Part 15 (1/2)
A small farmer had got his step-daughter with child. When the truth leaked out, the girl's mother moved heaven and earth to s.h.i.+eld her husband from the death penalty by flight. As for her daughter, her only child, to fling her upon the world in that condition was exposing her to disgrace, to starvation, and perhaps to everlasting punishment. At the request of some friends, I personally went to Wolgast and presented a pet.i.tion to be handed immediately to the prince. After considerable waiting, I saw him come out of his apartment. ”Why does this woman speak of her daughter and not of her husband?” he asked. ”Because he has taken flight,” I answered; ”besides, considering the heinousness of the crime, she is afraid that to mention him will not avail much.” ”You lawyers,” retorted his Highness, ”you have a way of presenting things, of polis.h.i.+ng and whitening the most atrocious and blackest horrors. It really requires some experience to determine whether your pet.i.tions are compatible either with law, equity, or religion. I am bound to remember that G.o.d has entrusted me with the punishment of gross and impious excesses. I shall not decide upon this case to-day, but think it over.”
These are the words of a just, but nevertheless merciful prince, and the pet.i.tioner had the proof of it.
Michael Hovisch, the son of poor peasants, had been brought up from his earliest years in town, put to school, and then into a business establishment. He succeeded in gaining the confidence of his employers, who sent him to Sweden and Denmark. Gradually he began to operate on his own account. Modest in behaviour, neat, and even elegant in appearance, he could aspire to a good match. Meanwhile Captain Dechow took it into his head to claim him for gratuitous and enforced seignorial labour. An old ducal farm had to be rebuilt. In vain did Hovisch offer a considerable sum instead. Dechow resolved to constrain him by imprisonment. He was a relentless despot, who tried to make himself conspicuous by oppressing the peasantry and, wherever it could be done, also the urban populations. Hovisch was compelled to take flight. At the request of some personages whom I was anxious to oblige, and being moreover strongly interested in the young fellow himself, I personally presented to Duke Philip a pet.i.tion in which the vexatious proceedings of the captain were set forth at length. I defy people to guess the prince's reply. Here it is: ”That my subjects load thee with b.u.t.ter, eggs, cheese, poultry, geese, sheep and the rest, is all very well, nay, perfect in its way,” he said. ”Take my word for it, though,”
he went on, ”that I can manage to govern them rightly enough with the a.s.sistance of my captain without your meddling.” I told Citzewitz plainly that if the oppressed were thus deprived of their right of humble pet.i.tion there was ”no saying” how things would end. ”Dechow,”
remarked Citzewitz, ”is an arbitrary, hasty brute, but he has managed to ingratiate himself with the duke. Fortunately, his Highness has been warned. I'll recur to the subject when I get an opportunity; there must be a change.” Dechow left Wolgast for Lubeck, where the people soon got tired of him. Michael Hovisch was never again heard of. It was the last time I took it into my head to present a pet.i.tion, and especially to wait for its answer.
To sum up, in the s.p.a.ce of two years, the occupation of procurator, and, above all, of notary, brought me eleven hundred and four and twenty crowns in hard cash.
_Magister_ J. Schoenefeld acted as notary in four cases before the court presided over by Dr. von Walde. Duke Philip was the plaintiff. As it happened, Schoenefeld was too old to proceed energetically; the going from ”pillar to post” frightened him; besides, people had become more exacting. He therefore decided upon handing his doc.u.ments over to me, and they contained several interesting items. The prince, for instance, summoned Lutke Maltzan to prove his right to the fiefs of Sarow, Gantzkendorf, and Carin. Maltzan declined, pleading prescription in virtue of thirty years' possession. The fiefs in question had belonged to Jacob Voss, nephew and ward of Berendt Maltzan, surnamed ”the Bad.” (Berckmann and other historians amply explain the reasons for the sobriquet.) The uncle having advanced two hundred or three hundred florins on the lands of his nephew, persuaded the latter to go to the war with a couple or so of horses. He made sure of never beholding him again. Jacob Voss, a model of honour and courage, distinguished himself in many a campaign, and the esteem in which he was held by all enabled him to borrow the necessary sum to redeem the paternal property. He gave notice to Berendt Maltzan of his intention to refund the money at the new year, and at the appointed time he arrived at his uncle's--a fortified domicile, most appropriate to his brigandage, rapine and exactions. For several days Maltzan loaded him with kindness, they drank together, played cards and diced; in short, honest Jacob Voss, instead of redeeming his lands, lost the borrowed money.
