_How old Seden disappeared all on a sudden--Item, how the great
Gustavus Adolphus came to Pomeranla, and took the fort at
Peenemünde._
We were now left for some time in peace from witchcraft; unless,
indeed, I reckon the caterpillars, which miserably destroyed my
orchard, and which truly were a strange thing. For the trees
blossomed so fair and sweetly, that one day as we were walking
under them, and praising the almighty power of the most merciful
God, my child said, "If the Lord goes on to bless us so
abundantly, it will be Christmas Eve with us every night of next
winter!" But things soon fell out far otherwise. For all in a
moment the trees were covered with such swarms of caterpillars
(great and small, and of every shape and colour), that one might
have measured them by the bushel; and before long my poor trees
looked like brooms; and the blessed fruit, which was so well set,
all fell off, and was scarce good enough for the pigs. I do not
choose to lay this to any one, though I had my own private
thoughts upon the matter, and have them yet. However, my barley,
whereof I had sown about three bushels out on the common, shot up
bravely. On my field I had sown nothing, seeing that I dreaded the
malice of Satan. Neither was corn at all plentiful throughout the
parish, in part because they had sown no winter crops, and in part
because the summer crops did not prosper. However, in all the
villages a great supply of fish was caught by the mercy of God,
especially herring; but they were very low in price. Moreover,
they killed many seals; and at Whitsuntide I myself killed one as
I walked by the sea with my daughter. The creature lay on a rock
close to the water, snoring like a Christian. Thereupon I pulled
off my shoes and drew near him softly, so that he heard me not,
and then struck him over his nose with my staff (for a seal cannot
bear much on his nose), so that he tumbled over into the water;
but he was quite stunned, and I could easily kill him outright. It
was a fat beast, though not very large; and we melted forty pots
of train-oil out of his fat, which we put by for a winter store.
Meanwhile, however, something seized old Seden all at once, so
that he wished to receive the Holy Sacrament. When I went to him,
he could give no reason for it; or perhaps he would give none for
fear of his old Lizzie, who was always watching him with her
squinting eyes, and would not leave the room. However, Zuter his
little girl, a child near twelve years old, said that a few days
before, while she was plucking grass for the cattle under the
garden hedge by the road, she heard the husband and wife
quarrelling violently again, and that the goodman threw in her
teeth that he now knew of a certainty that she had a familiar
spirit, and that he would straightway go and tell it to the
priest. Albeit this is only a child's tale, it may be true for all
that, seeing that children and fools, they say, speak the truth.
But be that as it may. _Summa:_ my old warden grew worse and
worse; and though I visited him every morning and evening, as I
use to do to my sick, in order to pray with him, and often
observed that he had somewhat on his mind, nevertheless he could
not disburthen himself of it, seeing that old Lizzie never left
her post.
This went on for a while, when at last one day about noon, he sent
to beg me to scrape a little silver off the new sacramental cup,
because he had been told that he should get better if he took it
mixed with the dung of fowls. For some time I would not consent,
seeing that I straightway suspected that there was some devilish
mischief behind it; but he begged and prayed, till I did as he
would have me.
And lo and behold, he mended from that very hour, so that when I
went to pray with him at evening, I found him already sitting on
the bench with a bowl between his knees, out of which he was
supping broth. However, he would not pray (which was strange,
seeing that he used to pray so gladly, and often could not wait
patiently for my coming, insomuch that he sent after me two or
three times if I was not at hand, or elsewhere employed), but he
told me he had prayed already, and that he would give me the cock,
whose dung he had taken, for my trouble, as it was a fine large
cock, and he had nothing better to offer for my Sunday's dinner.
And as the poultry was by this time gone to roost, he went up to
the perch which was behind the stove, and reached down the cock,
and put it under the arm of the maid, who was just come to call me
away.
Not for all the world, however, would I have eaten the cock, but I
turned it out to breed. I went to him once more and asked whether
I should give thanks to the Lord next Sunday for his recovery;
whereupon he answered that I might do as I pleased in the matter.
