Part 10 (1/2)
It would be a mistake to conclude that Prince Frederick's education had been neglected, for only a few days beforehand, though he had also been drinking, I was quite surprised at the many stories of the Old Testament he narrated without quoting the sacred text; he even applied some of them very ingenuously to his own situation. Certainly there can be nothing surpa.s.sing a careful education, provided the Holy Spirit guides the young man when he becomes responsible for his own acts; that is what we ought to pray for to the Almighty.
As for the consequences of drunkenness, that inexhaustible fount of many sins, the Duke von Liegnitz was a terrible example of them. One night when he could no longer find some one in the humour to ”keep up with him,” he came to my door, trying to beguile me out of my bed. I finally told him that to sit drinking at such an hour was beyond my strength, and that I humbly begged his Serene Highness to husband both our healths. He resigned himself, though reluctantly, to take ”no” for an answer. I took good care not to open.
After a fortnight's stay, the emperor left Nuremberg. Duke Frederick was so matutinal on the day of departure that on arriving about six o'clock at the Imperial residence, he was told the emperor had been gone for at least two hours. Not daring to follow the sovereign, he merely sent two counsellors to Augsburg.
I had bought at Nuremberg a handsome rapier which I wore with a Spanish belt. One morning after breakfast, being alone, I fell asleep in my chair. When I awoke I found that a skilful thief had cleverly unfastened it and carried it away. I bought another weapon, and when I had settled my bill, saddled my horse and made for Augsburg, where I landed three days before the emperor.
Prince Frederick went back to his own country with his suite; he never improved. Two students were returning to their homes; _en route_ they breakfast at Liegnitz, and feeling jovial and gay they started singing.
The duke, who was in his cups, was annoyed at the noise, had them apprehended, conducted outside the town, and beheaded. Next morning, before recommencing his libations, he took a ride with some of his counsellors in the direction of the place of execution. At the sight of the blood he begins to ask questions, and is informed that the executed men are the two students he sentenced the previous day. ”What had they done?” he asked in the greatest surprise.
At the end of one of his orgies he ordered his counsellors to lock him up in prison on bread and water. If they disobeyed him they would answer with their heads. The dungeon already held several occupants.
His Highness was taken to it, and the gaoler received the strictest instructions. When the fumes of his wine had vanished, the duke, in a livelier mood, conversed for a while with the other prisoners; then he shouted to the warder to let him out. ”I am too strictly forbidden to do so,” was the answer. He, nevertheless, went to inform the counsellors; the latter delayed for three days, during which time the prince left not a moment respite to the turnkeys. Finally, the counsellors came themselves; they heard his shouting and his supplications, but they remembered his threat to have their heads off, and they knew that on that subject he did not jest. He had to rea.s.sure them over and over again before he was allowed to go free.
Three years later the same prince journeyed to Stettin for no other purpose than to have a drinking bout with some of the courtiers. At the news of his coming, Duke Barnim went away with everybody except the women. At his arrival the visitor found neither the duke nor any gentlemen of the least standing, and at the castle they sent him into the town to a house a.s.signed to him as his quarters. An old man lay dying there, and they naturally expected that this would shorten Liegnitz's visit. The very opposite happened. The prince comfortably settled himself at the dying man's bedside, recited pa.s.sages from the Scriptures to him until his last moment, and closed his eyes when the breath was out of him. The collector Valentin presenting himself, poor box in hand, the duke dropped a few crowns into it; after this, he sent for mourning cloth for two cloaks, one for himself, one for Valentin, with whom, he said, he wished to accompany the corpse to the cemetery.
The d.u.c.h.ess, however, would not hear of this. He was therefore quartered in the castle, just above the chancellerie, and opposite the women's quarters, so that they could converse from one window to another. I had been to the kitchen. As I was crossing the courtyard, the duke, pa.s.sing his head out of the window and making a speaking trumpet of his hands, shouted with all his might to me: ”Hi-there!” I knew him from Nuremberg, and was consequently familiar with the manner of treating him, so I answered: ”h.e.l.lo!” at which he was delighted.
