PRIVATE RIGHTS MUST GIVE PLACE TO PUBLIC NECESSITIES.
On the 9th of November 1642, the forest of Freiberg presented a scene
of the busiest activity. Several hundred men were at work, and many a
great pine and fir tree bowed its lofty head beneath the stroke of axe
and saw, to fall at last crashing to earth. The wood-cutters from the
mines vied with those from the city--joiners, carpenters, wheelwrights,
and coopers--in thinning the dense masses of beautiful forest trees as
rapidly as possible. Burghers and others, aided by the gaunt-looking
mining people, with earth-stained clothes and red night-caps on their
heads, were loading the long heavy trunks upon drays that stood in
readiness, and driving them off with all speed towards the town. The
wind blew sharp and cool, yet no one complained of the cold; on the
contrary, the large drops that tell of honest toil stood out on many a
swarthy brow. The household of Mistress Blüthgen, the carpenter's
young widow, whose acquaintance we made in the last chapter, were all
among the workers.
'All this looks as if the Swedes were before the gates of Freiberg
now,' said Rudorf, the younger journeyman; 'whereas the fact is, there
isn't a sign to be seen of them anywhere. There does not seem to me to
be any such tremendous hurry, that we can't even stop to have our
dinners.'
'"Make hay while the sun shines,"' said Hillner, the elder journeyman.
'I can tell you Burgomaster Richzenhayn could not have done a wiser and
better thing than to have plenty of wood brought in. It is as needful
for the town as bread--indeed it is almost more needful. If it is not
all wanted for palisadoes, _chevaux-de-frise_, covered ways, and
galleries, we can always find a use for it in the stoves, and comfort
ourselves with the warmth it will give us.'
'Hallo, you boy!' cried Rudorf, suddenly turning to Conrad the
apprentice; 'look yonder how your step-father is enjoying his bread and
bacon. Only see, too, what a fat bottle of beer he has got standing by
him! Step across to him and ask him to give you a share of his good
things, and to lend us his bottle for a minute or two.'
Conrad, who was busy sharpening a saw, looked up and answered with a
sigh: 'I am glad enough to be out of his sight. If I went to him I
should only get a sound thrashing instead of bread and bacon.'
The two journeymen were both watching Conrad's step-father, the town
servant Jüchziger. As the lad spoke they saw the man leave his table,
the stump of a fallen tree, and go across to a little girl who was busy
picking up the scattered chips that lay about, and storing them in her
long basket.
'You little thief!' he shouted angrily, 'I'll teach you to come here
stealing wood.' He boxed the child's ears soundly, tore her basket off
her back, emptied it, and crushed it under his foot.'
The little one began to cry, not so much on account of the blows she
had received, as over her spoiled basket.
'What a burning shame!' said Conrad. 'It's our Dollie. Poor child,
just look how she trembles!'
Without saying a word, Hillner, the senior journeyman, left his work.
With his saw in his left hand, and his right fist tightly clenched, he
strode up to the town servant, his angry face showing pretty plainly
what was coming. As soon as he reached the offender, his hand
unclenched to grasp Jüchziger by the collar. 'How dare you touch the
child and destroy her basket?' he said, as he shook the astonished man
roughly. 'Will you pay for that basket on the spot, hey?'
It must not be forgotten that a town servant often thinks himself a far
greater man than even a town councillor. The bold and unexpected
attack at first took Jüchziger by surprise, but when he had had time to
take a good look at his assailant, and to see by his blue apron and
general appearance that he was only a journeyman carpenter, all his
rage came back at a bound, and he in his turn began to play the part of
the offended person. He poured out a torrent of abuse on the
journeyman, at the same time trying to collar the young man and pay him
out in kind. By way of making up for the journeyman's superior
strength, Jüchziger brought his official position into play, and called
on the bystanders to come to his assistance. This step, however, only
made matters worse for him. The deed he had been seen to do, the
weeping child, the ruined basket, and the young carpenter's indignant
story, all helped to rouse the popular anger against the offending town
servant.
'What harm had the child done to you?' cried one. 'Are the sticks to
lie here and rot, or be a welcome booty for the Swedes? Pray, how much
could a child like that carry away? Does not the whole forest belong
to us Freibergers, and shall not our own children pick up a basketful
of sticks while we are slaving here without pay? Give the fellow a
sound drubbing! Down with him, if he does not pay for the basket
straight away!'
At these words fifty strong arms were raised threateningly, and
Jüchziger saw that if he meant to save his skin it would be prudent to
fetch out his purse and pay for the basket without loss of time.
'And a groschen[1] for each of the cuffs he gave her,' shouted a voice
from the crowd, and stingy Jüchziger had to obey this order too, which
he did with a very bad grace. Dollie's tears dried up with wonderful
quickness when she saw the shining silver really lying on her little
palm, and she skipped merrily away to the town without either basket or
wood.
