The king himself tried to restrain the slaughter; some horsemen, still living, threw themselves on their knees, and raising their defenceless hands, begged for their lives. Nothing availed, nothing could stay the vengeful axes. A quarter of an hour later there was not one man living among the Swedes in the pass.
After that the bloody mountaineers began to hurry toward the escort of the king.
The nuncio looked with astonishment on those people, strange to him, large, sturdy, covered partly with sheepskin, sprinkled with blood, and shaking their still steaming axes.
But at sight of the bishops they uncovered their heads. Many of them fell on their knees in the snow.
The bishop of Cracow raising his tearful face toward heaven said, “Behold the assistance of God, behold Providence, which w
