“Oh, no, my Lord. Our good copartners are none other than the
archbishops themselves. It is evident they expect trouble to-morrow, but
none to-night. Orders have been given that all their followers are to
get a good night’s rest, each man to be housed and asleep by sunset.
The men of both Treves and Cologne are tired with their long and hurried
march and will sleep like the dead. We will first attack the men of
Mayence surrounding the Leinwandhaus, and I warrant you that no matter
what noise there is, the Treves people will not hear. Then being on the
spot, we will, when the Mayence soldiers are well bound, tie up those
in the cathedral. I purpose if your lordship agrees to leave our bound
captives where they are, guarded by a sufficient number of outlaws, in
case one attempts to help the other, until we have pinioned those
of Cologne and the Count Palatine. When this is off our minds we can
transport all our prisoners to the fortress at our leisure.”
Thus it was arranged, and when night fell on the meeting of the
Electors, so well did Gottlieb and his men apply themselves to the task
that before an hour had passed the minions of the Electors lay packed in
heaps in the aisles and the rooms where they lodged, to be transported
to the prison at the convenience of their captors.
Many conditions favoured the success of the seemingly impossible feat.
Since the arrival of the soldiery there had been so many night brawls
in the streets that one more or less attracted little attention, either
from the military or from the civilians. The very boldness and magnitude
of the scheme was an assistance to it. Then the stern cry of “_In the
name of the Emperor!_” with which the assaulters once inside cathedral,
church or house, fell upon their victims, deadened opposition, for the
common soldiers, whether enlisted by Treves, Cologne, or Mayence, knew
that the Emperor was over all, and they had no inkling of the designs
of their immediate masters. Then, as Gottlieb had surmised, the extreme
fatigue of the followers of Treves and Cologne, after their toilsome
march from their respective cities, so overcame them that many went to
sleep when being conveyed from church and cathedral to prison. There
was some resistance on the part of officers, speedily quelled by the
victorious woodlanders, but aside from this there were few heads
broken, and the wish of the Empress for a bloodless conquest was amply
fulfilled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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