and told him what he had heard in the
stable, and counselled him to start and go home while it was yet day.
This my grandfather agreed to; he got up, took his little son, my
father, by the hand, and proceeded towards Ranzin. But when he came to
the coppice on the moor, which was overgrown with bushes and brambles,
and about half way between Ranzin and Gribow, the murderous villains
intercepted his path, trampled him down under their horses' hoofs, and
wounded him so badly that they thought he was dead. They were however
not satisfied therewith, but dragged him to a great stone, which even
now lies on the moor, chopped off his right hand, and so left him for
dead. But the boy, my father, had in the mean while crept along the
moor and hidden himself in some bushes on a grass hill, so that they
could not come near him with their horses, nor find him in the bushes,
as it began to be dark.

"The other peasants had ridden after the Hornes, to see what they had
done: they found the wounded man thus mangled, and fetched the boy from
the moor: one of these ran to Ranzin and brought quickly a cart and
horses, on which they placed the wounded man, who showed no signs of
life, except that on their arrival at Ranzin he gave a last gasp and
expired.

"The friends of the orphan boy, my father, sold the new house and
turned everything into money, so that they amassed altogether about two
thousand gulden. Few of the nobles at that period allowed their
subjects to possess so much. These friends did their best by the boy,
had him taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and sent him to
Antwerp, and afterwards to Amsterdam, that he might be fitted to become
a merchant. When, having attained a right age, he returned home and
took possession of his property, he bought at the corner of the high
street and Hundstrasse, directly opposite to the church of St.
Nicholas, two houses and two shops. One of the former he turned into a
dwelling-house, the other into a brewhouse, and one of the shops into a
gateway, whereon he expended much cost and labour. Now as people were
well pleased with his comely person, and he had good hopes of having a
sufficient maintenance, my mother's guardian and nearest relations
promised her to him in marriage.

"My mother was the daughter of Bartholomaeus Smiterlow, the brother of
the Herr Buergermeister Nicholaus Smiterlow; she was a truly pretty
woman, small and delicately formed, amiable and lively, free from
pr