”What a nice fellow,” he cried. ”For heaven's sake, come up; we'll keep each other company, and try to enliven each other.” I thanked him humbly and continued my way.
Duke Barnim's absence being somewhat prolonged, his guest Liegnitz had eventually to think about going. The princely presents of the d.u.c.h.ess made him comfortable for some time. Health, welfare, country, were all ruined by his roystering conduct. When drink had killed him, his wife, a d.u.c.h.ess of Mecklenburg, saw herself and her children reduced to the direst privation. She had to inform not only her equals, but the magistrates of Stralsund of her distress, and to declare herself unable to bring up her son according to his rank. She merely asked for slight help, scarcely more than alms. The council of Stralsund sent her a few crowns by one of the messengers she dispatched in all directions.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Diet of Augsburg. _From an old Engraving_.]
CHAPTER II
A Twelve Months' Stay at Augsburg during the Diet--Something about the Emperor and Princes--Sebastian Vogelsberg--Concerning the Interim--Journey to Cologne
On July 27, 1547, I dismounted at an inn in the wine market at Augsburg. The host was a person of consideration, and endowed with good sense; he was a master of one of the corporations. The latter had administered the city's affairs for more than a century. During a similar number of years the corporations of Nuremberg had ceded their power in that respect to the patricians. The Augsburg corporations, being Evangelicals, had sided against the emperor; consequently His Imperial Majesty proposed to exclude them at the forthcoming Diet from the government, in favour of the aristocracy, which had remained faithful to the ancient faith.
I took two rooms (each with an alcove, or sleeping closet, attached to it), of which the host had no need for his travelling patrons. The amba.s.sadors settled in one; the other was set apart for their administration, which was composed of Jacob Citzewitz, chancellor; two secretaries of Duke Barnim, and myself. I sold my horse with its equipment, which was not worth much. I took what I could get for it; fodder was very dear, and the animal was no longer of the least use to me.
The emperor and his army arrived at the end of July. The landgrave remained behind at Donauwerth, under the guard of a Spanish detachment, while the elector, brought to Augsburg, took up his quarters with the Welsers, two houses away from the Imperial residence, and on the other side of a kind of alley by the side of my inn. A pa.s.sage made between these two houses by means of a bridge thrown over the alley provided communication between the apartments of his Imperial Majesty and those of the elector. The captive prince had his own kitchens. His chancellor, Von Monkwitz, was always near him; he was served by his own attendants, so that the Spaniards had no pretext to enter his room or his sleeping closet. The Duke of Alva and other gentlemen of the Imperial suite constantly kept him company; the time was spent in pleasant conversations and equally agreeable recreations. They had arranged a list for the jousts in the courtyard of the dwelling, which was as superb a mansion as any royal one. The elector went out on horseback to the beautiful sites and spots of the town, namely, the various gardens, cultivated with much art. He had been very fond from his youth of swordplay, and while he remained well and active he indulged in all kinds of martial exercise. They therefore left him to superintend the a.s.saults at arms, but he did not stir without an escort of Spanish soldiers. He was left free to read what he pleased, except in the latter days, namely, after his refusal to accept the Interim.
At Donauwerth, on the other hand, the landgrave had a guard even in his own apartment. If he looked out of the window two Spaniards craned their necks by his side. Drums and fifes told him of the guard coming on duty and of the guard that was being relieved. Armed sentries watched in the prisoner's room; they were relieved once during the night, and when those coming on duty entered the room, the others, when the shrill music had ceased, drew the curtains of the bed aside, saying: ”We commit him to your care. Keep a good watch.” The emperor's words to the landgrave, ”I'll teach you to laugh,” were not an empty threat.
