to be well filled, the
provisions acquired might be paid for, but as a rule armies upon the
march lived by foraging. The cavalry swept in the flocks and herds
from the country round. Flour, forage, and everything else required was
seized wherever found, and the unhappy peasants and villagers thought
themselves lucky if they escaped with the loss of all they possessed,
without violence, insult, and ill treatment. The slightest resistance
to the exactions of the lawless foragers excited their fury, and
indiscriminate slaughter took place. The march of an army could be
followed by burned villages, demolished houses, crops destroyed, and
general ruin, havoc, and desolation.

In the cases of towns these generally escaped indiscriminate plunder by
sending deputies forward to meet advancing armies, when an offer would
be made to the general to supply so much food and to pay so much money
on condition that private property was respected. In these cases the
main body of the troops was generally encamped outside the town. Along
the routes frequently followed by armies the country became a desert,
the hapless people forsook their ruined homes, and took refuge in the
forests or in the heart of the hills, carrying with them their portable
property, and driving before them a cow or two and a few goats.

How great was the general slaughter and destruction may be judged by the
fact that the population of Germany decreased by half during the war,
and in Bohemia the slaughter was even greater. At the commencement of
the war the population of Bohemia consisted of 3,000,000 of people,
inhabiting 738 towns and 34,700 villages. At the end of the war there
were but 780,000 inhabitants, 230 towns, and 6000 villages. Thus three
out of four of the whole population had been slaughtered during the
struggle.

Malcolm was, with Lieutenant Farquhar, quartered upon one of the
principal burghers of New Brandenburg, and syndic of the weavers. He
received them cordially.

"I am glad," he said, "to entertain two Scottish officers, and, to speak
frankly, your presence will be of no slight advantage, for it is only
the houses where officers are quartered which can hope to escape from
the plunder and exactions of the soldiers. My wife and I will do our
best to make you comfortable, but we cannot entertain you as we could
have done before this war began, for trade is altogether ruined. None
have money wherewith to buy goods. Even when free from the prese