Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/90

10 trites, who at that time swayed over Mecklenburg, in order to reunite the separate principalities with his crown, prepared to war against all the Obotrite tribes, who had withdrawn from the vassalage of his regal authority. Udo now saw himself much to his displeasure forced to take notice of his foreign affairs. He dispatched emissaries and learned that all he had heard was true. The storm was yet distant, and the lightning was only seen from afar, still the wind blew direct to the island, and would in all probability bring the tempest in its course. Prince Udo though not quite at his ease, made not his vassals feel the cares which oppressed him; he behaved like a cautious abbot, who conducts his monks to the choir with the same calmness as if no change had taken place, even though the executors of the decree of abolition be standing at the convent door, and the pious inhabitants be chanting their fervent strains. He flew to arms with all possible haste, relying partly on the doubtful protection of the sea; but the treacherous element sided with the strongest, and willingly carried the inimical fleet on its broad back to the unopposing shore.

The prince, not being prepared for an open battle with so superior an enemy, was besieged in his town