IN the beginning of 1814, when war convulsed the continent of Europe, troops of Swedes, Cossacks, Germans, and Russians, were within half an hour’s march of the town of Sleswick. Many and fearful reports of their behavior had preceded them, and the townspeople were in great alarm at their approach. There had been a truce, but it was to terminate at midnight of the 5th of January, which was rapidly drawing near, and all the horrors of war and uncontrolled license were again about to burst upon the helpless inhabitants of the country.
On the outskirts of the town of Sleswick, on the side where the enemy lay, was a house which stood alone, inhabited by an aged pious woman, who on hearing of the approach of the enemy, prayed, in the words of an ancient hymn, that God would “raise up a wall around them.” The inmates of the house consisted of herself, her daughter, who was a widow, and her grandson, a young man of twenty years. The latter, on hearing the prayer of his grandmother, could not refrain from saying that he did not understand how she could ask for anything so impossible as that a wall should be built around them which could keep the enemy away from their house. The old woman, who was very deaf, on understanding what her grandson had said, remarked that she had only prayed for protection for herself and household; but added, “Do you think that if it were the will of God really to build a wall around us, it would be impossible to him?”
At last the dreaded night of the 5th of January arrived, and about midnight the troops began to enter on all sides. The house containing the family just mentioned lay close by the road, and was larger than the dwellings near it, which were only small cottages. As parties of soldiers entered one after another, going to the neighboring cottages and demanding what they wanted, in boisterous and threatening tones, the inmates of the roadside house listened anxiously, expecting every moment to hear the loud summons of the soldiers at their own door; but although the hum of voices, the incessant tramp of horses’ feet, the ribald jest, the loud laugh, seemed all around them, none approached their threshold. Onward through the night the army passed into the town. At length four parties of Cossacks, wild, half-savage men, brought up the rear. There had been a heavy fall of snow all day, which had now increased to a violent storm; and the Cossacks, unwilling to proceed further into the town, sought immediate shelter for themselves and horses in the cottages at hand, which, being small, were soon crowded to overflowing. Like a flight of locusts, man and horse swarmed upon the wretched inhabitants, devouring everything before them; and a terrible night it was for those who were completely at their mercy.
But amid all the tumult and uproar which raged everywhere around, the praying woman’s house was in peace; not a single straggler from that savage band, not even an affrighted neighbor, approached the door. Hour after hour passed away. The watchers wondered at their marvelous preservation from interruption and annoyance; and while faith and fear alternately possessed their hearts, mining dawned at last.
But now again the troops are on the move; the reveillé is sounding; the brutal Cossacks will surely plunder every house before they march on to meet their death. Will prayer yet prevail to save them from the danger which threatens now more imminently than before? If under cover of the darkness, and the furious storm that raged all night, they escaped observation, the morning light will surely betray their home to the plundering Cossack, and its superiority to surrounding dwellings tempt an instant assault. No; the Lord does not deliver by halves and then forsake. Let faith but hold its own, and say, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me,” and, so to speak, that aged, simple-hearted woman, watching there, and, it may well be, trembling while she hopes and prays, will prove mightier than a whole host of ruthless Cossacks. Yes; her house is still protected; no footfall is heard on the threshold; no rude hand attempts the gate.
And now at last they have courage to look out, and at once discover the means which the Lord himself had made and used for their deliverance. The snow, that had fallen so heavily all the day previously, had been drifted by the storm which came on at night, to such a height between the house and the road, that to approach it was impossible; and thus a wall had been literally raised around them, according to the aged woman’s prayer.
“Do you now see, my son,” she exclaimed, “that it was possible for God to raise a wall around us which should keep off the enemy?”
“All things are possible to him that believeth.”