_What further joy and sorrow befell us; item, how Wittich
Appelmann rode to Damerow to the wolf-hunt, and what he proposed
to my daughter._
The Lord blessed my parish wonderfully this winter, inasmuch as
not only a great quantity of fish were caught and sold in all the
villages, but in Coserow they even killed four seals; _item,_
the great storm of the 12th of December threw a goodly quantity of
amber on the shore, so that many found amber, although no very
large pieces, and they began to buy cows and sheep from Liepe and
other places, as I myself also bought two cows; _item,_ my
grain which I had sown, half on my own field and half on old
Paasch's, sprung up bravely and gladly, as the Lord had till
_datum_ bestowed on us an open winter; but so soon as it had
shot up a finger's length, we found it one morning again torn up
and ruined, and this time also by the devil's doings, since now,
as before, not the smallest trace of oxen or of horses was to be
seen in the field. May the righteous God, however, reward it, as
indeed He already has done. Amen.
Meanwhile, however, something uncommon happened. For one morning,
as I have heard, when Lord Wittich saw out of the window that the
daughter of his fisherman, a child of sixteen, whom he had
diligently pursued, went into the coppice to gather dry sticks, he
went thither too; wherefore, I will not say, but every one may
guess for himself. When he had gone some way along the convent
mound, and was come to the first bridge, where the mountain-ash
stands, he saw two wolves coming towards him; and as he had no
weapon with him, save a staff, he climbed up into a tree;
whereupon the wolves trotted round it, blinked at him with their
eyes, licked their lips, and at last jumped with their fore-paws
up against the tree, snapping at him; he then saw that one was a
he-wolf, a great fat brute with only one eye. Hereupon in his
fright he began to scream, and the long-suffering of God was again
shown to him, without, however, making him wiser; for the maiden,
who had crept behind a juniper-bush in the field, when she saw the
sheriff coming, ran back again to the castle and called together a
number of people, who came and drove away the wolves, and rescued
his lordship. He then ordered a great wolf-hunt to be held next
day in the convent wood, and he who brought the one-eyed monster,
dead or alive, was to have a barrel of beer for his pains. Still
they could not catch him, albeit they that day took four wolves in
their nets, and killed them. He therefore straightway ordered a
wolf-hunt to be held in my parish. But when the fellow came to
toll the bell for a wolf-hunt, he did not stop awhile, as is the
wont for wolf-hunts, but loudly rang the bell on, _sine
mord,_ so that all the folk thought a fire had broken out, and
ran screaming out of their houses. My child also came running out
(I myself had driven to visit a sick person at Zempin, seeing that
walking began to be wearisome to me, and that I could now afford
to be more at mine ease); but she had not stood long, and was
asking the reason of the ringing, when the sheriff himself, on his
grey charger, with three cart-loads of toils and nets following
him, galloped up and ordered the people straightway to go into the
forest and to drive the wolves with rattles. Hereupon he, with his
hunters and a few men whom he had picked out of the crowd, were to
ride on and spread the nets behind Damerow, seeing that the island
is wondrous narrow there, [Footnote: The space, which is
constantly diminishing, now scarcely measures a bow-shot across.]
and the wolf dreads the water. When he saw my daughter he turned
his horse round, chucked her under the chin, and graciously asked
her who she was, and whence she came? When he had heard it, he
said she was as fair as an angel, and that he had not known till
now that the parson here had so beauteous a girl. He then rode
off, looking round at her two or three times. At the first beating
they found the one-eyed wolf, who lay in the rushes near the
water. Hereat his lordship rejoiced greatly, and made the grooms
drag him out of the net with long iron hooks, and hold him there
for near an hour, while my lord slowly and cruelly tortured him to
death, laughing heartily the while, which is a _prognosticon_
of what he afterwards did with my poor child, for wolf or lamb is
all one to this villain. Just God! But I will not be beforehand
with my tale.
Next day came old Seden his squint-eyed wife, limping like a lame
dog, and put it to my daughter whether she would not go into the
service of the sheriff; praised him as a good and pious man; and
vowed that all the world said of him were foul lies, as she
herself could bear witness, seeing that she had lived in his
service for above ten years. _Item,_ she praised the good
cheer they had there, and the handsome beer-money that the great
lords who often lay there gave the servants which waited upon
them; that she herself had more than once received a rose-noble
from his princely Highness Duke Ernest Ludewig; moreover, many
pretty fellows came there, which might make her fortune, inasmuch
as she was a fair woman, and might take her choice of a husband;
whereas here in Coserow, where nobody ever came, she might wait
till she was old and ugly before she got a curch on her head, &c.
Hereat my daughter was beyond measure angered, and answered, "Ah!
thou old witch, and who has told thee that I wish to go into
service, to get a curch on my head? Go thy ways, and never enter
the house again, for I have naught to do with thee." Whereupon she
walked away again, muttering between her teeth.
