The Young Captives / A Narrative of the Shipwreck and Suffering of John and William Doyley

. 'The Swedes have been seen,' was the general outcry, and the mere sound of the words had been enough to throw the whole place into a ferment. To the number of about six hundred, the Swedes ha

s truck before him and hobbling along in a very lame fashion over the

better than coming home without any money at all. I can tell you I have had a narrow escape. Just look here; this scr

r's apprentice, transformed into a sort of hero by a sudden and unexpected accident. Out of doors it was already growing dark, as the cold November wind swept past the house, driving a few flakes of snow before it. But in

ing like the noise of a great hail-storm, I almost gave myself up for lost; and when the cov

ng worse. But these Swedes torture people as the very headsman himself would be ashamed to do. My father died b

them from following us, we lighted fires at the bottom of the shafts, and put all kinds of pungent things in them, that sent up a thick, stifling smoke through every cranny and crevice. What followed? While I was sitting by the fire putting on more fuel,-I had sent my wife and children farther into the mine to be out of the reek,-something suddenly came plunging down through the smoke-cloud

neighbour Roller?' asked the carpente

replied Roller. 'You know we miners are often rather

from the cord. By way of encouraging his tormentors to come down after him, I threw my mining leather, my shoes, and even my miner's coat, on to the fire, and they sent up such a pother of smok

me your hand, and let me feel sure that I have you still, and t

rt of whose face was hidden by a large green shade. As he gave his right hand to his blind mother, a little

r Conrad?' asked t

cratch on my hand isn't nearly so bad as the b

er; 'but how it would have hurt

usband used to say the Swedes came from the same place where the Tu

ently uninterested in what was passing, at this point broke into the conversation rather suddenly.

rialists are both tarred with the same brush. For plundering, mu

Their general is their god, and they follow him or desert him just according as he leads them to victory and plunder, or to defeat. They march from country to country, selling their services to whichever side they think will give them the richest booty. Swedes! I can

am; else how could I have understood the oaths of the Swedish dragoon that fired at me to-day?

ut to return to the Swedes. Their anger against us is not altogether without excuse. After our Elector had actually begged for an alliance with them, to protect him against the Emperor's tyranny,-after Gustavus Adolphus had fought for us Saxons, bled for us, won battles for us,-th

you get better lessons in statesmanship over the glue-pot and vice than what our Elector and his princely council can teach you? You are forgetting that you live in the faithful mountain city o

urneyman quietly. 'Yet even over the glue-pot and vice t

question, 'Were the Swedes so very ugly? Had they got horns on their heads, or only one eye each, like the giants in the "Seven-leag

hose present could restrain their la

se, only that he had black hair and a fierce red moustache, just like'-and he broke off abruptly, and stared at the

eyman, turning pale; 'black

so uncommonly odd, that it was t

the company had dispersed, he turned to the lad and said:

ome deep emotion on his face. 'But,' he objected, 'only a little w

ou. But if you write down the words on this piece of paper for me it will

wrote the words down, and noticed that as soon as the journeyman had read them