tters, it was
difficult to avoid suspicion. In his fortified retreat, Luther found
out earlier than the Wittenbergers what was going on in the world
outside. He was informed of everything that happened at his
university, and tried to keep up the courage of his friends and direct
their policy. It is touching to see how he tried to strengthen
Melanchthon, whose unpractical nature made him feel painfully the
absence of his sturdy friend. "Things will get on without me," he
writes to him; "only have courage. I am no longer necessary to you. If
I get out, and I cannot return to Wittenberg, I shall go into the wide
world. You are men enough to hold the fortress of the Lord against the
Devil, without me." He dated his letters from the air, from Patmos,
from the desert, from "among the birds that sing merrily on the
branches and praise God with all their might from morning to night."
Once he tried to be crafty. He inclosed in a letter to Spalatin a
letter intended to deceive: "It was believed without reason that he
was at the Wartburg. He was living among faithful brethren. It was
surprising that no one had thought of Bohemia;" and then came a
thrust--not ill-tempered--at Duke George of Saxony, his most active
enemy. This letter Spalatin was to lose with well-planned carelessness
so that it should come into the hands of the enemy. But in this kind
of diplomacy he was certainly not logical, for as soon as his leonine
nature was aroused by some piece of news, he would determine
impulsively to start for Erfurt or Wittenberg. It was hard for him to
bear the inactivity of his life. He was treated with the greatest
attention by the governor of the castle, and this attention expressed
itself, as was the custom at that time, primarily in the shape of the
best care in the matter of food and drink. The rich living, the lack
of activity, and the fresh mountain air into which the theologian was
transported, had their effect upon soul and body. He had already
brought from Worms a physical infirmity, now there were added hours of
gloomy melancholy which made him unfit for work.

On two successive days he joined hunting parties, but his heart was
with the few hares and partridges which were driven into the net by
the troop of men and dogs. "Innocent creatures! The papists persecute
in the same way!" To save the life of a little hare he had wrapped him
in the sleeve of his coat. The dogs came and crushed the animal's
bones within the protecti