Bartholomew Sastrow Part 9

The councillors sent me to reconnoitre in the direction of Eger, at Schlackenwerth, and at Schlackenwald. My guide followed on foot. He was an intelligent lad, speaking both German and Bohemian. I ascertained that the Bohemians had cut down the trees in the wood, and as such made the route impa.s.sable for the horse and artillery, it was even impossible for the landsknechten to cross it with their standards flying.

After that, the councillors sent me to the castle of Gaspard Pflug, to whom the States of the country had entrusted the command of the troops.[40] He was very reserved. "What are we to do?" he said, looking perplexed. "The Elector of Saxony is our ally, our co-religionist; we cannot leave him to his fate. On the other hand, Ferdinand is our king.

Are we to jeopardize our liberties?" Gaspard Pflug, having taken refuge at Magdeburg after the capture of the elector, built himself opposite the cathedral an elegant dwelling, where he ended his days, the king having confiscated his property.

While the elector encamped before Leipzig, the emperor overran the Algau and Swabia, imposing heavy fines and big garrisons to the towns forced to capitulate. The Spaniards committed every excess, and above all, in Wurtemberg.[41]

On April 23 and 25 the sun a.s.sumed so sombre an aspect that everybody rushed to the threshold of his house; both experts and scientific men foretold strange events.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Stettin. Wittenberg. Spires. _From old Prints_.]

One day I was strolling alone outside Lertmeritz around the walls (for the time hung heavily on my hands), when an individual, his eyes blazing with anger, a.s.sailed me without warning, vilifying me and trying to fling me into the moat. He was evidently under the impression of having come upon a spy. I endeavoured to convince him to the contrary; the difficulty was to understand each other. Finally, with hands clasped together as if they were bound, I gave him to understand with a sign of the head that I was ready to enter the town with him.

Thanks to heaven, he consented to this, although he did not cease his imprecations. Before I had fairly entered our hostelry two members of the council came to ask our deputies to forbid their people to leave the city and the promenading on the walls. "We know very well that we have nothing to fear from you," they said, "but our citizens are quick to take umbrage, and just now one of your folk narrowly escaped coming to grief."

On April 16 the news came to Lertmeritz that two days previously the Elector of Saxony had been made a prisoner. Immediately leaving Bohemia we started in the direction of Torgau, but to get to the camp at Wittemberg the perils were endless, for the Spanish troops, whose lines we had to cross, shrank from no misdeeds.[42] Hence it was resolved that I should go to Wittenberg to get a safe-conduct--a decision against which I protested. "How am I to pa.s.s without the smallest bit of parchment?" "Never mind," exclaimed Damitz; "the Lord is the best safeguard." "In that case," I retorted, "are you not yourselves under the Divine protection?" My argument was, however, in vain; my life weighed less in the balance than that of my superiors.

In my capacity of a member of the missions to Bohemia and to the camp of the elector, I wore a yellow gorget which was the insignia of the Protestants. I was obliged to hide it in my breast and to replace it with the one bought for me, the red gorget of the Imperialists. And thus I started. If they had caught me with the double insignia upon me, my account would soon have been settled. I should have been slung up on the nearest tree.

I crossed Muhlberg, where the elector, wounded in the cheek, had been made a prisoner on the very spot where his pa.s.sion for the chase caused so much damage to his unfortunate subjects. Wherever the eye turned there were signs of the recent battle; broken lances, shattered muskets, and torn-up harnesses littered the ground, and all along the road soldiers dying of their wounds and from want of sustenance. Around Wittenberg itself all the villages were deserted; the inhabitants had taken flight without leaving anything behind them. Here, the corpse of a peasant, a group of dogs fighting for the entrails; there, a landsknecht with just a breath of life left to him, but the body putrefying, his arms stretched out at their widest, and his legs far enough apart to put a bar between them.

