n himself in some
bushes. It was the rich Kaspar of Gellershausen, so they all rode off
to him, and only one remained with me, who was by birth a Swede, and
had been made prisoner. This one said to me, 'Priest, priest, run, run,
otherwise you must die.' He was a good Swede: I placed confidence in
his counsel, and begged of him to feign to ride after me, as if he
would fetch me back. Thus it happened that I escaped the Croats. But
the rich Kaspar met a miserable death at that place; for as he would
not come forth from thence, they hewed off his legs, as I saw, at the
knees. Therefore he was obliged to lie in that place, where after their
withdrawal he was found. But I ran through a great oak wood for almost
an hour, and could see no thick bushes wherein to conceal myself, and
fell at last into a pool of water out of which an oak root had grown,
and I was so tired of running that I could go no further, and my heart
beat so that I knew not whether it was the horses' hoofs that I heard,
or my heart.

"Thus I sat till it was night; then I rose up and continued in search
of a thick cover, till I came out and could see Seidenstadt. I slipped
into the village, and as I heard dogs bark, I hoped to find people at
home, but there was no one; I therefore went into a shed, and was
desirous of passing the night on the hay. But God granted that the
neighbours, who had hid themselves in Strauchhahn, had come together
behind this shed, and took counsel where they should reassemble, and
where they should go to. This I could distinctly hear. I therefore
descended and went to the house. The peasant had just come in, had
struck a light, and was standing in the cellar taking the cream off the
milk, which he intended to drink. I was standing above the opening,
spoke to him and greeted him; he looked up and saw the under part of my
body, namely, my shirt and naked legs, and it was dark above. He was
much frightened; but when I told him that I was the pastor at
Poppenhausen, who had been carried off by the soldiers, he brought the
milk up, and I begged him to procure me some clothes of his neighbours,
as I wished to accompany them wherever they were going. He went out,
and meanwhile I regaled myself on his pot of milk, and entirely emptied
it. In my whole life no milk had ever tasted so good. He came back with
others, and one of them brought me a pair of old leather hosen, which
smelt badly of cart-grease, another a pair of old latchet shoes, a