The Young Carpenters of Freiberg | Page 6

there is not a Swede
left in the Swedish army, or, at all events, very few. The men the great
Gustavus Adolphus brought over the Baltic Sea are gone long ago, and
those who have taken their places will sell both soul and body any day
to the highest bidder.'
'Yes,' interrupted the apprentice, 'that's just what I say. The Swedes are
no more Swedes than I am; else how could I have understood the oaths
of the Swedish dragoon that fired at me to-day? He swore in good
round German, and it was one of the most wonderful oaths I ever heard.
He said'--
The journeyman sprang up hastily, and put his hand before the lad's
mouth. 'Silence!' he cried earnestly. 'Do not repeat the oath you heard
to any one. When a man has once heard a wicked thing, it sticks in his
memory for years. It is the good things we find so hard to remember.
But 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,--the Elector deserted his new ally as suddenly as he had joined
him, just because fortune frowned on him in one or two battles. He did
more than desert him; he threw himself again into the arms of the
Emperor, whom he had good reason to know for his worst enemy. For
this ingratitude'--
'Come, come, young fellow!' cried the miner, frowning. 'I shall have to
serve you as you did the boy just now. What! You take on yourself to
blame our illustrious Elector and his court! Pray, do 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 of Freiberg--a city that is proud of
being loyal to its prince without any grumbling or asking why and
wherefore. "Fear God! honour the king! do right and fear no man!"

That's what the Bible says.'
'I will be prudent and hold my peace,' said the young journeyman
quietly. 'Yet even over the glue-pot and vice thoughts come to a man
that cannot easily be got rid of.'
There followed a pause in the conversation, which lasted until Dollie,
the miner's little daughter, turned to the apprentice with the 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-leagued Boots," who
used to eat little boys and girls? And oh, perhaps they had dreadful,
great mouths, with rows of sharp teeth in them!'
In spite of their terrors, none of those present could restrain their
laughter at the child's artless fears.
'I only had one look at the Swede as he leaped his horse over me,' said
Conrad; 'and he looked just like anybody else, only that he had black
hair and a fierce red moustache, just like'--and he broke off abruptly,
and stared at the elder journeyman, then went on: 'Yes, such a long
moustache that he could have tied it in a knot behind his head.'
'What!' stammered the journeyman, turning pale; 'black hair and a red
moustache?'
'Yes,' replied Conrad; 'it looked so uncommonly odd, that it was the
only thing I noticed about him.'
The journeyman sat silent for the rest of the evening. When the
company had dispersed, he turned to the lad and said: 'My boy, now tell
me the oath you heard the--the Swede use.'
Conrad looked at his companion in astonishment, and saw signs of
some deep emotion on his face. 'But,' he objected, 'only a little while
ago you said I was not to let any one hear the oath, and now'--
'You are quite right,' replied the journeyman. 'Hold fast by what I told
you. But if you write down the words on this piece of paper for me it

will hurt no one. I have a good reason for wanting to see them. Can you
write?'
'I should just think I could,' said Conrad, half offended by the question.
He wrote the words down, and noticed that as soon as the journeyman
had read them he became even paler than before, and muttered
something between his set teeth.
CHAPTER III.
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