XXI. BROTHER ALBURTUS 235 XXII. SONNLEIN TAKETH THE ORDEAL 249 XXIII. A MIDNIGHT VISIT 265 XXIV. MINE ENEMY'S HIDING-PLACE 281 XXV. THE END OF THE WITCH 295 XXVI. THE TWAIN ARE MADE ONE 305 XXVII. RETROSPECT 324 CHAPTER I FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD Happy the man who has the town escaped; To him the whistling trees, the murmuring brooks, The shining pebbles, preach Virtue's and wisdom's lore. The whispering grove a holy temple is To him, where God draws nigher to his soul; Each verdant sod a shrine, Whereby he kneels to heaven. --Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. For a clearer understanding of what I have here written in the fond desire that there may be those who delight in a tale simply told, even though it be of my brothers and sisters who lived their quiet, peaceful lives, with now and then, 'tis true, a jarring note, consecrated to their faith, in the solitude of a new-world wilderness, I must set forth, without weariness to the reader, I hope, somewhat of the humble pilgrim whose now old and time-worn hands pen these lines. I, Johann Peter Müller, son of a reformed minister, under the inspection of _Kreis Kaiserslautern_, was born in the year 1710, at Altzborn Oberamt Kaiserslautern in the Palatinate, studied at Heidelberg, matriculated 1725 at that university and in my twentieth year volunteered in response to the urgent calls for clergymen from the province of Pennsylvania. Leaving my beloved father and mother and _Vaterland_ in the summer of 1730, I floated on a raft down the Rhine to Rotterdam, embarking there for America on the good ship "Thistle," and after a long, uneventful voyage arrived at Philadelphia, August 28, 1730, taking the oath of allegiance the following day, which oath I am proud to say I have always kept. Almost immediately upon my arrival I applied to the Rev. Jedediah Andrews, for ordination, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. After asking me a great many questions he advised me to apply to the synod. This excellent advice was acted upon so promptly that in three weeks after my arrival the notes of the synod recorded, "It is agreed by the synod that Mr. John Peter Miller, a Dutch probationer lately come over, be left to the care of the presbytery of Philadelphia to settle him in the work of the ministry." In pursuance of this resolution the presbytery appointed three ministers to examine me for entrance upon my holy office, and what they required of me is best shown by a minute of the meeting where I "came under Tryals and after a previous Test of his ability in Prayer, Examining him in the Languages, he read his sermon and Exegesis on ye Justification and Various suitable questions on ye Arts and Sciences, officially Theology and out of Scripture."