if I would not let my
wife appear so as to be a disgrace to me, I should, out of my own
means, provide her with dress and ornaments befitting a noble lady.
Thus all my ready money went, especially as the wedding had cost me
much, for almost the whole province, with their wives, children,
servants, and horses, fastened themselves upon me for a fortnight, and
I could not rid myself of them so long as anything was to be found in
the kitchen and cellar. Also what I procured for my wife was never rich
and costly enough to please her and her mother; they always found some
deficiency, and wished to have everything more perfect.

"Nevertheless, I controlled myself, and would have minded no expense,
if I had only gained the smallest thanks for it; but what most pained
me, was to feel that neither my wife nor any of her friends held me in
the slightest consideration. Moreover my dear mother-in-law was a
thoroughly malicious, proud, false woman, and as, according to the root
of the tree, so are the leaves, her daughter followed in her footsteps.
And as on this account I could no longer be fond of her, my groom often
met with more friendly looks than I did. I had no reason to complain of
her relatives not visiting me, for they did so oftener than I liked,
and they did their best to consume all that they found. They thought
that the devil would take them if they called me brother-in-law or
uncle; the brotherhood must be considered all allegorical, and my
mother-in-law took care, that the word 'son' should not escape her
lips, especially if strangers were present. Never were they so
comfortably together as when I was absent at Breslau or elsewhere; then
they had the best opportunity to make themselves jolly at my expense,
and they did so with some wine of which I kept three or four bottles in
my cellaret for myself and my wife, and I found it quite empty when I
returned home. Yet even that might have passed, if they had only not
taken from me the corn from the ground, nay, even the cows and calves
without my knowledge, and conveyed them away secretly for their noble
relatives. But he who receives four thalers, and has to spend six, has
no reason to care for a purse. So that I could easily calculate that in
a short time I should become as good a _Krippenreiter_ as my
neighbours.

"But it pleased God to deliver me from this danger by the death of my
beloved, who died in childbirth. Even under these circumstances I had
to undergo a s