er, he spoke to her father, and as
I had honourably and praiseworthily fulfilled everything, and the
matter had not remained secret, he could not object to settling
it--thereupon he gave a satisfactory answer, but kept always delaying
the affair, for, as aforesaid, he was unwilling to part with his
daughter. Meanwhile I was allowed to go to the house openly; but it
surprised me that it did not displease him, as it was not yet a settled
marriage, and, indeed, might never have taken place; our intercourse,
however, was carried on with all due propriety and honour, and we held
converse on divers discreet subjects, and had much joking and
bantering, and often I helped her to make electuaries, and thus we
passed the time. We had once particularly good fun; when on the eve of
St. Simon and St. Jude they rang the bells for the fair, I wished to
get a fairing from her. As her father was absent, I went secretly to
the back door of her house which was constantly open, and seeing no
one, as all were in the chamber below, I slipped up the stairs to the
garret, and looked out of the skylight in order to hear when the bells
rang in the fair at twelve. I waited for three hours, both cold and
weary; as soon as the bells began to sound, I slipped down and opened
the door of the room crying out, 'Give me a fairing,' thinking thereby
to surprise her. There was no one there, and the maid said, as she had
been told to do, that she was gone out; but she had hidden herself
under the staircase, and was waiting; soon after she hastened into the
room with the usual exclamation, and gained from me the fairing. This I
gave her handsomely, and she gave me one also. I wished to present her
with the little chain that I had brought with me from Paris, but she
begged me to keep it, as it might give occasion for gossip, and she
might have it at some other time; but she took the little beautifully
bound Testament which I had also offered her; thus we had our pastime
for a long period, as is usual with young people.

"After the fair at Basle, my father-in-law, as he could no longer
delay, began to prepare for the betrothal, and it was fixed for the
week after St. Martin's day. We came about four o'clock to his house;
there were assembled on his side Herr Caspar Krug, afterwards
burgomaster, Martin Fickler, and Master Gregorius Schoelin, and Batt
Hug, his friends, and his son Franz Jeckelmann; there were on our side
Dr. Hans Huber, Matthias Bornhart, and H