his sour wine, and whatever metal utensils and implements were necessary for his farm and kitchen. All the woollen and linen clothes were wove and made up by the women of the house, or the neighbour in the village. Thus did the peasant live in middle Germany, even after the year 1618. He heard in the ale-houses on Sunday of the war alarms in Bohemia, about which he cared little; he bought indeed a flying-sheet of a crafty dealer, or a satirical song on the outcast King of Bohemia; he gave some of his bread and cheese to a fugitive from Prague or Budweis, who came begging to his door, and shook his head as he listened to his tale of horror. An official messenger brought into the village an order from the sovereign, from which he found it was expected of him to deliver into the city, money and provision for the newly raised soldiers; he was indignant, and hastened to bury his treasures still deeper. It soon, however, became clear that bad times were approaching him also, for the money which he received in the town was very red, and all goods were dear; thus he was involved in the wretched confusion which after 1620 was brought upon the country by the coinage of bad gold. He went no longer to the city, but kept his corn and meat at home: he had constant disputes however with the townsmen and his neighbours, because he wished to rid himself of the new gold in his own payments, whilst he would receive only the good old money: his heart was full of ominous forebodings. Thus it went on till the year 1623. He then saw evil coming in another quarter; theft and burglary increased, foreign vagabonds were often seen on the high-roads, trumpeters rushed into the towns with bad news, hired soldiers, insolent and bragging, drew up before his farm demanding entertainment, stole sausages, and carried off his poultry in their knapsacks. _Defensioners_, the newly raised country militia, galloped into the village, quartered themselves upon him, demanded provisions, and molested him more than the rogues whom they were to drive away from the cattle-sheds.