Scarce had a few days passed, and I was standing in the chamber
with the glazier, who was putting in new windows, when I heard my
daughter scream in the kitchen. Whereupon I straightway ran in
thither, and was shocked and affrighted when I saw the sheriff
himself standing in the corner with his arm round my child her
neck; he, however, presently let her go, and said, "Aha, reverend
Abraham, what a coy little fool you have for a daughter! I wanted
to greet her with a kiss, as I always used to do, and she
struggled and cried out as if I had been some young fellow who had
stolen in upon her, whereas I might be her father twice over." As
I answered naught, he went on to say that he had done it to
encourage her, seeing that he desired to take her into his
service, as indeed I knew, with more excuses of the same kind
which I have forgot. Hereupon I pressed him to come into the room,
seeing that after all he was the ruler set over me by God, and
humbly asked what his lordship desired of me. Whereupon he
answered me graciously, that it was true he had just cause for
anger against me, seeing that I had preached at him before the
whole congregation, but that he was ready to forgive me and to
have the complaint he had sent in _contra_ me to his princely
Highness at Stettin, and which might easily cost me my place,
returned to him if I would but do his will. And when I asked what
his lordship's will might be, and excused myself as best I might
with regard to the sermon, he answered that he stood in great need
of a faithful housekeeper whom he could set over the other women
folk; and as he had learnt that my daughter was a faithful and
trustworthy person, he would that I should send her into his
service. "See there," said he to her, and pinched her cheek the
while. "I want to lead you to honour, though you are such a young
creature, and yet you cry out as if I were going to bring you to
dishonour. Fie upon you!" (My child still remembers all
this--_verbolenus_; I myself should have forgot it a hundred
times over in all the wretchedness I since underwent.) But she was
offended at his words, and, jumping up from her seat, she answered
shortly, "I thank your lordship for the honour, but will only keep
house for my papa, which is a better honour for me;" whereupon he
turned to me and asked what I said to that. I must own that I was
not a little affrighted, inasmuch as I thought of the future and
of the credit in which the sheriff stood with his princely
Highness. I therefore answered with all humility, that I could not
force my child, and that I loved to have her about me, seeing that
my dear huswife had departed this life during the heavy
pestilence, and I had no child but only her. That I hoped
therefore his lordship would not be displeased with me that I
could not send her into his lordship's service. This angered him
sore, and after disputing some time longer in vain he took leave,
not without threats that he would make me pay for it. _Item_,
my man, who was standing in the stable, heard him say as he went
round the corner, "I will have her yet, in spite of him!"
I was already quite disheartened by all this, when, on the Sunday
following, there came his huntsman Johannes Kurt, a tall, handsome
fellow, and smartly dressed. He brought a roebuck tied before him
on his horse, and said that his lordship had sent it to me for a
present, in hopes that I would think better of his offer, seeing
that he had been ever since seeking on all sides for a housekeeper
in vain. Moreover, that if I changed my mind about it his lordship
would speak for me to his princely Highness, so that the dotation
of Duke Philippus Julius should be paid to me out of the princely
_ærarium_ &c. But the young fellow got the same answer as his
master had done, and I desired him to take the roebuck away with
him again. But this he refused to do; and as I had by chance told
him at first that game was my favourite meat, he promised to
supply me with it abundantly, seeing that there was plenty of game
in the forest, and that he often went a-hunting on the
Streckelberg; moreover, that I (he meant my daughter) pleased him
uncommonly, the more because I would not do his master's will,
who, as he told me in confidence, would never leave any girl in
peace, and certainly would not let my damsel alone. Although I had
rejected his game, he brought it notwithstanding, and in the
course of three weeks he was sure to come four or five times, and
grew more and more sweet upon my daughter. He talked a vast deal
about his good place, and how he was in search of a good huswife,
whence we soon guessed what quarter the wind blew from.
_Ergo_, my daughter told him that if he was seeking for a
huswife she wondered that he lost his time in riding to Coserow to
no purpose, for that she knew of no huswife for him there, which
vexed him so sore that he never came again.
And now any one would think that the grapes were sour even for the
sheriff; nevertheless he came riding to us soon after, and without
more ado asked my daughter in marriage for his huntsman. Moreover,
he promised to build him a house of his own in the forest;
_item_, to give him pots and kettles, crockery, bedding, &c.,
seeing that he had stood godfather to the young fellow, who,
moreover, had ever borne himself well during seven years he had
been in his service. Hereupon my daughter answered that his
lordship had already heard that she would keep house for nobody
but her papa, and that she was still much too young to become a
huswife.
This, however, did not seem to anger him, but, after he had talked
a long time to no purpose, he took leave quite kindly, like a cat
which pretends to let a mouse go, and creeps behind the corners,
but she is not in earnest, and presently springs out upon it
again. For doubtless he saw that he had set to work stupidly;
wherefore he went away in order to begin his attack again after a
better fashion, and Satan went with him, as whilom with Judas
Iscariot,