"St. Bent and St. Peter assist us! Stoop your head!" cried the heavy Abbot, creeping under the parapet. "Yonder comes another balista stone! Merciful heaven, what a swarm of people!" he continued, looking out cautiously towards the town. "Hear how they bluster! They utter your name, venerable brother, with ungodly oaths; they are busy with boats--they are dragging more balista forward. I see one of the king's halberdiers among them." "Mark! _he_ is the ring-leader, the faithless despot!" cried the archbishop, "from him comes all our tribulation, and the country's misery! Send forth thy destroying angel, righteous Lord! root out the perjurer! Pluck him up by the roots!" "This way, venerable sirs! and ye are safe!" said a hollow voice from the end of the corridor, and a tall manly form with a wild pallid countenance, appeared at the door; he was clad like a German pepper 'prentice, and had a large red scar on his forehead. "My guest of the sanctuary! your persecuted friend and avenger!" whispered the abbot from the forest monastery. "St. Peter and St. Bent be thanked--the All-righteous hath heard your prayer, the destroying angel is come." The tall form in the door-way laid his finger on his lips, and disappeared with the two prelates, while the door of the corridor closed after them. CHAP. III. The attack upon Axelhuus had thrown the whole town into the greatest agitation. Even the most quiet and peaceable burghers could not conceal their satisfaction on the occasion, and many of them took an open share in the insurrection. The wild shouts of exultation which were heard each time a shower of stones poured into the castle, sufficiently showed the general feeling of indignation, not alone against prelatical rule but chiefly against the archbishop, for whose sake, and by whose powerful influence, the exasperating interdict had been enforced. Grand's name was the watchword on the commencement of every fresh attack. The provost, with his armed attendants, vainly strove to restore order and quietness; wherever he appeared with the bishop's men-at-arms, he was instantly driven back by the enraged populace. The report of the king's arrival at Sorretslov, and the uneasy terms he was on with the inmates of Axelhuus, had given a new and loyal impulse to the insurrection; as the mob now believed that, by their attack on the ecclesiastical dignitaries, they were making common cause with the king, against his and the kingdom's arrogant foes. The provost had ordered all the gates of the town to be locked, but the insurgents had forced them, and a great number of people, among whom were some of the richest and most peaceable inhabitants, hastened out of the north gate of Sorretslov to see the king and intreat his support. Another crowd flocked to the tower of St. Mary's church, and rang the alarm bell. "Away with the holy wolves at the castle!" was the cry throughout the streets.