And now for a bit of an experiment. Let me know how well it works.
A Contributor to Wikipedia in a World Much Like Ours Wrote:Sack of Rome (1527)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Stand of the Swiss Guard and the Unknown Guard
In the event known as the Stand of the Swiss Guard, 149 of the Swiss, alongside the garrison's remnant, made what they then believed would be their last stand in the Teutonic Cemetery within the Vatican. Their captain, Caspar Röist, was reportedly badly wounded but refused to leave his men. The Swiss fought bravely, but all contemporary sources agree that they were hopelessly outnumbered and would have been annihilated by the German and Spanish mercenaries had it not been for the arrival of the mysterious figure known variously as "The Unknown Guard", "The Frenchman", "The Man in Grey" and (after 1535) "Saint Duglas the Defender".
According to eyewitness accounts, the Unknown Guard appeared among the defenders without warning just before the mercenaries' attack. He was a stranger to the Swiss, dressed in "oddly-wrought" grey leather armor and a rounded helmet described as being made of horn, and was armed with only a sword and a staff. Survivors of the Stand universally agreed that he spoke no Italian, only an unfamiliar dialect of French, and accounts record the name he gave as "Dugas", "Dulgas" or (most commonly) "D(o)uglas". In addition to praising his martial prowess and his often ribald ability to boost morale, multiple reports also attribute supernatural feats to the Unknown Guard, including summoning lightning and fire against the mercenaries as well as healing the wounded members of the Swiss Guard with a word and a gesture.[a]
After a pitched battle that lasted almost an hour, the vastly outnumbered Guard were inexplicably able to repel the Spanish and German forces with minimal casualties. The mercenaries broke and fled, only to rally for a second attack upon the Cemetery shortly thereafter. However, their brief retreat allowed the defenders, accompanied by a band of refugees, time to fall back to the Basilica steps. There, still counting the Unknown Guard among their number and still under the command of Röist, they managed to stave off the troops pursuing the Pope's entourage as it made its way across the Passetto di Borgo, which was a secure elevated passage that connects the Vatican City to Castel Sant'Angelo. The mercenary forces were once again driven into a brief retreat after an enthusiastic defense and counterattack bolstered by further supernatural attacks attributed to the Unknown Guard. This final retreat gave the surviving members of the Swiss Guard the opportunity to escape into the Passetto di Borgo themselves. At some point during the escape the Unknown Guard disappeared and was never seen again.
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Notes
a. ^ These claims have long been dismissed as hyperbole or outright fabrications, and the various stoneworks and paving stones within and outside the Teutonic Cemetery with "melted" appearances explained as fanciful later additions inspired by the legend. However detailed analysis of the melted stoneworks made in 2013 by a team from Sapienza University of Rome not only confirmed their claimed ages, but determined that the alleged sculptures actually had been subjected to heat sufficient to melt and glaze their surfaces. Further, almost every such stonework also contained a quantity of cremated human bone mineral embedded in its outer layers.[24] Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain these discoveries, but none have proven plausible.
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References
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24. ^ Accorsi, Alberto (2014), Punito dai fuochi di Dio: convalida per le leggende di San Duglas il difensore. Milan: EDI.ERMES s.r.l.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....