[Footnote 56: For when the splendid prince had arrived at the object of his wishes by countless bribery to the Polish grandees, and after he had proved his new Catholicism to his party--less through the enforced testimony of the Pope than by the expenditure of some thalers and a half measure of brandy to each noble elector--then, at his eventful coronation on the 5th of September, 1697, the inventive powers of the chamberlain were strained to the uttermost, for the costume was to be antique, at the same time Polish and also fashionable and suitable to a cavalier. Therefore the king wore on his well-powdered head a Polish cap with a heron's plume; on his body a strong golden breastplate, over his short French breeches a short Roman tunic, on his feet sandals, over all a blue ermine cloak; the whole dress covered with splendid precious stones. He became faint at the coronation, and it was doubtful whether it was owing to the uncomfortable costume or to shame. The Poles ate on this day three roast oxen, while at the Emperor's coronation at Frankfort only one was customary.--Compare Foerster, "Hoefe und Cabinette Europas," vol. iii., p. 51.] [Footnote 57: Letters of recommendation entitling the holder to sustenance in some ecclesiastical foundation.--_Tr_.] [Footnote 58: She certainly was not a girl of loose character, as Huellmann in the "Staedtewesen," vol. ii., assumes; on the contrary, she passed in the sports as the symbol of a city which was supposed to be under the protection of the Holy Virgin, and, till the time of Tilly, boasted of never having been taken. It is possible that the maiden may have been a serf, but this is not certain.] [Footnote 59: Wolffgang Ferber, Prietzschenmeister--jest maker--"Gruendliche Beschreibung eines fuernehmen fuerstlichen Armbrustschiessens zu Coburg," 1614.] [Footnote 60: On a Franconian gem of the sixteenth century an archer and a crossbow are portrayed.--Bechstein Museum, II., figure 4.] [Footnote 61: For example, in the circular of the Meiningens, 1579, "crooked or straight rifled barrels are forbidden." Quarrels must have arisen sometimes concerning this at the public shooting meetings, for in 1563 Elector August of Saxony decided that rifled barrels should only be allowed, if all the shooters agreed to it.] [Footnote 62: Pritschmeister, a species of Merry Andrew--master of the ceremonies and provost marshal.--_Tr_.] [Footnote 63: The favourite preamble of their poem. They wander poor and full of cares into the free expanse of nature; then comes joyful news of a shooting meeting. It was undoubtedly traditional, and it was a fitting and refined beginning, which one learned from the other.] [Footnote 64: Wolfgang Ferber. "Gruendliche beschreibung eines Armbrust Schiessens zu Coburg." 1614.] [Footnote 65: A square coin.] [Footnote 66: Welser-Gasser, "Chronika von Augspurg," p. 182.] [Footnote 67: Compare vol. ii of "Pictures of German Life," chap. "Rogues and Adventurers."]