Soon, however, they made shift to form their array in some sort of order, and there in the forest began a mighty battle. For the baron, filled with vanity and wrath, and made foolhardy by the easy victory his men had won over Rudolf’s soldiers two days before, had planned this night attack, knowing, through Conradt’s spies, where the emperor’s army were lying, and deeming that it would be a light matter to set upon that force in the darkness, and destroy it, man and horse. But Baron Everhardt had believed that that smaller body which the spies had seen and brought him word of was the main army, and so the men of the Swartzburg had all unthinkingly walked into a trap where they had been minded to set one. Sharp and grim now the fighting went on, sword meeting sword, pike striking spear, as knight met knight or common soldier alike in the confusion. Above all the din rang out the battle-cries of the two parties, the Swartzburg men ever meeting the royal war-cry, “God and the emperor!” with their own ringing watchword, “The Swartzburg and liberty!” until the whole wood seemed filled with the sound. In the midst of the fray went Rudolf of Hapsburg, with his great two-handed sword, cleaning a way for those behind him. No armor wore he, save a light shirt of chain mail, and no shield save his helmet; but beside him fought Karl the armorer, with a huge battle-ax, so that Wulf, catching glimpse of him in the press at day-dawn, felt a great joy fill his heart at sight of that good soldier. Not long could he look, however, for he and Hansei were in the thick of it, well to the fore, where Rudolf’s banner-bearer had his place. In the close quarters there was no work for the bowmen, so Wulf fought with the sword that Karl had given him the day before, and a goodly blade he found it; while Hansei wielded a great pike that he had wrested from one of the baron’s men, and laid about him lustily wherever a foe showed. So the hours passed, and many men were slain on either side, when it began to be felt by the emperor’s soldiers that the Swartzburg men were slowly falling back toward the defile to gain the castle. “An they do that,” Hansei gasped, as he met Wulf again, “a long and weary siege will be ours; for thou well knowest the Swartzburg’s strength, and well hath the baron made ready.” Then to Wulf came a right warcraftly notion, which he told to Hansei, whereupon the two set to gather to them some score or more of the young men, and these fell back toward the edge of the battle, until they were out of the press and hastening through the wood, as Wulf knew how to lead them. They came at last to the morass, not far from where he and Elise had crossed that night when they fled from the castle. “There is never a crossing there!” Hansei cried, aghast, when he saw the place; but Wulf laughed.