This story is based on the historical account of the 189 Swiss Guards who made a final stand protecting the Pope during the 1527 Sack of Rome against an army of 20,000 Habsburg troops.
Columns of thick, black smoke rose above the city. Ash and rubble churned violently in the air as ancient walls gave way to cannons. Church bells rang out in one hopeless chorus: Rome was under attack.
Kaspar walked up and down the lines of men crammed together in the cemetery. The 189 Papal Guards formed five rows amongst the gravestones. Gone was the usual tightness of their ranks. Great heads of stone, sculpted crosses and towering palm trees forced their way into the Guard’s formation. Kaspar felt a surge of pride as he inspected his men. Not a spec of rust on their burnished cuirasses, their faces calm, ready, devoted, and their raised halberds more steady than the tombs themselves.
Irreverent sounds of horror rippled through the barred cemetery gates: steel upon steel, burning timber and shattering glass, shrieking women and children, the lustful howls of men unhinged. The Swiss Guard, mercenaries of the Holy See and protectors of his Holiness Clement VII, waited solemnly.
Kaspar eyed his surroundings. Campo Santo Teutonico was the oldest German establishment in Rome. Nestled at the foot of the Vatican walls, the…
