"In the night the monks let him down over the wall, so that he could walk along the dyke to the village of Neukirchen. There my step-grandfather arranged that my father should go to Stralsund, in a cart that he had ordered from Leitz, concealed among some sacks of barley and fodder. Stoientin met the peasant in the night, and asked him where he was going. 'To Stralsund,' he said. He kicked at the sacks and inquired what load he was carrying. The other replied: 'Barley and fodder.' He then asked whether the peasant had not seen some one riding or running; the latter answered: 'He had seen one riding hastily towards the village of Horst, who had appeared to him like Sastrow from Greifswald; and he had been astonished at his riding so hastily in the night.' So Doctor Stoientin left the peasant and rode to Horst; but my father arrived at Stralsund and obtained a safe conduct from the councillor there. "But my father could not trust to this, as the deceased had himself been under the safe conduct of my gracious sovereign Duke George; and Dr. Stoientin, the councillor of his princely grace, made good avail of it against my father; besides this, the adversaries were rich, proud, and powerful. So he was obliged to wander about in Denmark, going also to Luebeck, Hamburg, and elsewhere, till he conciliated the reigning prince by a considerable sum, which he was obliged to pay in ready money. "And although later, after repeated endeavours, and at the cost of much labour and exertion on the part of my step-grandfather, my father became reconciled with the offended party, upon the payment of blood-money to the amount of one thousand marks, he could not remain unmolested at Greifswald, on account of these adversaries residing there. But it may be seen how little this blood-money prospered with the son and heirs of the deceased, for evil and misfortune to person, land, and property pursued both wife and children. "Thus my mother was left in her youth without a husband, to keep house with four uneducated children. One can well imagine how many sad and sorrowful thoughts weighed upon her. "Whilst my mother was dwelling in Greifswald, I went to school there, and learnt not only to read, but also to decline, parse, and conjugate in the Donat. On Palm-Sunday I had to sing the '_Quantus_,' having sung the foregoing years first the lesser and then the great '_Hic est._'[49] "This was a great honour to the boy, and no small pleasure to his parents, for the most courageous scholars were always selected for it, who were not alarmed at the great multitude of ecclesiastics as well as laymen, and could sing the _Quantus_ with a loud and clear voice.