At the end of my journey and within sight of the Spanish troops I pa.s.sed a Spaniard, who said to me: "My good and handsome horseman, your service with the emperor is but of recent date." I rode a few steps further; then, undoing my gorget, I rubbed it against my boot to make it appear less new. At last, I reached the camp, where I lost several days in fruitless endeavours.

Every now and again there was firing from Wittenberg. Some Pomeranian horse-troopers with whom I had made acquaintance warned me not to keep to the high road if I should venture in that direction, but to go at random in order to avoid becoming a b.u.t.t. A couple of steps in front of me a ball whizzed so closely past an individual's head that the shock or the fright felled him to the ground, where he was picked up for dead. From that moment I suspended my strolls.

Dr. Seld, the vice-chancellor, whom I succeeded in seeing,[43] did not disguise the deep irritation of the emperor. I answered that neither Duke Philip nor his brother, Barnim, notwithstanding the former's marriage with the sister of the Elector of Saxony, had given the slightest a.s.sistance to the Protestants, either in money, men or deeds, and that it would not be difficult for his Majesty to convince himself of this. Nevertheless my negotiations made no progress.

It was said in the camp that after the defeat of the elector, when Christopher Carlowitzi[44] the princ.i.p.al counsellor of Maurice, came to salute the emperor, whose docile instrument he was, the latter exclaimed: "Well, Carlowitz, what is going to happen?" "Everything is in your Majesty's hands," Carlowitz replied. "Yes, yes, something will happen," was the retort. And when the elector bent the knee before the emperor, saying, "Most clement emperor and lord," King Ferdinand interrupted with, "Ah, so he is your emperor now? But what about Ingoldstadt?[45] Wait a while. We shall soon settle your account." And when the death sentence was delivered, Ferdinand insisted upon its prompt execution. The Marquis de Saluces, on the other hand, repeated to the emperor, even before the arrival of the Elector of Brandenburg, that the best sheep in his flock was the Elector of Saxony, and that his execution would rouse the whole of Germany.

As I found it impossible to get a safe-conduct, I returned to Torgau, and immediately after hearing my report, our emba.s.sy ordered its carriages and took the direct road to Stettin.

Inasmuch as the Elector of Brandenburg loudly promised his good offices with the emperor, the princes dispatched me with a letter of thanks to him to the camp at Wittenberg. They also prompted the language I was to hold to the vice-chancellor and to the other Imperial counsellors.[46]

To accelerate matters they prepared six relays of horses for me, with precise indications on paper as to their whereabouts, though I started from Wolgast on a pitiful cart-horse, equipped anyhow, for neither saddle, bridle nor stirrups were in condition. They thought that it did not matter, as I had to change animals at a short distance. So far so good. But neither at the first, second, third, fourth nor fifth stage was there a sign of a horse. The last stage was Brandenburg--the Old.

Abraham Gatzkow, a gentleman of Lower Pomerania, had indeed provided a downright good and properly equipped saddle-horse for me, only on the day of my arrival he had mounted it for a ride to the camp, so that the same jade carried me to the end of my journey.

On June 1 I alighted at the tent of the Elector of Brandenburg, and when presenting my dispatch, I begged of Chancellor Weinleben to spare me a long stay. Next morning when I called again, he exclaimed: "Oh, the affair takes more time than you think," which remark did not prevent my insisting upon an answer on June 3, inasmuch as the elector went several times a day to the emperor, and that therefore he had no lack of opportunity to broach the subject. Moreover, there was need for urgency; they had just thrown a bridge across the Elbe and the emperor had transferred his quarters to the other side of the river, a sure sign of his approaching departure. To all which arguments on my part, Chancellor Weinleben angrily replied: "The interests of princes are discussed with minds at rest. Just look at the presumption of a simple messenger. Wait till you are told to go and then go. Here, this is the elector's reply. Take it, go, and leave me in peace."

