Then imagining myself more at liberty, I ran from thence, being unaware that a whole troop of soldiers were standing at the gate of the courtyard, so I ran into their arms. They beat me well with their swords and bandoliers, kept me still more strictly with cords, led me from house to house, that I might tell them to whom this or the other house belonged. Thus I was also led to my own house, there I saw the copper water-can lying on the floor, in which had been placed my ready money, three hundred thalers, and I thought, hadst thou known that the birds and the foxes were in the way, thou wouldst have remained outside. Now because I would not betray any one, they put upon my head my own cap, which was lying on the ground in my house, and gave me a blow on the head with a cutlass, so that the blood ran down to my ears, but no hole was made in the cap, for it was of felt. Still more; the same man wantonly drew the cutlass across my stomach, in order to try whether I was invulnerable; he pressed tolerably hard, yet God willed not that he should draw more blood from me. Twice in one hour, namely, in Schneiderinn, at the farm of the tailor's wife Wittich, on the dung-heap, and in the forest ranger's stable, they gave me the Swedish drink mixed with dung water, whereby my teeth became all loose. I defended myself as well as a prisoner could, when they forced a great stick into my mouth. At last they led me along with cords, and said they would hang me up: they brought me out to the Mühl Gate on the bridge; then one of them took the cord wherewith my feet were bound together, and another the cord on my left arm, and pitched me into the water, holding the cord so that they might draw me up and down. Now whilst I was groping around me in search of a support, I caught hold of a hay-rake, which however gave way with me, and I could find no help thereon; but by God's providence an opening was made for me, so that I slipped under the bridge. Whenever I tried to hold on, they battered me with these said hay-rakes, so that they snapped in two like a school cane. When they were not only weary of their labour, but thought they had done for me, as I should drown in the water, they let go both cords, when I dived under the bridge like a frog, and no one could touch me. Then I searched the pocket of my hosen and found a little knife, such as could be closed, which they had not chosen to take, though they had often searched me; I therefore cut the cord which bound my two feet, and sprang down to the floor of the mill, where lay the wheels. The water covered half my body; then the rogues threw sticks, brickbats, and cudgels at me, in order to put an end to me completely. I was anxious to work my way to the miller's back door, but could not, either because my clothes being saturated with water held me back, or more likely, because God would not permit me to die there. For as a drunken man reels to and fro, thus did I, and came up on the other side at the back of the