While Hillner and Rudorf went quietly back to their work, Jüchziger
kept a watchful eye on the former. As the tiger glares at his victim,
but awaits impatiently the moment when he may safely spring upon it, so
did the town servant promise himself to take a terrible revenge on the
journeyman. As soon as the day's work was over, and the workers had
reached the Peter Gate on their return home, he would have Hillner
arrested by the guard and marched straight off to prison.
An unexpected incident hindered, for the time at all events, the
execution of this promising scheme. The activity of the citizens in
preparing to give the enemy a warm reception had by no means been
confined to their day's work in the forest. Such buildings without the
walls as had escaped in General Bannier's attack were now doomed to
destruction. Thus it came about that the returning wood-cutters found
a large number of people outside the Peter Gate, fetching the furniture
out of their houses, and moving all their goods and chattels into the
town as quickly as possible.
Two houses adjoining one another--one a handsome building and the other
of humbler appearance--had already been stripped of windows, doors,
roofing, and rafters, and busy hands were now at work tearing down the
walls.
When Jüchziger so unmercifully destroyed Dollie's basket, he did not
suspect that at that very moment the same fate was overtaking his
wife's inheritance. For a moment the sight he now saw almost paralyzed
him; then recovering his presence of mind, he hastened towards the
scene of destruction, forgetful of all his plans for revenge.
But his angry protestations were of no avail; even his prayers were all
in vain, which seemed to him very hard. The labourers went quietly and
steadily on with their work, as though it were a thing that had to be
done; and when Jüchziger laid his hand on one and another of them, with
the idea of hindering them by force, he soon found himself repulsed in
no very gentle fashion. While he stood in front of his little house
wringing his hands, the very picture of misery and irresolution, a
well-dressed man, of respectable appearance though he was covered with
dust and bits, came out of the door of the larger mansion.
'Oh, my dear neighbour Löwe!' cried Jüchziger, 'advise me, stand by me,
help me to send this rabble about their business! I only married the
old blind woman because she owned this house, and now that there's no
getting out of the bargain they are tearing my nest to pieces before my
very eyes. Come, my dear neighbour, let us hasten at once to the
burgomaster. You are a man of influence in the city, and your request
added to mine will, even now, soon put a stop to this shocking
business.'
'Our trouble would be all in vain,' replied Lowe quietly. 'These
buildings are being pulled down by order of the burgomaster himself and
of the town council; and quite right too, although I suffer a serious
loss by it. "Private rights must always give place to public
necessities." I was the first man to lay hands on my own house, and
that makes it less hard for me to bear.'
In his heart Jüchziger cursed the good man for a fool, and turned away
from him in a rage. 'If only Richzenhayn were not the acting
burgomaster,' he said to himself. 'If Herr Jonas Schönleben were only
at the head of affairs, he would be certain to listen to me. The
cowardly blockheads! There is not a single Swedish plume to be seen
round the whole horizon, and yet they must needs begin pulling down
houses. But I will have ample compensation, or the whole town shall
smart for it.'
'My poor, poor mother,' thought Conrad sorrowfully, as he watched the
destruction of her little property. 'Father will make her pay dearly
for all this that he is muttering and grumbling about there. Oh,
whatever will become of her?'
Jüchziger lived with his wife in the town, and the elder men gave
Conrad leave to run on ahead, that he might have time to tell his
mother about the destruction of her house, and prepare her for the
outburst of passion she might expect when her husband reached home.
The citizens of Freiberg were preparing at all points for the expected
siege. All the corn, hay, and straw stored at their farms in readiness
for the coming winter was brought into the city, and every care was
taken betimes that there should be no danger of famine; for experience
teaches that more strongholds have been conquered by hunger than by
hard fighting. The fear that the Swedes inspired in the city increased
when it became known that Leipzig and Pleissenburg had fallen into
their hands on November 28, and that Silberstadt was their next
destination. It was a fortunate circumstance that armies in those days
could not move so quickly as they can now. Thanks to this fact,
Freiberg had time to make all due preparation for the enemy's
reception. John George II., 'the father of his people,' was not remiss
in caring for the mountain city. He sent Lieutenant-Colonel George
Hermann von Schweinitz, a brave and experienced commander, with three
companies of infantry and one of dragoons, to conduct the defence.
These troops mustered only two hundred and ninety men all told; yet
this little band, aided by the citizens, gloriously held at bay for two
long months an entire Swedish army of eight brigades, with a hundred
and nine pieces of artillery.
