of them to death upon the spot, with the exception of two of the Empress’s ladies who contrived to secrete themselves in a dark cellar and escaped. These unhappy survivors, after many sufferings and perils, begged their way back into their own country, where with great terror and affliction at the recollection, they recounted to the Tartar Emperor the unhappy death of his consort and her attendants, adding, “Oh, most mighty monarch of the East, we have travelled far and wide with the Empress and her escort over strange regions, and manifold states and cities of Christendom. In all were we received with the utmost respect and courtesy, regaled and treated with many presents, except in one fatal city which is called Neumarkt, situated somewhere in Silesia. It was there our dear mistress, the Empress, your royal consort, with all her princes, lords and pages, were treacherously surprized, beaten, and murdered, by the citizens of the same place, we two only escaping after experiencing the most severe privations and pains, to lament their loss.”
When the Emperor had heard these terrific tidings to an end—the death of his beloved young consort, of his lords and princes, the flower of his nobility and his knights—he made a loud exclamation of agony, repeated through his extensive palace and re-echoed by its walls. Then deep rage and indignation took possession of his soul; he made a terrific vow and
