SPEIEE.

95

Nor did these stniggles between the Citizens and the"robber-nobles" cease until the enaetment of the celebratedEdict abolishing the right of private warfare (Faust-recht —literally, " club-law"); and after that time the ImperialChamber (Reichs-Kammergerichi), for enforcing the mandate,sat at Speier for upwards of 200 years.

But the town was no sooner freed from the disaster ofprivate warfare than it became the prey of foreign enemies.In the 14th Century the population of Speier, like that ofWorms, was nearly 30,000, which is about threefold what itis at the present day. In the 17th Century, however, thetrade and prosperity of the city began to decay; and in theyear 1689 its ruin was completed by the French, duringthe " Mordbrenner Kreig " (Incendiary War) of the " Orleanssuccession.''

The town then feil into the hands of the French, whocommanded the people to betake themselves, within six days, toAlsace, Lorraine, or Burgundy, and not to recross the Rinne,upon pain of death. At the expiration of the term, one ofthe French provosts, the story runs, entered the city, followedby forty executioners, having a gallows and a wheel, theemblems of their profession, embroidered on their dress. Bythese officers the people were driven out of the city by theroll of the drum, like a horde of criminals. Then, at theorders of the French Commander, Montclair, piles of com-bustibles were stacked in the houses and fired, so that the" seven-and-forty streets" of which Speier was then composed,were quickly in flames. The houses continued burning forthree days and three nights, during which time miners wereengaged in blowing up the stronger walls and cloisters, inorder that not a stone of the place might be left standing.

The enemy had promised to respect the Cathedral, and theCitizens had, therefore, filled it with their goods previous to