"Lady Regina shall never need a protector as long as I am alive," exclaimed Count Fritz.
"The castle is provisioned for a whole year," said Regina timidly. "But, worthy father, you are fatigued, you are wounded, and need rest. Allow me to dress your wounds; you are hurt in the head."
"It is nothing, my daughter. Do not think of me. You must fly instantly to the impregnable fortress of Aschaffenburg."
"Ha! I fear it is too late," exclaimed Count Fritz, who was looking out upon the river and town.
"Holy Virgin, are they already here?"
The Jesuit and Lady Regina rushed to the window. The afternoon sun was shedding its rays over Würzburg and the surrounding country. Horsemen could be seen riding at full gallop through the streets, and a whole host of panic-stricken people were rapidly moving towards the castle—monks and nuns, women and children, dragging after them a number of hand-carts containing the best of their household effects. Beyond the town, in the direction of Schweinfurter, on the east bank of the river, appeared a troop of cavalry, from whose threatening but cautious advance one could easily recognise the vanguard of the Swedish army.
"Accursed devils!" burst out the Jesuit, with an indescribable expression of hatred on his pallid face. "These heretics can fly. May the earth open and devour them!" And he ran out with frantic zeal to place himself at the head of the garrison.
The bishop's castle, also called Marienburg, raises its old walls high above the right bank of the Main. On the river side of the town the rock is high and precipitous, but on the other side sloping and easily ascended. A rampart in the shape of a half moon formed a formidable outwork before the gates; and if the enemy surmounted this obstacle, a deep moat, cut in the solid rock, awaited him on the other side; and even if he crossed this successfully, the inner and higher castle wall blocked his way, lined with steel-clad defenders, prepared to receive him with a devastating fire, and crush him with the large stones collected on the walls. The only passage over the river was a narrow bridge, and the forty-eight guns of the fortress commanded and swept the whole town and neighbourhood. From this it will be seen that Keller at the head of 1,500 valiant troops, and well provided with all necessaries, had good reason in bidding the departing bishop to be of good heart.
But Gustaf Adolf had an overwhelming reason for becoming master of this castle, cost what it would. Tilly had now drawn to himself large reinforcements, and stood, a few weeks after the battle of Breitenfeld, fully equipped and eager for revenge, with 30,000 men on the march from Hessen, to assist Würzburg.
The king summoned the town, and forced his way into the suburbs, but it was already late in the day, and the attack had to be postponed. The next morning the town surrendered. But Keller had profited by the darkness of the night to transfer his whole force, a large number of fugitives, and the portable property of the town, to the castle, after which he blew up two arches of the bridge, and thus blockaded the enemy's way.