From the Diet of Worms to the Augsburg Confession - James Aitken Wylie

general carried with him a great iron chain,
wherewith, as he told his soldiers, he intended to
hang the Pope. Rome, however, he was never to
see, a circumstance more to be regretted by the
Romans than by the Germans; for the kindly
though rough soldier would, had he lived, have
restrained the wild licence of his army, which
wrought such woes to all in the in fated city.
Freundsberg fell sick and died by the way, but his
soldiers pressed forward. On the evening of the 5th
of May, the invaders first sighted, through a thin
haze, those venerable walls, over which many a
storm had lowered, but few more terrible than that
now gathering around them. What a surprise to a
city which, full of banquetings and songs and all
manner of delights, lived carelessly, and never
dreamt that war would approach it! Yet here were
the spoilers at her gates. Next morning, under
cover of a dense fog, the soldiers approached the
walls, the scaling-ladders were fixed, and in a few
hours the troops were masters of Rome. The Pope
and the cardinals fled to the Castle of St. Angelo. A
little while did the soldiers rest on their arms, till
the Pope should come to terms. Clement, however,
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