held my hands and arms towards them, and through God's protection only got a few wounds on the wrist. "Meanwhile they discovered a peasant who had hidden himself in some bushes. It was the rich Kaspar of Gellershausen, so they all rode off to him, and only one remained with me, who was by birth a Swede, and had been made prisoner. This one said to me, 'Priest, priest, run, run, otherwise you must die.' He was a good Swede: I placed confidence in his counsel, and begged of him to feign to ride after me, as if he would fetch me back. Thus it happened that I escaped the Croats. But the rich Kaspar met a miserable death at that place; for as he would not come forth from thence, they hewed off his legs, as I saw, at the knees. Therefore he was obliged to lie in that place, where after their withdrawal he was found. But I ran through a great oak wood for almost an hour, and could see no thick bushes wherein to conceal myself, and fell at last into a pool of water out of which an oak root had grown, and I was so tired of running that I could go no further, and my heart beat so that I knew not whether it was the horses' hoofs that I heard, or my heart. "Thus I sat till it was night; then I rose up and continued in search of a thick cover, till I came out and could see Seidenstadt. I slipped into the village, and as I heard dogs bark, I hoped to find people at home, but there was no one; I therefore went into a shed, and was desirous of passing the night on the hay. But God granted that the neighbours, who had hid themselves in Strauchhahn, had come together behind this shed, and took counsel where they should reassemble, and where they should go to. This I could distinctly hear. I therefore descended and went to the house. The peasant had just come in, had struck a light, and was standing in the cellar taking the cream off the milk, which he intended to drink. I was standing above the opening, spoke to him and greeted him; he looked up and saw the under part of my body, namely, my shirt and naked legs, and it was dark above. He was much frightened; but when I told him that I was the pastor at Poppenhausen, who had been carried off by the soldiers, he brought the milk up, and I begged him to procure me some clothes of his neighbours, as I wished to accompany them wherever they were going. He went out, and meanwhile I regaled myself on his pot of milk, and entirely emptied it. In my whole life no milk had ever tasted so good. He came back with others, and one of them brought me a pair of old leather hosen, which smelt badly of cart-grease, another a pair of old latchet shoes, and another two woollen stockings, one green and one white. This livery was not suitable either for a traveller or for a pastor; yet I took it with thanks, but could not wear the shoes, for they were frozen too stiff. The soles of the stockings were torn, thus I went to Hildburghausen more barefooted than shod. When