Hillner, the journeyman carpenter, was still a free man; for Jüchziger
had determined to find some other way of satisfying his thirst for
vengeance, and had therefore laid aside his schemes till a more
convenient season. In spite of the dark and doubtful future, busy life
reigned in the workshop of the carpenter's widow, as it re-echoed once
again to the din of tools wielded by the two journeymen and the
apprentice. One day--it was the 4th of December in the memorable year
1642--the hollow roll of drums was heard coming down the street, and
the senior journeyman, laying his plane on the bench, crossed the
workshop to look out at the window facing the street. Having done so,
he at once left the workroom and went out to the street door, followed
by his two comrades, to watch the entrance of the regular soldiers, who
were just marching into the town.
There were, as has already been said, only two hundred and ninety men,
yet the mere sight of them awakened joyful and reassuring feelings in
the breasts of all who saw them. The roll of the drums in itself had
an inspiriting effect. As the townspeople gazed at the long, level
lines, and heard the heavy, regular tramp beneath which the very
pavement seemed to shake; as they saw each bronzed face with its look
of stedfastness and assured courage, the open iron helmet on the head,
the breastplate covered by a military coat reaching to the knees and
allowing the body free play from the hips, the halberd grasped in the
strong right hand, and the shield in the left, bearing the Saxon
coat-of-arms,--as these various points were noted and remarked on, each
moment brought fresh courage to hearts that had been almost ready to
despond. In all ages there have been jealousies and strife between the
military and the respectable burgher class, and Freiberg was no
exception to this rule. But to-day the soldiers were welcomed with
loud and joyful shouts, which they, fully conscious of their own value,
acknowledged by friendly nods as they passed along the streets.
Conrad Schmidt, standing beside the miner's little daughter Dollie,
watched the warlike procession with the curious eyes of youth. From
time to time he stole a glance at the senior journeyman, observing his
movements with surprise and some amusement. The young man had taken
off his blue apron, and held it rolled up in his left hand, while his
right grasped the carpenter's square, exactly as the soldiers held
their halberds. His whole bearing was changed; he had become
positively warlike; his eyes flashed, and his feet rose and fell in
measured time, as though he could hardly restrain himself from marching
off at the sound of the drum. Conrad laughed and shook his head
merrily, but kept back a speech he had been on the point of making when
he saw the change in his old friend.
'I was right after all,' he said to himself. 'If he were just to let
his beard grow, he would be exactly like'-- His sentence was left
unfinished, for at this moment he heard his mistress' voice reproving
them for neglecting their duty, and they all hastened back into the
workshop.
The commandant made it his first business to inspect the condition of
the fortifications, strengthening them wherever that was possible, and
obstructing the approaches in every way that could offer impediments to
an enemy's successful advance. The approach of the foe was plainly
indicated by the number of country people who now poured steadily into
the town, seeking shelter behind the city walls for their household
goods, their wives, children, and cattle. Long trains of waggons and
droves of animals, accompanied by men, and beasts of burden bearing
heavy loads, were making their way towards the gates of Freiberg; and
the city authorities thought themselves bound in honour not to repulse
these suppliants for shelter, but rather to make their town what every
such town ought to be in time of war, a true city of refuge for all
needy ones. Moreover, many strong arms would be wanted to defend the
widespreading ramparts; and the former siege by General Bannier had
proved how well the country people could fight in defence of their
liberties.
'Hallo! ho there!' shouted a powerful voice one afternoon late in
December, beneath the window of Mistress Blüthgen, the carpenter's
widow, and the brawny hand of a burly countryman knocked so vigorously
on the window itself that the glass shivered under the blow. 'Can't
you make room in your house for a small family? I have always been a
regular customer of yours, and many is the gulden I have spent with
you.'
At this abrupt demand, journeymen and apprentice hastened to the
window. Six asses, each laden with a heavy sack of flour, stood before
the door of the house lazily turning their long ears backward and
forward, as though they felt quite sure of finding comfortable quarters
there. Farther down the street was a heavily-loaded waggon with two
powerful brown horses. In the waggon, almost buried among beds and
other household gear, sat a woman with a baby in her arms. Four cows,
in charge of a servant-maid, were lowing behind the waggon, and a dozen
sheep stood bleating round them. Mistress Blüthgen did not take many
seconds to settle with her would-be lodger, whose calling in life was
shown by the floury state of his clothes.
'That is the miller from Erbisdorf,' said Conrad, and at a sign from
his mistress hastened to open the yard gates, that the fugitives might
put their various possessions under cover. Willing hands were soon at
work unloading and stowing away the goods, and before long the miller,
leaving his wife established in her new home, set off with his waggon
to return to Erbisdorf and fetch the rest of his possessions.
'Praise be to God!' cried Mistress Blüthgen joyfully. 'We shall not
starve now, even if the Swedes do come. God grant they may neither
take the town, nor set it on fire over our heads with their shells.'
'We must all do our best to prevent it,' said Hillner boldly. 'God
gave us strong arms and brave hearts for that very purpose.'
[1] A small German coin.