who owned Korneliz's farm. He came out of the house with the sacristan
carrying the keys of the church. All followed him into the churchyard,
whither his cry came to them from the top of the tower, that he beheld
nothing either in the fields, or by the forest, but that around the farm
he saw ominous red clouds, for all that the sky was of a deep blue and
agleam with stars over the rest of the plain.

After taking counsel for a long time in the churchyard, they decided to
hide in the wood through which the Spaniards must pass, and, if these
were not too numerous, to attack them and recover Petrus Krayer's cattle
and the plunder which had been taken from the farm.

Having armed themselves with pitchforks and spades, while the women
remained outside the church with the cure, they sought a suitable
ambuscade. Approaching a mill on a rising ground adjacent to the verge
of the forest, they saw the light of the burning farm flaming against
the stars. There they waited under enormous oaks, before a frozen mere.

A shepherd, known as Red Dwarf, climbed the hill to warn the miller, who
had stopped his mill when he saw the flames on the horizon. He bade the
peasant enter, and both men went to a window to stare out into the
night.

Before them the moon shone over the burning farmstead, and in its light
they saw a long procession winding athwart the snow. Having carefully
scrutinized it, the Dwarf descended where his comrades waited under the
trees, and now, they too gradually distinguished four men on horseback
behind a flock which moved grazing on the plain.

While the peasants in their blue breeches and red cloaks continued to