurm opposite, and into the
street. Besides, the noise above and behind, before and below her, grew
louder and louder. The ringing of the bells and the blare of trumpets
from the steeples continued, and with this constant ringing, pealing,
and crashing from above, mingled the high, clear voices of the choir of
nuns in the convent, beseeching in fervent litanies the help of their
patron saint. True, the singing was often drowned by the noise from the
street, for the fire marshals and quartermasters had been informed
in time, and watchmen, soldiers in the pay of the city, men from the
hospital, and the abandoned women (required by law to help put out
the fires) came in little groups, while bailiffs and servants of the
Council, barbers (who were obliged to lend their aid, but whose surgical
skill could find little employment here), members of the Council,
priests and monks arrived singly. The street also echoed with the
trampling of many steeds, for mounted troopers in coats of mail first
dashed by to aid the bailiffs in maintaining order, then the inspector
of water works, with his chief subordinate, trotted along to St.
Klarengasse on the clumsy horses placed at their disposal by the
Council in case of fire. He was followed by the millers, with brass fire
engines. While their well-fed nags drew on sledges, with little noise,
through the mire of the streets now softened by the rain, the heavy
wooden water barrels needed in the work of extinguishing the flames,
there was a loud rattling and clanking as the carts appeared on which
the men from the Public Works building were bringing large and small
ladders, hooks and levers, pails and torches, to the scene of the
conflagration.

Besides those who were constrained by the law, many others desired to
aid the popular Sisters of St. Clare and thereby earn a reward from God.
A brewer had furnished his powerful stallions to convey to the scene
of action, with their tools, the eight masons whose duty it was to use
their skill in extinguishing the flames. All sorts of people--men and
women--followed, yelling and shrieking, to seek their own profit during
the work of rescue. But the bailiffs kept a sharp eye on them, and made
way when the commander of the German knights, with several companions on
whose black mantles the white cross gleamed, appeared on horseback