ears he applied himself with industry at home to his
private studies. For besides other poems at Rostock, he published at
Lubeck an elegy on the Christian martyr Dr. _Robert Barns_,[51] which
had a tragical result for both the printer and himself. For the poem
came to the knowledge of the king of England, who sent an envoy to the
city of Lubeck with bitter complaints and threatenings, as the poem had
been published by their printer Johann Balhorn. The dignitaries of
Lubeck made excuses for the author, although he did not dwell there nor
belong to their jurisdiction, as he was only a young fellow who wished
to give proof of his learning; but the publisher, Johann Balhorn, was
sent out of the city, and had to leave it by break of day. They thereby
appeased the king's anger, and after some months allowed Balhorn to
return to the city.

"But my brother, Magister Johann, when he was travelling home from
Lubeck to Rostock had as companions Herr Heinrich Sonneberg and a
female, and besides there rode near the carriage Hans Lagebusch and a
smart young fellow, Hermann Lepper, who had exchanged _boguslawische
schillinge_ and other money for some hundred gulden coined in
Gadebusch, and which lay in the carriage. This was discovered by
certain highwaymen, as thievish miscreants are called. Highway robbery
was very common in Mecklenburg, as it was never seriously punished, and
many nobles even of the highest birth were engaged in it; so that one
may truly say with the poet:--

/*
'Nobilis et Nebulo parvo discrimine distant:
Sic nebulo magnus nobilis esse potest.'
*/

Nevertheless the genuine nobility, among whom are many honourable men,
who are in all ways worthy of esteem, are not spoken of here. Now,
thank God, there is a careful superintendence exercised in the Duchy of
Mecklenburg; but then the highwaymen could say, if we give up three
hundred gulden we place ourselves out of all danger, and can always
keep the remaining two hundred. When the travellers came to the
Ribbenitzer heath, those who were sitting in the carriage alighted from
it, having their arms with them; and the two horsemen, who ought to
have remained by it in that insecure place, rode forward. Against these
the highwaymen collected themselves, one of whom joined Lagebusch, and
talked familiarly with him. When riding so near to him that he could
reach the stock of his pistol, which was cocked (it was not then the
custom to carry doubl