"But my brother, Magister Johann, when he was travelling home from Lubeck to Rostock had as companions Herr Heinrich Sonneberg and a female, and besides there rode near the carriage Hans Lagebusch and a smart young fellow, Hermann Lepper, who had exchanged _boguslawische schillinge_ and other money for some hundred gulden coined in Gadebusch, and which lay in the carriage. This was discovered by certain highwaymen, as thievish miscreants are called. Highway robbery was very common in Mecklenburg, as it was never seriously punished, and many nobles even of the highest birth were engaged in it; so that one may truly say with the poet:-- /* 'Nobilis et Nebulo parvo discrimine distant: Sic nebulo magnus nobilis esse potest.' */ Nevertheless the genuine nobility, among whom are many honourable men, who are in all ways worthy of esteem, are not spoken of here. Now, thank God, there is a careful superintendence exercised in the Duchy of Mecklenburg; but then the highwaymen could say, if we give up three hundred gulden we place ourselves out of all danger, and can always keep the remaining two hundred. When the travellers came to the Ribbenitzer heath, those who were sitting in the carriage alighted from it, having their arms with them; and the two horsemen, who ought to have remained by it in that insecure place, rode forward. Against these the highwaymen collected themselves, one of whom joined Lagebusch, and talked familiarly with him. When riding so near to him that he could reach the stock of his pistol, which was cocked (it was not then the custom to carry double barrels in the saddle), he seized it out of the holster, and hastened therewith after Hermann Lepper, who was riding back to the carriage, and shot him, so that he fell from his nag. Hans Lagebusch took to flight, and rode to Ribbenitz; Herr Heinrich Sonneberg ran into the wood, and concealed himself among the bushes; my brother, who had a hunting-spear, placed himself against the hind wheel, that they might not attack him from behind; in front he defended himself, and kept off one after another, inflicting wounds on them, for he thrust his spear into the side of one of them near his leg, so that riding to the bushes he fell from his horse, which escaped, and he remained lying there. Another then fiercely attacked my brother, and cut a piece from his head the size of a thaler, and even a little bit of his skull, at the same time wounded him in the neck with his sword, so that he fell and was considered dead. The miscreant plundered the carriage, took all that was therein, and also carried off the horse of their wounded comrade; as they saw he was so much wounded that there was little life remaining in him, and not being able to carry him away, they left him lying there. They left the driver his horses, and rode away with their booty. Herr Heinrich Sonneberg returned to the carriage; they laid my brother in it, and the woman bound up his head