I stopped at the first dense clump of trees in the wood, opened the letter, and immediately turned my horse's head. "What do you want now?"

yelled the chancellor, when he caught sight of me. "Am I not to have any peace from you?" "My gracious masters," I replied, "have authorized me to open the letter of his Electoral Highness and to act in consequence. The letter I have just read proves once more the brotherly feelings of the elector, but as he is striking his tent, I think it necessary respectfully to remind him of his generous a.s.surances. I shall wait for him at his leaving the emperor's presence, for I am bound to bring back to Wolgast something more than vague words." At this little speech the chancellor altered his tone. He ceased to address me familiarly as "thou," and, in fact, made somewhat exaggerated apologies, swearing by all his G.o.ds that in reality he had not the faintest idea of the affair, but that henceforth he was my staunch ally and that his master should not leave the emperor without ardently pleading the cause of our princes.

When the elector went to the imperial tent I followed him at a distance, and the moment he got into the saddle again I galloped on his track, for I foresaw his departure for Berlin. I was just at the head of the bridge of boats, which was entirely unprovided with parapets or barriers, when I espied coming from the opposite side a heavy cart.

Time was precious. I pursue my quarry, and my right stirrup catches in the wheel and my valiant mount, in spite of its prancing and rearing, cannot extricate itself, or even hold its own against four strong draught horses. There is no room to turn, and there seems not even a possibility of saving myself by sacrificing the animal; both it and I seem inevitably doomed to perish by drowning. As for any human help, I do not as much as expect it. Even if they could have a.s.sisted me, the Spaniards at the end of the bridge would have been particularly careful not to do so. Just fancy their delight at seeing a German making a plunge with his horse into the Elbe; the sight would have been too delightful willingly to forego it.

When our distress is at its height, when neither our father nor our mother is able to save us, Providence stretches forth his protecting hand. It happened then, by this merciful grace; the rotten strap suddenly gave way, leaving the stirrup entangled in the wheel and freeing my leg. It was a startling confirmation of the Divine word that the righteous shall see good come out of evil; for had the equipment been brand-new, of the most solid leather and even embroidered with gold and pearls, that harness would have sent me into the stream as food for the fishes.

At last I managed to join the elector. He sent me word that the opportunity for interceding with the emperor in behalf of the princes of Pomerania had not presented itself, but that the counsellors he left behind with the emperor would look to the affair and keep the dukes informed of everything. Why had I not gone to the bottom of the Elbe?

In the camp itself the tale went round that the King of the Romans, Duke Maurice, and after them, the emperor had made a very careful inspection of the church of the Castle of Willemberg, having been led to believe (the emperor and the king especially) that lamps and wax tapers were constantly burning day and night on Luther's tomb, and that prayers were said there just as in the Romish churches before the relics of the saints.

At Treuenbrietzen I made my report to Chancellor Citzewitz. As he was awaiting the arrival of the Pomeranian counsellors who were to accompany the emperor to Halle, he sent me to retain quarters and to give notice to the Brunswicker captain, Werner Hahn, to have twenty hors.e.m.e.n ready at Bitterfeld on June 12. On the morning of the 12th, in fact, the mission alighted at the general hostelry outside Bitterfeld.

The captain of the husard-escort had, however, given the preference to an inn in the town. Seeing no sign of the Brunswickers, the counsellors put up their carriage, so that the captain at his return was under the impression that the mission was gone, and meeting with the hors.e.m.e.n, ordered them to face about, he being convinced that the deputies had taken another route.

Evening was drawing near; my business was finished, the quarters had been retained, the supper ordered, and the beds ready. I had taken advantage of the opportunity to renew my wardrobe, and, with my new clothes on, I took a stroll outside the gates through which the mission had to pa.s.s. Espying from the top of a mound a troop of advancing hors.e.m.e.n, I went back in hot haste afraid of a reprimand. At the same moment two Spanish bandits, half-naked, for their rags scarcely covered them, ran after me across the fields, the one on foot, the other on a kind of wretched farmer's cob--apparently stolen--and with a pistol at the saddle bow. Casting a careful look round to a.s.sure themselves that there were no witnesses to their contemplated deed, one had already raised his pistol when the Brunswicker hors.e.m.e.n arrived on the spot.

