_Of the arrival of the high and mighty King Gustavus Adolphus,
and what befell thereat._
Meanwhile I finished my _carmen_ in _metrum elegiacum_,
which my daughter transcribed (seeing that her handwriting is
fairer than mine) and diligently learned, so that she might say it
to his Majesty. _Item_, her clothes were gotten ready, and
became her purely; and on Monday she went up to the Streckelberg,
although the heat was such that the crows gasped on the hedges:
for she wanted to gather flowers for a garland she designed to
wear, and which was also to be blue and yellow. Towards evening
she came home with her apron filled with all manner of flowers;
but her hair was quite wet, and hung all matted about her
shoulders. (My God, my God, was everything to come together to
destroy me, wretched man that I am!) I asked, therefore, where she
had been that her hair was so wet and matted; whereupon she
answered that she had gathered flowers round the Kölpin,
[Footnote: a small lake near the sea.] and from thence she had
gone down to the sea-shore, where she had bathed in the sea,
seeing that it was very hot and no one could see her. Thus, said
she, jesting, she should appear before his Majesty to-morrow
doubly a clean maid. This displeased me at the time, and I looked
grave, although I said naught.
Next morning at six o'clock all the people were already at the
Giant's Stone, men, women, and children. _Summa_, everybody
that was able to walk was there. At eight o'clock my daughter was
already dressed in all her bravery, namely, a blue silken gown,
with a yellow apron and kerchief, and a yellow hair-net, with a
garland of blue and yellow flowers round her head. It was not long
before my young lord arrived, finely dressed as became a nobleman.
He wanted to inquire, as he said, by which road I should go up to
the Stone with my daughter, seeing that his father, Hans von
Nienkerken, _item_, Wittich Appelmann, and the Lepels of
Gnitze, were also going, and that there was much people on all the
high roads, as though a fair was being held. But I straightway
perceived that all he wanted was to see my daughter, inasmuch as
he presently occupied himself about her, and began chattering with
her in the Latin again. He made her repeat to him the
_carmen_ to his Majesty; whereupon he, in the person of the
king, answered her, "_Dulcissima et venustissima puella, quæ
mihi in coloribus cli, ut angelus Domini appares, utinam semper
mecum esses, nunquam mihi male caderei_;" whereupon she grew
red, as likewise did I, but from vexation, as may be easily
guessed. I therefore begged that his lordship would but go forward
toward the Stone, seeing that my daughter had yet to help me on
with my surplice; whereupon, however, he answered, that he would
wait for us the while in the chamber, and that we might then go
together. _Summa_: I blessed myself from this young lord; but
what could I do? As he would not go, I was forced to wink at it
all: and before long we went up to the Stone, where I straightway
chose three sturdy fellows from the crowd, and sent them up the
steeple that they might begin to ring the bells as soon as they
should see me get up upon the Stone and wave my napkin. This they
promised to do, and straightway departed; whereupon I sat down on
the Stone with my daughter, thinking that the young lord would
surely stand apart, as became his dignity; albeit he did not, but
sat down with us on the Stone. And we three sat there all alone,
and all the folk looked at us, but none drew near to see my
child's fine clothes, not even the young lasses, as is their wont
to do; but this I did not observe till afterwards, when I heard
how matters stood with us even then. Towards nine o'clock, Hans
von Nienkerken and Wittich Appelmann galloped up, and old
Nienkerken called to his son in an angry voice; and seeing that
the young lord heard him not, he rode up to the Stone, and cried
out so loud that all the folk might hear, "Can'st thou not
hearken, boy, when thy father calls thee?" Whereupon Rüdiger
followed him in much displeasure, and we saw from a distance how
the old lord seemed to threaten his son, and spat out before him;
but knew not what this might signify: we were to learn it soon
enough, though, more's the pity! Soon after the two Lepels of
Gnitze [Footnote: a peninsula in Usedom] came from the Damerow;
and the noblemen saluted one another on the green sward close
beside us, but without looking on us. And I heard the Lepels say
that naught could yet be seen of his Majesty, but that the
coast-guard fleet around Ruden was in motion, and that several
hundred ships were sailing this way. As soon as this news was
known, all the folk ran to the sea-shore (which is but a step from
the Stone); and the noblemen rode thither too, all save Wittich,
who had dismounted, and who, when he saw that I sent old Paasch
his boy up into a tall oak-tree to look out for the king,
straightway busied himself about my daughter again, who now sat
all alone upon the Stone: "Why had she not taken his huntsman? and
whether she would not change her mind on the matter and have him
now, or else come into service with him (the sheriff) himself? for
that if she would not, he believed she might be sorry for it one
day." Whereupon she answered him (as she told me), that there was
but one thing she was sorry for, namely, that his lordship would
take so much useless pains upon her; whereupon she rose with all
haste and came to where I stood under the tree, looking after the
lad who was climbing up it. But our old Ilse said that he swore a
great curse when my daughter turned her back upon him, and went
straightway into the alder-grove close by the high road, where
stood the old witch Lizzie Kolken.
