With these they attack the bears, pushing
and hustling the great creatures, with the forks of their sticks,
until they are completely exhausted, when they are bound and sent
away. In this hunt Charles took fourteen alive, one of which nearly
killed him before it was captured. He did not break up the hunting
party, but continued his sport to the end, sending off, however,
orders for the concentration of all the troops, in Livonia and
Finland, to act against the Saxons.
"As soon as the King of Denmark heard of the siege of Riga, he
ordered the Duke of Wurtemberg-Neustadt, his commander-in-chief, to
enter Holstein with his army, sixteen thousand strong. All of that
country was at once overrun, the ducal domains seized, and great
contributions exacted from Schleswig and Holstein. Fleming and the
Saxons, after one severe repulse, forced the garrison of the fort
of Dunamund, commanding the mouth of the Duna, to surrender.
Tonningen is the only fortress that now holds out in Holstein. So
you see, lads, there is every chance of there being brisk fighting,
and I warrant the young King of Sweden will not be backward in the
fray. A man who is fond of engaging with bears, armed with nothing
but a forked stick, is not likely to hang back in the day of
battle.
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