for only some days ago, about a
hundred of our merchants were standing in the market-place of
Nuremberg, the talk turned upon you, and I heard that you were then in
the forests at Hagenschiess waylaying and seizing property.' I myself
wondered that in so short a time the rumour of my riding hither and
thither should have reached Nuremberg. Soon after, his Imperial Majesty
took the matter in hand, and arranged it at Wuerzburg."--Thus far Goetz.

Schaertlin von Burtenbach.

Sebastian Schaertlin does not exactly belong to the same class. He was
not of noble origin, and had to thank his military talents for his
knighthood. He was born in the year 1498, and studied arms under
Fronsperg. From 1518 to 1557 he was actively employed in almost all the
military affairs of Germany, in the service of the Emperor, and in that
of the city of Augsburg. For a time also he served in the French army,
as on account of his participation in the Smalkaldic war he had been
obliged to leave Germany. He had more than once commanded large armies,
and was in great repute as a bold and experienced general; he is an
interesting contrast to Goetz. The one the noble cavalier, the other the
citizen Landsknechte leader; Goetz the jovial companion-at-arms,
Schaertlin the practical man of business. The lives of both were full of
adventures and not free from inexcusable deeds: both died at a great
age; but Goetz dissipated his time and property in plundering
expeditions and knightly deeds, while Schaertlin helped to decide the
fate of Germany. Goetz understood so little his own times and his
interest, that he, the aristocrat, allowed himself to be made use of by
the democratic peasants as a man of straw; Schaertlin understood his own
time so well, that after the unfortunate Smalkaldic war he withdrew
into Switzerland a rich man, and a few years afterwards was reinstated
triumphantly in all his honours. Goetz had all his life a strong
hankering after the merchant's gold, yet after all his daring
plundering expeditions had but little in his coffers; Schaertlin made
money in all his campaigns, bought one property after another, and knew
how to command the highest price for his services. Both gave proof of
character and of party fidelity; both were honourable soldiers, and the
knightly consciences of both were according to our judgment too lax.
Goetz, at whose want of prudence we sometimes smile, though fond of
booty, was yet in his