Now on the way Herzbruder agreed with me that I should give myself out for his cousin that I might receive greater respect: and he for his part would get me a horse and a servant and send me to the regiment of Neuneck, wherein I could serve as a volunteer till an officer's place should fall vacant in the army, to which he could help me. And so in a wink I became a fellow that looked like a good soldier: but in that summer I did no great deeds, save that I helped to steal a few cattle here and there in the Black Forest and made myself well acquainted with the Breisgau and Alsace. For the rest, I had scant luck, for when my servant and his horse had been captured by the Weimar troops at Kenzingen I must needs work the other harder, and in the end so ride him to death that I was fain to join the order of the "Merode-brüder." My friend Herzbruder indeed would willingly have equipped me again: but seeing that I had so soon got rid of the first two horses, he held back, and thought to let me kick my heels till I had learned more foresight: nor did I desire it, for I found in my new companions so pleasant a society that till winter quarters should come I wished for no better employ. Now must I tell you somewhat of these Merode brothers, for without doubt there be some, and specially those that be ignorant of war, that know not who these people be. And so have I never found any writer that hath included in his work an account of their manners, customs, rights, and privileges: besides which 'tis well worth while that not only the generals of these days but also the peasants should know what this brotherhood is. And first as concerns their name, I do hope 'twill be no disgrace to that honourable cavalier in whose service they got that name, or I could not so openly tack it on to any man. For I once saw a kind of shoe that had in place of eyelet-holes twisted cords, that a man might more easily stamp through the mud: and these were called Mansfeld's shoes because his troops first devised them. Yet should any call Count Mansfeld himself "Cobbler" on that account, I would count him for a fool. And so must you understand this name, that will last as long as Germans do make war: and this was the beginning of it: when this gentleman (Merode) first brought a newly raised regiment to the army his recruits proved as weak and crazy in body as the Bretons,[29] so that they could not endure the marching and other fatigues to which a soldier must submit in the field, for which reason their brigade soon became so weak that it could hardly protect the colours, and wherever you found one or more sick and lame in the market-place or in houses, and behind fences and hedges, and asked, "Of what regiment?" the answer was wellnigh always "Of Merode."