"_Sunt isti ex tua parte?_" he asked. "_Senior, si_," I quickly answered. "Ah, landsknecht, landsknecht," he said, replacing his weapon, and followed by his companion, making off as fast as he could.

The adventures of that evening were, however, not at an end. I found the gates of the town shut, and a trumpeter galloping along the walls and blowing with all his might. I had not the faintest idea of what it all meant, when the captain of husards appeared upon the spot, recognizes, and hails me. "What are you doing here, and what has happened?" he asked. "Why are the gates shut, and why is the alarm being sounded?" While confessing my total ignorance, I began to ask about the amba.s.sadors; thereupon great surprise of the captain at their being waited for. The matter seemed all the more strange to him in that he on the road fell in with some Spanish hors.e.m.e.n, who told him that they had been sent to meet a mission. What if our counsellors should have been attacked by these people, decoyed into the wood, and plundered? Of course, I felt very anxious to inform the Brunswicker captain, so that he might send a reconnoitring party in the direction of Bitterfeld. Finally, the noise ceased in the town, and the gates were reopened. I immediately reported matters to W. Hahn, who in the early morning sent out his hors.e.m.e.n. An hour afterwards there appeared upon the scene Abraham Gatzkow, the same gentleman from Lower Pomerania who had been instructed to keep a fresh horse for me for the last stage from Brandenburg-the-Old to the camp at Wittenberg. The envoys had sent him on in front, impatient to know why the escort had failed to appear at the appointed spot, a mishap which prejudiced them against me.

Odd to relate, neither Sleidan nor Beuter mentions the alarm to which I referred just now; hence, some further particulars will not be deemed superfluous. Nothing is more frequent in the army and less easy to prevent than the stealing of horses. If an animal takes your fancy, some scoundrel is ready to get it for you for a matter of six or eight crowns. If you keep it six or eight weeks elsewhere, so as to change its habits, and change its tail, its mane and other peculiarities, you may safely bring it back to the camp. A certain German gentleman proceeded in that way with the stallion of a Spaniard; he sent it away to his estates. When the affair had been forgotten the animal reappeared. It so happened that the German hors.e.m.e.n (eight squadrons at the lowest computation) encamped in the middle of a delightful plain, watered by the Saale, while the whole of the infantry of their nation was quartered in the town; a providential circ.u.mstance, for if the foot had come to the aid of the horse, there would have been nothing short of a ma.s.sacre. The emperor, therefore, was well inspired in ordering at once the closing of all the gates.

The Spaniards occupied the height around the castle. At dusk, when taking the horses to be watered, a Spanish lad recognizes the stallion, cries out that it belongs to his master and wants to lead it away. The young German groom resists, and is supported by three or four of his countrymen. The Spaniard rallies a dozen, and the German immediately finds himself at the head of a score. The two parties increase every minute, and the first shots are fired. Posted on the heights, the Spaniards have the advantage of the position, their b.a.l.l.s going through the walls of the tents, kill several gentlemen who are seated at table; the Germans give as good as they get. A Spanish lord issues from the town with words of peace from the emperor; he has magnificent golden chains round his neck and is riding a superb animal. At the sight of him there is a general cry: "Fire on the dog of a Spaniard." He advances, nevertheless, on the bridge, but a projectile brings down his mount, which rolls into the Saale, and is drowned there with his master, the wearer of the beautiful collar. Nine days before this, at Wittenberg, a rotten strap had, with the help of G.o.d, saved my life.

The gentleman covered with gold and dressed in velvet, on the other hand, miserably perished.