Hereat I shook my head, and left the house, resolving to send for
him as soon as ever I should hear that his old Lizzie was from
home (for she often went to fetch flax to spin from the sheriff).
But mark what befell within a few days! We heard an outcry that
old Seden was missing, and that no one could tell what had become
of him. His wife thought he had gone up into the Streckelberg,
whereupon the accursed witch ran howling to our house and asked my
daughter whether she had not seen anything of her goodman, seeing
that she went up the mountain every day. My daughter said she had
not; but, woe is me, she was soon to hear enough of him. For one
morning, before sunrise, as she came down into the wood on her way
back from her forbidden digging after amber, she heard a
woodpecker (which, no doubt, was old Lizzie herself), crying so
dolefully, close beside her, that she went in among the bushes to
see what was the matter. There was the woodpecker, sitting on the
ground before a bunch of hair, which was red, and just like what
old Seden's had been, and as soon as it espied her it flew up with
its beak full of the hair, and slipped into a hollow tree. While
my daughter still stood looking at this devil's work, up came old
Paasch, who also had heard the cries of the woodpecker, as he was
cutting roofing shingles on the mountain, with his boy, and was
likewise struck with horror when he saw the hair on the ground. At
first they thought a wolf must have eaten him, and searched all
about, but could not find a single bone. On looking up they
fancied they saw something red at the very top of the tree, so
they made the boy climb up, and he forthwith cried out that here,
too, there was a great bunch of red hair, stuck to some leaves as
if with pitch, but that it was not pitch, but something speckled
red and white, like fish-guts; _item_, that the leaves all
around, even where there was no hair, were stained and spotted,
and had a very ill smell. Hereupon the lad, at his master's
bidding, threw down the clotted branch, and they two below
straightway judged that this was the hair and brains of old Seden,
and that the devil had carried him off bodily, because he would
not pray nor give thanks to the Lord for his recovery. I myself
believed the same, and told it on the Sunday as a warning to the
congregation. But further on it will be seen that the Lord had yet
greater cause for giving him into the hands of Satan, inasmuch as
he had been talked over by his wicked wife to renounce his Maker,
in the hopes of getting better. Now, however, this devil's whore
did as if her heart was broken, tearing out her red hair by whole
handfuls when she heard about the woodpecker from my child and old
Paasch, and bewailing that she was now a poor widow, and who was
to take care of her for the future, &c.
Meanwhile we celebrated on this barren shore, as best we could and
might, together with the whole Protestant Church, the 25th day
_mensis Junii_, whereon, one hundred years ago, the Estates
of the Holy Roman Empire laid their confession before the most
high and mighty Emperor Carolus V., at Augsburg; and I preached a
sermon on Matt. x. 32, of the right confession of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, whereupon the whole congregation came to the
Sacrament. Now towards the evening of the self-same day, as I
walked with my daughter by the sea-shore, we saw several hundred
sail of ships, both great and small, round about Ruden, and
plainly heard firing, whereupon we judged forthwith that this must
be the most high and mighty king Gustavus Adolphus, who was now
coming, as he had promised, to the aid of poor persecuted
Christendom. While we were still debating a boat sailed towards us
from Oie, [Footnote: Ruden and Oie, two small islands between
Usedom and Rügen.] wherein was Kate Berow her son, who is a farmer
there, and was coming to see his old mother. The same told us that
it really was the king, who had this morning run before Ruden with
his fleet from Rügen; that a few men of Oie were fishing there at
the time, and saw how he went ashore with his officers, and
straightway bared his head and fell upon his knees. [Footnote: See
also the _Theatrum Europeum_, p. 226 fl.]
