“Is that true?”
“As true as Amen to ‘Our Father!’”
“Praise to the Most Holy Lady! it will be bad for the Swedes.”
At this moment the sound of a trumpet was heard at the northwestern gate; all ran to see who was coming.
It was a Swedish trumpeter with a letter from the camp. The monks assembled at once in the council hall. The letter was from Count Veyhard, and announced that if the fortress were not surrendered before the following day it would be hurled into the air. But those who before had fallen under the weight of fear had no faith now in this threat.
“Those are vain threats!” said the priests and the nobles together.
“Let us write to them not to spare us; let them blow us up!”
And in fact they answered in that sense.
Meanwhile the soldiers who had gathered around the trumpeter answered his warnings with ridicule.
“Good!” said they to him. “Why do you spare us? We will go the sooner to heaven.”