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 Muehl 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 brewery. When they perceived that I was about to get
into the narrow lane, they al