that astonished all men. For seven months he was virtually King of
Germany; ransomed Bamberg, ransomed Wurzburg, Nurnberg (places he
had a grudge at); ransomed all manner of towns and places,--
especially rich Bishops and their towns, with VERBUM DIABOLI
sticking in them,--at enormous sums. King of the world for a brief
season;--must have had some strange thoughts to himself, had they
been recorded for us. A pious man, too; not in the least like
"Alcibiades," except in the sudden changes of fortune he
underwent. His Motto, or old rhymed Prayer, which he would repeat
on getting into the saddle for military work,--a rough rhyme of
his own composing,--is still preserved. Let us give it, with an
English fac-simile, or roughest mechanical pencil-tracing,--by way
of glimpse into the heart of a vanished Time and its Man-at-arms:
[Rentsch, p. 644.]

Das Walt der Herr Jesus Christ,
Mit dem Vater, der uber uns ist:
Wer starker ist als dieser Mann,
Der komm und thu' ein Leid mir an.

Guide it the Lord Jesus Christ, [Read "Chris" or "Chriz," for the
rhyme's sake.]
And the Father, who over us is:
He that is stronger than that Man, [Sic.]
Let him do me a hurt when he can.

He was at the Siege of Metz (end of that same 1552), and a
principal figure there. Readers have heard of the Siege of Metz:
How Henry II. of France fished up those "Three Bishoprics" (Metz,
Toul, Verdun, constituent part of Lorraine, a covetable fraction