The emperor, while all this was going on, sent the son of King Ferdinand, the Archduke Maximilian (afterwards emperor). He felt convinced that it would suffice to restore order, but the moment the archduke opened his lips the Germans repeated the cry: "Down with the Spaniard." The archduke was wounded in the right arm, which he wore during several weeks in a black sling. The emperor himself had to come forth. "Dear Germans," he said, "I know you to be without reproach. I therefore ask you to be calm. You shall be indemnified fully and in every respect, and on my Imperial word, to-morrow you shall see the Spaniards strung up on the highest gibbets." This promise had the effect of quieting the riot, and the gates were opened. The inquiry having shown that the loss of the Germans amounted to eighteen grooms or stablemen besides seven horses, and that of the opposing party to not less than seventy men, the emperor, though professing to be ready to make good the value of the horse and even to punish the Spaniards according to his promise, expressed the hope that the Germans would consider themselves sufficiently avenged, inasmuch as their adversaries had suffered four times more than they had.

During the evening of June 19, the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg made their entry into Halle with the Landgrave Philip of Hesse in their midst. At six in the afternoon of the next day the landgrave "made honourable amends" in the great hall of the Imperial quarters in the presence of the electors, princes, foreign potentates, amba.s.sadors, counts, colonels, captains, and in one word, of everybody who could find room inside or catch a glimpse of the scene through the windows.

But while his chancellor, on his knees, close against him, humbly craved pardon, Philip, ever inclined to raillery, smiled with an air of bravado, and to such a degree as to make the emperor exclaim, while threatening him with his outstretched index: "Go on; I'll teach you to laugh." Alas, he kept his word.

Our counsellors decided to leave me behind incognito at the Imperial camp with a gentleman of Lower Pomerania named George von Wedel, who having murdered his cousin and having been exiled by Duke Barnim, had entered the emperor's service with nine-and-twenty horse troopers. His goodwill towards our mission and my instances finally got him his pardon. That was how the horse on which I had left Wolgast was to carry me as far as Augsburg.

Having started from Halle on June 20, the emperor stopped three days at Naumberg. On the 24th, very early in the morning, he was at the general headquarters at some distance beyond the wall. He wore a violet cap and a black cloak trimmed with velvet several inches wide. Suddenly there was a shower, and immediately the emperor sent for a hat and a grey felt cloak to the town; but meanwhile he turned the cloak he wore and kept his headdress under it. Poor man, who spent untold gold on the war, and who stood bareheaded in the rain rather than spoil his clothes.

The Spanish escort of the landgrave preceded his Imperial Majesty by a day's march, and committed unheard-of excesses. Next morning the corpses were strewn where the emperor pa.s.sed. Women and girls suffered the most terrible outrages; as for the men, after having suspended them by their genital parts, the barbarians tortured them to make them reveal the places where they had hidden their money, after which, with one stroke of their swords, flush with the abdomen, they detached the victim.

The emperor slept at Coburg, in Franconia. The German hors.e.m.e.n took up their quarters in the adjacent villages. Every house was deserted, the dwellings of the n.o.bility as well as the peasant's farms; nowhere was there a soul to be seen, for, having been sorely tried the previous day by the pa.s.sage of the Spaniards, the population dreaded renewed scenes of horror. In one house we found a _membrum virile_; elsewhere, stretched on a bed a bloodstained body, exactly in the condition in which those abominable miscreants had put them one after the other. The servants of Von Wedel dug a grave by my orders for the corpse and the _membrum virile_.

Our first encampment after that was a village amidst fertile plains. I unsaddled my horse in order to let it graze in peace until the morning.

In the same spot there was a handsome gentleman's dwelling, in its open courtyard a wagon with four strong horses; on the wagon two barrels of exquisite wine. Capons, poultry and pheasants were running about in all directions. I leave people to imagine the ma.s.sacre, and how, on our return to our tent, we quickly plucked, boiled and roasted the game. We were the absolute masters. There was nothing to fear; the granary was full to overflowing, and we replenished our sacks to the very edge. In short, horses, vehicle and wine, and everything else was carried away.

