a popular misapprehension of the word, because some of them were
Suabian bumpkins.]

[Footnote 10: The French soldier-song about Marlborough is known to
every one.]

The _Lanzknecht's_ lance was eighteen feet long: he wore a helmet
and breastplate, and was taught to form suddenly and to preserve an
impenetrable square. Before him all light and heavy cavalry went down,
and that great arm of modern war did not recover from its disgrace and
neglect till the time of Frederic. But his character was very
indifferent: he went foraging when there was no campaign, and in time
of peace prepared for war by systematic billeting and plundering. It
was a matter of economy to get up a war in order to provide employment
for the _Lanzknecht_.

Hans Sachs wrote a very amusing piece in 1558, entitled, "The Devil
won't let Landsknechts come to Hell." Lucifer, being in council one
evening, speaks of the _Lanzknecht_ as a new kind of man; he
describes his refreshing traits of originality, and expresses a desire
to have one. It is agreed that Beelzebub shall repair as a crimp to a
tavern, and lie in wait for this new game. The agent gets behind a
stove, which in Germany would shield from observation even Milton's
Satan, and listens while the _Lanzknechts_ drink. They begin to
tell stories which make his hair stand on end, but they also God-bless
each other so often, at sneezing and hiccupping, that he cannot get a
chance at them. One of them, who had stolen a cock and hung it behind
the stove, asks the landlord to go and fetch the poor devil. Beelzebub,
soundly frightened, beats a hasty retreat, expressing his wonder that
the _Lanzknecht_ should know he was there. He apologizes to