When we at length

us with great riches, any one may guess. got up off our knees, my child would straightway have run to tell the maid our joyful news. But I forbade her, seeing that we could not be sure that the maid might not tell it again to her friends, albeit in all other things she was a faithful woman, and feared God; but that if she did that, the Sheriff would be sure to hear of it, and to seize upon our treasure for his Princely Highness the Duke, that is to say, for himself; and that naught would be left to us but the sight thereof, and our want would begin all over again; that we therefore would say, when folks asked about the luck that had befallen us, that my deceased brother, who was a councillor at Rotterdam, had left us a good lump of money; and indeed it was true that I had inherited near 200 florins from him a year ago, which, however, the soldiery (as mentioned above) cruelly robbed me of; item, that I would go to Wolgast myself next day, and sell the little bits as best I might, saying that thou hadst picked them up by the seaside; thou mayst tell the maid the same, if thou wilt, but show the larger pieces to no one, and I will send them to thy uncle at Hamburg, to be turned into money for us; perchance I may be able to sell one of them at Wolgast, if I find occasion, so as to buy clothes enough for the winter, for thee and for me, wherefore thou, too, mayst go with me. We will take the few farthings which the congregation have brought together, to pay the ferry, and thou canst order the maid to wait for us till eventide at the water-side to carry home the victuals. She agreed to all this, but said we had better first break off some more amber, so that we might get a good round sum for it at Hamburg; and I thought so too, wherefore we stopped at home next day, seeing that we did not want for food, and that my child, as well as myself, both wished to refresh ourselves a little before we set out on our journey; item, we likewise bethought us that old Master Rothoog, of Loddin, who is a cabinet-maker, might knock together a little box for us, to put the amber in, wherefore I sent the maid to him in the afternoon. Meanwhile we ourselves went up the Streckelberg, where I cut a young fir-tree with my pocket-knife, which I had saved from the enemy, and shaped it like a spade, so that I might be better able to dig deep therewith. First, however, we looked about us well on the mountain, and seeing nobody, my daughter walked on to the

place, which she straightway found again. Great God! what a mass of amber was there! The vein was hard upon twenty feet long, as near as I could feel, and the depth of it I could not sound. Nevertheless, save four good-sized pieces, none, however, so big as those of yesterday, we this day only broke out little splinters, such as the apothecaries bruise for incense. After we

had most carefully covered and smoothed over the place, a great mishap was very near befalling us; for we met Witthan her little girl, who was seeking blackberries, and she asked what my daughter carried in her apron, who straightway grew red, and stammered so that our secret would have been betrayed if I had not presently said, "What is that to thee? she has got fir-apples, for firing," which the child believed. Wherefore we resolved in future only to go up the mountain at night by moonlight, and we went home and got there before the maid, and hid our treasure in the bedstead, so that she should not see it.

CHAPTER X.

How we journeyed to Wolgast, and made good barter there.

Two days after, so says my daughter, but old Ilse thinks it was three (and I myself know not which is true), we at last went to the town, seeing that Master Rothoog had not got the box ready before. My daughter covered it over with a piece of my departed wife her wedding gown, which the Imperialists had indeed torn to pieces, but as they had left it lying outside, the wind had blown it into the orchard, where we found it. It was very shabby before, otherwise I doubt not they would have carried it off with them. On account of the box we took old Ilse with us, who had to carry it, and as amber is very light ware she readily believed that the box held nothing but eatables. At daybreak, then, we took our staves in our hands, and set out with God. Near Zitze,* a hare ran across the road before us, which they say bodes no good. Well-a-day!-When we came near Bannemin I asked a fellow if it was true that here a mother had slaughtered her own child, from hunger, as I had heard. He said it was, and that the old woman's name was Zisse; but that God had been wrath at such a horrid deed, and she had got no good by it, seeing that she vomited so much upon eating it, that she forthwith gave up the ghost. On the whole he thought things were already going rather better with the parish, as Almighty God had richly blessed them with fish, both out of the sea and the Achterwater. Nevertheless a great number of people had died of hunger here also. He told us that their vicar, his reverence Johannes Lampius,† had had his house burnt down by the Imperialists, and was lying in a hovel near the church. I sent him my greeting, desiring that he would soon come to visit me (which the fellow promised he would take care to deliver to