The barrels were emptied on our way; the team was sold at Nuremberg for what it would bring, for we ourselves had had it very cheaply.

The sight of our plenty attracted the notice of Duke Frederick von Liegnitz,[47] so we invited him to share it. Two joyous damsels in gorgeous silk attire were of the party and performed their duty well.

The servants also shared in the feast which was prolonged till dawn.

The nights, however, were very short.

It was full daylight when, wis.h.i.+ng to saddle my horse, I discovered it had been stolen. Immediately, according to 'the usages and customs of war, I chose the best nag at hand, currycombed, bridled and mounted it in the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes.

On July 1, towards midday, the emperor made his entry into Bamberg with a numerous suite. The Elector of Saxony occupied a house on the outside of the town on the right, just at the turn of the road, so that he could watch the city and the country. The captive was at the window just as his Imperial Majesty pa.s.sed, mounted on a small Spanish horse.

He made a profound bow; thereupon the emperor burst out laughing sarcastically, and stared at him as long as he could.

The Spaniards took with them from Bamberg four hundred women, girls and female servants, and did not let them go until they reached Nuremberg.

The fathers, husbands and brothers followed in their wake; the father looking for his daughter, the husband for his better half, the brother for his sister; at Nuremberg each found his own again. Oh, those Spaniards! What a nation, to dare do such things after the cessation of hostilities, in a friendly country and under the very eyes of the sovereign. The latter, however, displayed a relentless severity. Each evening they put up a gibbet as well as his tent, and the former did not remain long untenanted, but it was all in vain.

I suddenly came across my horse in a meadow near the Nuremberg gates. I put my saddle on its back, and left the animal I had taken at Coburg.

His Majesty journeyed by small stages in consequence of the excessive heat. The diet, in fact, was summoned only for September 1. This slowness gave me the leisure to ride with George von Wedel on the flank of the army, from its head to its tail. It was an interesting spectacle, this ma.s.s of men under arms and in battle order; here Germans, farther on Spaniards. In the evening we returned to our own.

Far from keeping to the highway, the soldiers marched straight in front of them, making a roadway four times wider than the ordinary one, upsetting all obstacles, knocking down enclosures and filling in moats and ditches. One day the restive horse of George von Wedel insisted on getting into the ranks of the Spanish, who could not or would not get out of the way, and as the rider cried angrily: "Very well, let the French kill thee, then," a half-drunken soldier, mistaking the words, retorted: "_Senor mio, no soy Frances, mas soy un Espanol_." The Spaniards, in fact, think themselves much superior to the French.

As we were getting near Nuremberg there was no longer any need for me to hide myself. I took up my quarters at the hotel selected by Duke Frederick von Liegnitz, at that period trying to interest the emperor in his paternal affairs. That prince was never sober, and at the refusal of his counsellors, he caroused with the suite of Margrave Johannes.

One day the duke and six servitors of the margrave cut the right sleeves out of their doublets and their s.h.i.+rts. With bare arms, their hose undone so as to show their s.h.i.+rts, their heads uncovered, and list slippers on their feet, the seven persons marched in single file behind the town musicians, playing with all their might, and went after dinner to the Duke Henry of Brunswick's. Prince Frederick held in one hand a set of dice, and in the other a quant.i.ty of gold pieces; naturally the crowd ran with them, the foreigners foremost, Italians and Spaniards delighted to see "these sots of Germans" go by. The wine produced such a strong effect that Liegnitz, on entering the apartment of the duke, stumbled across the table, both hands foremost. There was only one dice left, and not a trace of the gold. He was unable to utter a syllable, and dropped on the floor. Four Brunswick gentlemen carried him to a bed on the story above. The emperor, it is said, was very angry at the Germans making such a show of themselves.