Meanwhile I went with my daughter to the sea-shore and found it
quite true that the whole fleet was sailing over from Ruden and
Oie towards Wollin, and several ships passed so close before us
that we could see the soldiers standing upon them and the flashing
of their arms. _Item_, we heard the horses neigh and the
soldiery laugh. On one ship, too, they were drumming, and on
another cattle lowed and sheep bleated. Whilst we yet gazed we saw
smoke come out from one of the ships, followed by a great noise,
and presently we were aware of the ball bounding over the water,
which foamed and splashed on either side, and coming straight
towards us. Hereupon the crowd ran away on every side with loud
cries, and we plainly heard the soldiery in the ships laugh
thereat. But the ball flew up and struck into the midst of an oak
hard by Paasch his boy, so that nearly two cart-loads of boughs
fell to the earth with a great crash, and covered all the road by
which his Majesty was to come. Hereupon the boy would stop no
longer in the tree, however much I exhorted him thereto, but cried
out to us as he came down that a great troop of soldiers was
marching out of the forest by Damerow, and that likely enough the
king was among them. Hereupon the sheriff ordered the road to be
cleared forthwith, and this was some time a-doing, seeing that the
thick boughs were stuck fast in the trees all around; the nobles,
as soon as all was made ready, would have ridden to meet his
Majesty, but stayed still on the little greensward, because we
already heard the noise of horses, carriages, and voices close to
us in the forest.
It was not long before the cannons broke through the brushwood
with the three guides seated upon them. And seeing that one of
them was known to me (it was Stoffer Krauthahn, of Peenemünde), I
drew near and begged him that he would tell me when the king
should come. But he answered that he was going forward with the
cannon to Coserow, and that I was only to watch for a tall dark
man, with a hat and feather and a gold chain round his neck, for
that that was the king, and that he rode next after the great
standard whereon was a yellow lion.
Wherefore I narrowly watched the procession as it wound out of the
forest. And next after the artillery came the Finnish and Lapland
bowmen, who went clothed all in furs, although it was now the
height of summer, whereat I greatly wondered. After these there
came much people, but I know not what they were. Presently I
espied over the hazel-tree which stood in my way, so that I could
not see everything as soon as it came forth out of the coppice,
the great flag with the lion on it, and, behind that, the head of
a very dark man with a golden chain round his neck, whereupon
straightway I judged this must be the king. I therefore waved my
napkin toward the steeple, whereupon the bells forthwith rang out,
and while the dark man rode nearer to us, I pulled off my
skull-cap, fell upon my knees, and led the Ambrosian hymn of
praise, and all the people plucked their hats from their heads and
knelt down on the ground all around singing after me; men, women,
and children, save only the nobles, who stood still on the
greensward, and did not take off their hats and behave with
attention until they saw that his Majesty drew in his horse. (It
was a coal-black charger, and stopped with its two forefeet right
upon my field, which I took as a sign of good fortune.) When we
had finished, the sheriff quickly got off his horse, and would
have approached the king with his three guides who followed after
him; _item_, I had taken my child by the hand, and would also
have drawn near to the king. Howbeit, his Majesty motioned away
the sheriff and beckoned us to approach, whereupon I wished his
Majesty joy in the Latin tongue, and extolled his magnanimous
heart, seeing that he had deigned to visit German ground for the
protection and aid of poor persecuted Christendom; and praised it
as a sign from God that such had happened on this the highest
festival of our poor Church, and I prayed his Majesty graciously
to receive what my daughter desired to present to him; whereupon
his Majesty looked on her and smiled pleasantly. Such gracious
bearing made her bold again, albeit she trembled visibly just
before, and she reached him a blue and yellow wreath whereon lay
the _carmen_, saying, "_Accipe hanc vilem coronam et
hæc_," whereupon she began to recite the _carmen_.
Meanwhile his Majesty grew more and more gracious, looking now on
her and now on the _carmen_, and nodded with especial
kindness towards the end, which was as follows:--
"Tempus erit, quo tu reversus ab hostibus ultor
Intrabis patriæ libera regna meæ;
Tune meliora student nostræ tibi carmina musæ,
Tunc tua, maxime rex, Martia facta canam.
Tu modo versiculis ne spernas vilibus ausum
Auguror et res est ista futura brevi!
Sis flix, fortisque diu, vive optlme princeps,
Omnia, et ut possis vincere, dura. Vale!"
[Footnote:
Thou shall return chastier of the foe,
To the freed kingdoms of my native land!
Then shall our song with loftier cadence flow,
Boasting the deeds of thy heroic hand!
Scorn not, meanwhile, the feeble lines which thus
Thy future glory and success foretell.
Live, prince beloved! be brave, be prosperous;
Conquer, howe'er opposed,--and fare thee well!]
As soon as she held her peace his Majesty said, "_Propius
accedas, patria virgo, ut te osculer_;" whereupon she drew near
to his horse, blushing deeply. I thought he would only have kissed
her forehead, as potentates commonly use to do; but not at all, he
kissed her lips with a loud smack, and the long feathers on his
hat drooped over her neck, so that I was quite afraid for her
again. But he soon raised up his head, and taking off his gold
chain, whereon dangled his own effigy, he hung it round my child's
neck with these words, "_Hocce tuæ pulchritudini! et si favente
Deo redux fuero victor, promissum carmen et præterea duo oscula
exspecto_."
Hereupon the sheriff, with his three men, again came forward and
bowed down to the ground before his Majesty. But as he knew no
Latin, _item_, no Italian nor French, I had to act as
interpreter. For his Majesty inquired how far it was to Swine, and
whether there was still much foreign soldiery there? And the
sheriff thought there were still about 200 Croats in the camp.
Whereupon his Majesty spurred on his horse, and, nodding
graciously, cried "_Valete_!" And now came the rest of the
troops, about 3000 strong, out of the coppice, which likewise had
a valiant bearing, and attempted no fooleries, as troops are wont
to do, when they passed by us and the women, but marched on in
honest quietness, and we followed the train until the forest
beyond Coserow, where we commended it to the care of the Almighty,
and every one went on his way home.