d her so ill and so disfigured from being broken on the
wheel, and pinched with pistol screws, that she could hardly speak to
me; she made up her mind that she should die. So she desired me to seek
my wife and children whom the enemy had carried away with them. The
children were you, Michael, a year and a half, and your eldest sister,
five years old. I would gladly have eaten something at Heldburg, but
there was nothing either to eat or drink. I speeded therefore hungry
and terrified to Poppenhausen, not only to refresh myself there, but to
procure a messenger who would seek and recover my wife and children.
But I learnt there that the Poppenhausen children had also been carried
away, and that there were marching columns on many roads, so that the
life of a messenger would be in deadly peril. Meanwhile my parishioners
dressed a cow for me, which had escaped the soldiers; this I looked for
with a hungry stomach. So we had meat enough to eat, but without salt
and bread. After my repast I learned by post that my wife was come, and
thus it had come to pass. She had been taken with her two children, by
some musketeers, to Altenhausen, where, from fear of dishonour, she and
her children had sprung over the bridge into the water. From thence she
was drawn out by the soldiers, and brought into the village, where she
was made to help in the kitchen to prepare the supper. Meanwhile there
came another troop of soldiers who were higher in rank and more in
number, and drove the others from their quarters. My wife took this
opportunity to escape. She wended her way out, and left the two
children with the soldiers. A poor beggar-woman led her through secret
byways out of the village, and brought her to an old cave in a wood,
where she passed that night and remained the next day till evening. On
that day the people came forth from all quarters, and thus my wife set
out and came safe and unharmed to me, so that we were all joyful and
thankful to God.

"How murder and fire meanwhile had gone on at Heldburg, I will also
relate. The town of Heldburg had militia and trained bands, and it was
ordered that if the enemy came there, the city should be defended. For
it was always hoped that Duke Bernhard's people were not far distant,
and that the country would be relieved. When therefore the town was
fired, my honoured father-in-law, with many citizens and other folks,
hastened out of the town, and arrived in the night with my wife and two
chil