02 Grasping Salvation

In the height of May was besieged The Emperor’s ancient pride Ramparts captured in the Neustadt No crossbar shot Nor barricade Would save the defenders There was blood to spill Imperial soldiers plundered every home When there was nothing left to give, true misery began Twenty thousand innocents wretchedly executed in manifold ways No words can describe, nor tears bemoan What befell this majestic city Turned to embers in a single day Those who survived were defiled and disgraced Corpses swelled the banks of the Elbe Their arms outstretched towards salvation A salvation that would never come Thirty seasons of woe No tilling of land No rearing of cattle No life but the war Dying wretches Mouths stuffed with grass Villages aflame Children frozen in the bitter cold From Rhine to Danube Elbe and Weser The land a mass grave Famine rode ever forth Gallow corpses Were stripped of flesh Still more horrible Were the torments Of they who lived on Roaming bands of deserters and ghouls Set thumbs to screws Tied ropes around the neck Forcing blood from the eyes Serving a slurry of filth to make them vomit forth all of their worldly possessions Others were burned alive Priests disemboweled Many hanged and cured in the smoke of burning homes Until these raiders too were slain for plunder As one wolf devours another