* A village half way between Coserow and Wolgast, now called Zinnowitz. The present parish archives contain several short and incomplete notices of his sufferings during these dreadful wars.

him), for the reverend Johannes is a pious and learned man has also composed sundry Latin Chronosticha on these wret times, in metrum heroicum, which, I must say, please me great When we had crossed the ferry we went in at Sehms his ho on the Castle green, who keeps an ale-house; he told us that pestilence had not yet altogether ceased in the town; where was much afraid, more especially as he described to us so n other horrors and miseries of these fearful times, both here in other places, e. g. of the great famine in the island of Rü where a number of people had grown as black as Moors f hunger; a wondrous thing if it be true, and one might alr gather therefrom how the first blackamoors came about.† be that as it may. Summa. When Master Sehms had tol all the news he had heard, and we had thus learnt to our g comfort that the Lord had not visited us only in these time: heavy need, I called him aside into a chamber and asked whether I could not here find means to get money for a piece amber, which my daughter had found by the sea. At first said "No;" but then recollecting, he began, "Stay, let see, at Nicolas Graeke's, the inn at the castle, there are great Dutch merchants, Dieterich von Pehnen and Jacob Kie busch, who are come to buy pitch and boards, item timber ships and beams; perchance they may like to cheapen y amber too; but you had better go up to the castle yourself, fo do not know for certain whether they still are there." Th did, although I had not yet eaten anything in the man's ho seeing that I wanted to know first what sort of bargain I mi make, and to save the farthings belonging to the church u then. So I went into the castle-yard. Gracious God! wha desert had even his Princely Highness' house become, withi *The old vicar has introduced them among the still-existing paroch accounts, and we will here give a specimen of them :

For 1620.

Vsqve qvo Do MIne IrasCerIs, sIs nobis pater!

For 1628.

InqVe tVa DeXtra fer operaM tV ChrIste benIgne!

Micrælius, also, in his Ancient Pomerania' (vol. lxxi. 2), mentions t circumstance, but only says:-"Those who came over to Stralsund w quite black from the hunger they had suffered." This accounts for strange exaggeration of mine host, and the still stranger conclusion of author.

short time! The Danes had ruined the stables and hunting-lodge, Anno 1628; item, destroyed several rooms in the castle; and in the locamentum of his Princely Highness Duke Philippus, where, Anno 22, he so graciously entertained me and my child, as will be told further on, now dwelt the inn-keeper Nicolas Graeke; and all the fair tapestries, whereon was represented the pilgrimage to Jerusalem of his Princely Highness Bogislaus X., were torn down, and the walls left gray and bare.* At this sight my heart was sorely grieved; but I presently enquired for the merchants, who sat at the table drinking their parting cup, with their travelling equipments already lying by them, seeing that they were just going to set out on their way to Stettin; straightway one of them jumped up from his liquor, a little fellow with a right noble paunch, and a black plaster on his nose, and asked me what I would of them? I took him aside into a window, and told him I had some fine amber, if he had a mind to buy it of me, which he straightway agreed to do. And when he had whispered somewhat into the ear of his fellow, he began to look very pleasant, and reached me the pitcher before we went to my inn. I drank to him right heartily, seeing that, as I have already said, I was still fasting, so that I felt my very heart warmed by it in an instant. (Gracious God, what can go beyond a good draught of wine taken within measure!) After this we went to my inn, and told the maid to carry the box on one side into a small chamber. I had scarce opened it and taken away the gown, when the man (whose name was Dieterich von Pehnen, as he had told me by the way), held up both hands for joy, and said he had never seen such wealth of amber, and how had I come by it? I answered that my child had found it on the sea shore; whereat he wondered greatly that we had so much amber here, and offered me 300 florins for the whole box. I was quite beside myself for joy at such an offer, but took care not to let him see it, and bargained with him till I got 500 florins, and I was to go with him to the Castle, and

*

Compare Heller's Chronicle of the Town of Wolgast,' p. 42, et cet. The riots were caused by the successor of Philippus Julius (d. 6 Feb. 1625), who was also the last Duke of Pomerania, Bogislaus XIV., choosing to reside in Stettin. At the present time the castle is a mere ruin, and only several large vaulted cellars remain, wherein some of the tradesmen of the present day keep their shops.