"Later on, perhaps, yes. Let her go, I say, or..."
The hot-tempered Finn drew his sword again, with which he had just before killed a peasant.
"The cottage is on fire!" was heard from all directions, and a thick smoke proved that it was true. Bertel rushed out with the girl, and Larsson followed, and the heat of his temper gave way before the heat of the fire. When Bertel got outside and saw the flames, he remembered that the cottage was filled with people; about thirty peasants were bound inside.
"Come, hurry, let us save the unfortunate prisoners!" he cried.
"Are you mad?" said Larsson, laughing; "it is only a few of the rascals who have killed so many of our brave comrades. Let it burn, boys!"
It was now too late to help. The unfortunate Bavarians were sacrificed to the barbarities with which wars were then carried on; too often one terrible deed was followed by another.
We turn with disgust from these wild scenes, which essentially belong to the times in which they occurred, and hasten to the grand picture of the Swedish lion's last struggle.
CHAPTER VIII.
NÜRNBERG AND LÜTZEN.
The incidents of the campaign followed each other quickly, like wave after wave on a stormy sea, and history compressed into a narrow frame is obliged to pursue the same course. Hence we must hurry over these marvellous occurrences and into a still more extraordinary period, to find the thread of our story, "The King's Ring," which passes through ages and the destinies of great characters.