"Thereupon the eighth and last began to speak, he who had accompanied me to the Lieutenant: 'Gentlemen, what shall we do; here they are, and you have heard what the Commander says: if we will allot them no quarters, he will let his soldiers go into whatsoever houses they please; if they fill your houses it is no fault of mine. I go home to close mine. As many as come to my share I will take; the others I will show to your houses. You have heard of to-day's misfortunes. At Smalkalden, friend Böhler's brother-in-law, Lieutenant Zimmermann, is dead; our gates have been hewn down; below are the soldiers thundering out curses. Gentlemen, let us billet them. The soldiers in the market-place say they only wish they had shot the peasants who were with the Lieutenant. What a calamity that would have been! They say also that more shall be shot; that one shall not be the last. Thus you see that the same misfortune might come upon us also. Ah! gentlemen, if we had but such a prince as he of Gotha is! but ours troubles himself not about us; he lives comfortably at Frankfort, and let what will come to us, he cares not. And who knows wherefore this has begun? These soldiers assuredly have not come for a pastime. One can learn nothing from them. And how soon one night will pass, or even two! They are our border neighbours too; why should we not give them a night's lodging?' "They all agreed to this and sought for their old rate of tax; whereupon I had to tell them the whole strength of our division. "After that, I received an order to enjoin upon the soldiers, when they received their billets, that they were not to undress themselves, but were each of them to place his weapon by his bedside, and soon as a call was heard, every soldier was instantly to join his commanding officer fully armed, and if any one was found in a state of drunkenness, he was to be punished by running the gauntlet of the whole division; therefore an order was to be given directly to the assistant executioner, to cut this very evening six hundred rods.