complain that Germany is ungrateful, that it drives you
away with violence, that the good deeds, done with God's power by
Joshua, are forgotten, the alliance no longer thought of, in short,
that you are less valued, like an old worn-out horse, or decrepit
hound, both of which, when no longer useful, get such thanks as the
world gives. Thus you are treated with great injustice before God and
the world.

"Be of good comfort: there are many remaining who wish you well from
their heart, who pray for you, and show their devotion to you in every
possible way. A country where such people are to be found cannot be
accused of ingratitude; and that there are yet many thousand such
people, even your enemies know right well. But that selfishness, secret
envy, hidden counsels, and clandestine negotiations are stirred up
against you, must not be ascribed to the whole of this praiseworthy
German nation, but only to the causes which have led to such results;
for you have on your part shown a double amount of selfishness.

"In the first place, in raising at your pleasure the toll on the
Baltic; for I have been told by honest trustworthy seafaring folk, that
you have exacted from people, not only from fifteen to thirty, but up
to forty, nay, even to fifty out of a hundred, and have troubled all
hearts by this rapacity; and as no improvement has taken place, but
commerce has been thereby miserably straitened, and many honest people
have been lamentably brought to beggary, the minds of men being thereby
much embittered, your best friends began at first to condemn you
secretly, and at last through their falling fortunes were made your
worst enemies. Would you throw the blame on the toll gatherers? They
are your servants. It is a well-known rule of law: what I do by my
servant is as though done by myself. You appear to me exactly like him
who carried off a pair of shoes secretly and offered them afterwards to
the holy Benno.

"The states and cities of the Empire, so long as they were in your
hands, contributed fully and sufficiently to your maintenance; many,
nay too many, to say the least of it, as a proof of their fidelity,
have lost soul and body, wealth and life, nay all their privileges,
and, in a great measure, religion itself. Ratisbon testifies to this.
Augsburg laments over it. All grieve together over it. You have allowed
the old regiments to dissolve, have completed no companies, nor paid
either new or old, notwithstanding you