. A barrier of coaches and waggons had been speedily
formed in such an arrangement as to cripple the enemy's movements, and to
neutralize great part of his superiority in the quality of his horses. The
engagement, however, had been severe; and the enemy's attack, though many times
baffled, had been as often renewed, until at length, the young general
Maximilian, seeing that the affair tended to no apparent termination, that the
bloodshed was great, and that the horses were beginning to knock up under the
fatigue of such severe service, had brought up the very élite of his reserve,
placed himself at their head, and, making a dash expressly at their leader, had
the good fortune to cut him down. The desperateness of the charge, added to the
loss of their leader, had intimidated the enemy, who now began to draw off as
from an enterprise which was likely to cost them more blood than a final success
could have rewarded. Unfortunately, however, Maximilian, disabled by a severe
wound, and entangled by his horse amongst the enemy, had been carried off a
prisoner. In the course of the battle all their torches had been extinguished;
and this circumstance, as much as the roughness of the road, the ruinous
condition of their carriages and appointments, and their own exhaustion, had
occasioned their long delay in reaching Klosterheim after the battle was at an
end. Signals they had not ventured to make; for they were naturally afraid of
drawing upon their track any fresh party of marauders by so open a warning of
their course as the sound of a trumpet.
    These explanations were rapidly dispersed through Klosterheim; party after
party drew off to their quarters; and at length the agitated city was once again
restored to peace. The Lady Paulina had been amongst the first to retire. She
was met by the Lady Abbess of a principal convent in Klosterheim, to whose care
she had been recommended by the Emperor. The Landgrave also had furnished her
with a guard of honour; but all expressions of respect, or even of kindness,
seemed thrown away upon her, so wholly was she absorbed in grief for the capture
of Maximilian, and in gloomy anticipation of his impending fate.
 

                                  Chapter VII

The city of Klosterheim was now abandoned to itself, and strictly shut up within
its own walls. All roaming beyond those limits was now indeed forbidden even
more effectually by the sword of the enemy than by the edicts of the Landgrave.
War was manifestly gathering in its neighbourhood. Little towns and castles
within a range of seventy miles, on almost every side, were now