Thus, then, most gracious God, did I Thy unworthy servant enjoy a
still greater happiness and delight that blessed evening than I
had done on the blessed morn; and any one may think that I delayed
not for a moment to fall on my knees with my child, and to follow
the example of the king; and God knows I never in my life prayed
so fervently as that evening, whereon the Lord showed such a
wondrous sign upon us as to cause the deliverer of His poor
Christian people to come among them on the very day when they had
everywhere called upon Him, on their knees, for His gracious help
against the murderous wiles of the Pope and the devil. That night
I could not sleep for joy, but went quite early in the morning to
Damerow, where something had befallen Vithe his boy. I supposed
that he, too, was bewitched; but this time it was not witchcraft,
seeing that the boy had eaten something unwholesome in the forest.
He could not tell what kind of berries they were, but the
_malum_, which turned all his skin bright scarlet, soon
passed over. As I therefore was returning home shortly after, I
met a messenger from Peenemünde, whom his Majesty the high and
mighty king Gustavus Adolphus had sent to tell the sheriff that on
the 29th of June, at ten o'clock in the morning, he was to send
three guides to meet his Majesty at Coserow, and to guide him
through the woods to Swine, where the Imperialists were encamped.
_Item_, he related how his Majesty had taken the fort at
Peenemünde yesterday (doubtless the cause of the firing we heard
last evening), and that the Imperialists had run away as fast as
they could, and played the bush-ranger properly, for after setting
their camp on fire they all fled into the woods and coppices, and
part escaped to Wolgast and part to Swine.
Straightway I resolved in my joy to invent a _carmen
gratulatorium_ to his Majesty, whom, by the grace of Almighty
God, I was to see, the which my little daughter might present to
him. I accordingly proposed it to her as soon as I got home, and
she straightway fell on my neck for joy, and then began to dance
about the room. But when she had considered a little, she thought
her clothes were not good enough to wear before his Majesty, and
that I should buy her a blue silk gown, with a yellow apron,
seeing that these were the Swedish colours, and would please his
Majesty right well. For a long time I would not, seeing that I
hate this kind of pride; but she teased me with her kisses and
coaxing words, till I, like an old fool, said yes, and ordered my
ploughman to drive her over to Wolgast to-day to buy the stuff.
Wherefore I think that the just God, who hateth the proud and
showeth mercy on the humble, did rightly chastise me for such
pride. For I myself felt a sinful pleasure when she came back with
two women who were to help her to sew, and laid the stuff before
me. Next day she set to work at sunrise to sew, and I composed my
_carmen_ the while. I had not got very far in it when the
young Lord Rüdiger of Nienkerken came riding up, in order, as he
said, to inquire whether his Majesty were indeed going to march
through Coserow. And when I told him all I knew of the matter,
_item_, informed him of our plan, he praised it exceedingly,
and instructed my daughter (who looked more kindly upon him to-day
than I altogether liked) how the Swedes use to pronounce the
Latin, as _ratscho_ pro _ratio_, _uet_ pro
_ut_, _schis_ pro _scis_ &c., so that she might be
able to answer his Majesty with all due readiness. He said,
moreover, that he had held much converse with Swedes at
Wittenberg, as well as at Griepswald, wherefore if she pleased
they might act a short _colloquium_, wherein he would play
the king. Hereupon he sat down on the bench before her, and they
both began chattering together, which vexed me sore, especially
when I saw that she made but small haste with her needle the
while. But say, dear reader, what was I to do?--Wherefore I went
my ways, and let them chatter till near noon, when the young lord
at last took leave. But he promised to come again on Tuesday when
the king was here, and believed that the whole island would flock
together at Coserow. As soon as he was gone, seeing that my
_vena poetica_ (as may be easily guessed) was still stopped
up, I had the horses put to and drove all over the parish,
exhorting the people in every village to be at the Giant's Stone
by Coserow at nine o'clock on Tuesday, and that they were all to
fall on their knees as soon as they should see the king coming and
that I knelt down; _item_, to join at once in singing the
Ambrosian hymn of praise, which I should lead off as soon as the
bells began to ring. This they all promised to do; and after I had
again exhorted them to it on Sunday in church, and prayed to the
Lord for his Majesty out of the fulness of my heart, we scarce
could await the blessed Tuesday for joyful impatience.