Before retiring to rest, his Imperial Majesty, to the terror of many, had a gibbet erected in front of the town hall; by the side of the gibbet, the strapado, and, facing it, a scaffold at about an ordinary man's height from the ground. This was intended to hold the rack, and the beheading, the strangulating, the quartering, and kindred operations were to be carried out on it.
The emperor had sent to Spain for his secretary, a grandee, it will be seen directly, who stood high in his favour. As the said secretary sailed down the Elbe, coming from Torgau, a faithful subject of the captive elector hid himself in a wood on the bank of the stream. He was a skilful arquebusier, and when the craft was well within range, he fired a shot. They brought the emperor a corpse. The mortal remains of the secretary were taken to Spain in a handsome coffin; the murderer fled across Hungary in the direction of Turkey, but active pursuit resulted in his capture, and he was dispatched to Augsburg. He was driven in an open cart from St. Ulrich to the town hall, by way of the wine market. Hence, the elector had the extreme annoyance of seeing him pa.s.s under his windows. The condemned man had between his knees a pole, to which his right hand was tied as high as possible. In the midst of the drive, the sword severed the wrist from the arm; hemorrhage was prevented by dressing the wound, and the hand was nailed to a post put up in the street for the purpose. In front of the town hall the poor wretch was taken from the cart and was put on the rack.
The landsknechten quartered at Augsburg had not received their pay for several months. It was to come out of the fines imposed upon the landgrave and the towns. The rumour ran that the fines had been paid, but that the Duke of Alva had lost the money gaming with the elector, so that the troops were still waiting.
In the thick of all this, a number of soldiers made their way into the rooms of the ensigns, carrying off three standards, unfurling them, and marching in battle array to the wine market. Near the spot where the arquebusier had had his hand severed from his wrist, a proud Spaniard, impelled by the mad hope of securing the Imperial favour by rendering his name for ever glorious, flung himself into the advancing ranks and tried to get hold of a standard; behind it, however, marched three men with big swords, and one of these split the intruder in two just as he would have split a turnip. ”_Qui amat periculum, peribit in eo_.” Thus it is written.
Roused to great excitement by the coming of the column, the Spanish soldiers promptly occupied the streets adjoining the market. The elector was transferred to the Imperial quarters, lest he should be carried off. The population were getting afraid of being pillaged in case the idea of paying themselves should present itself to the landsknechten. The tradesmen were more uneasy than the rest, for in expectation of the coming Diet their shops were crammed with precious wares, rich silk stuffs, golden and silvern objects, diamonds and pearls. There was an indescribable tumult to the accompaniment of cries and people foregathering in knots, though most of them barricaded themselves in their houses and armed themselves with pikes, muskets, or anything they could lay hands on. In short, as Sleidan expresses it, ”the day bade fair to be spent in armed alarm.”
The emperor sent to ask the mercenaries what they wanted. ”Money or blood,” replied the arquebusiers, their weapons reposing on the left arm, the lighted match in their right hands, and dangerously near the vent-hole. His Imperial Majesty promised them their arrears within twenty-four hours, but before dispersing they claimed impunity for what they had done, which demand the emperor granted. Next day they received their pay and were disbanded at the same time.
Now for the end of the adventure. Secret orders were given to accompany the ringleaders on their road, and at the first offensive remark on their part with regard to the emperor to call in armed a.s.sistance, and to bring them back to Augsburg. As a consequence, at the end of two or three days, some of the firebrands, having their wallets well-lined and sitting round frequently re-filled flagons at the inn, began to hold forth without more reserve than if they were on the territory of Prester John. The last thought in their minds was about informers being among them. ”We'll give him soldiers for nothing--this Charles of Ghent![48] May the quartan fever get hold of him. We'll teach him how to behave. May the lightning blast him,” and so forth. Not for long though. The words had scarcely left their lips than they were seized, taken to Augsburg, and hanged in front of the town hall, each with a little flag fluttering from the tab of their small clothes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: An Execution at the Time of the Reformation. _From a Drawing by_ Lucas Cranach.]