His despair and his thirst for vengeance prompted him to extreme measures, and with a servant expressly engaged for the purpose, he several times set fire to his former possessions. Thereupon his uncle enjoined his tenants to proceed to his nephew's capture. One Sunday Voss and his companion having fallen asleep in the wood near Gantzkendorf, which they intended to burn down that night, were discovered by a little dog of some peasants gathering nuts; and not later than the Monday following Berendt Maltzan had the son of his sister ”racked” alive. During the journey Jacob Voss apostrophized the tenants at labour by their names. ”Johannes, Peter, Nicholas,” he exclaimed, ”can you understand this horrible and ignominious death for claiming my own property?”
To come back to the suit of the prince against Maltzan. The judge sent the doc.u.ment to the faculty of law at Leipzig, which asked an honorarium of forty crowns. Its decision, the seal of which was broken in the presence of the parties as represented by their counsel and read there and then, concluded in favour of Maltzan, to the great vexation of the ducal advisers, Chancellor Citzewitz severely reprimanding Dr.
von Walde for not having opened the reply in order to amend it. An appeal was entered at the Imperial Chamber, and the case only ended several years after my establishment at Stralsund. The parties paid me more than one thousand crowns.
Towards 1542 a Dane said to Christopher von der Lanckin, of Rugen, that the willow bow-nets for the catching of fish in the Danish fas.h.i.+on would be more profitable to him than two big houses he had at Stralsund. In fact from the time two of those contrivances arrived, Christopher, who had been very hampered in money matters, settled his debts very quickly. Struck with the result, two notable burghers of Stralsund, namely councillor Conrad Oseborn and Olof Lorbeer, the son of the burgomaster, went into partners.h.i.+p with some of their kindred, and promptly exploited the invention. The new nets, though, in consequence of their size, obstructed the entrance to the streams; the fish no longer pa.s.sed, and it meant ruin to the inhabitants of the interior. There were protests on all sides. Duke Philip wrote to Stralsund; the council replied ironically that fish not being taken by hand, everybody was free to ply for it as he liked. An inquiry was set on foot, the prince prohibited the big bow-nets, and had those belonging to Lorbeer seized. Thereupon the whole gang began to shout that the liberties of the city were in peril, a galley was fitted out to guard the nets, and finally, Stralsund resorted to law.
If, in taking the succession of Schoenefeld, I had suspected my countrymen of being so unreasonable as they were in this instance, I should certainly have declined the brief, albeit that my presence counterbalanced the hostility of the inquiring magistrate. In his examination C. von der Lanckin stated loyally that from his point of view, the Danish bow-nets were excellent, inasmuch as they had enabled him to pay his debts, but that on his faith and honour of a gentleman the new contrivance would ruin the country. The deposition of the fishermen was very clear: ”Whosoever will rid us of those nets will no longer need to go to church or to say Paters. We ask for nothing else from heaven from morn till night.”
In spite of everything, Stralsund persisted in its wrong. Finally, on the opinion of counsel and the verdict of September 28, 1554, the duke gained his cause, and the city was condemned in costs. On the spur of the moment the council wanted to lodge an appeal, but it thought the better of it. The suit had lasted twelve years, and had bred between the two parties a feeling of misunderstanding which only vanished with the death of the prince. As there had been two hundred and fifty witnesses, the six hundred crowns I received in fees was, I take it, not an excessive remuneration.
CHAPTER III
The Greifswald Council appoints me the City's Secretary--Delicate Mission to Stralsund--Burgomaster Christopher Lorbeer and his Sons--Journey to Bergen--I settle at Stralsund
The Greifswald magistrates, who had the opportunity of seeing me daily at work, gradually arrived at the conclusion that I could not be altogether devoid of merit, considering that highly placed personages and even the prince himself entrusted me with important affairs.
Schoenefeld, being no longer up to the standard required, they offered me his charge on the condition of my completely relinquis.h.i.+ng my practice as procurator. In consequence of this, on December 29, 1554, I was appointed secretary to the city of Greifswald.
[Ill.u.s.tration: View of Stralsund. _From an old Print_.]
The first burgomaster of Stralsund, Christopher Lorbeer, had two sons, who spent their time in the chase, in the taverns, and at the brilliant receptions of the n.o.bility and of the opulent burgher cla.s.s. They took it for granted that they might do anything they liked, and operated with dogs and nets on Greifswald territory. It so happened, though, that several young n.o.bles and rich burghers of the latter town had excellent packs of hounds, and were, in consequence, often invited by the prince. As a matter of course, they objected to this poaching on the part of the Lorbeers. One day the two parties came face to face, and the att.i.tude of the Greifswald people caused the others to face about and to abandon their nets. As a balm to their wounded pride, the Lorbeers, lying in ambush at the inn at Testenhagen, a.s.sailed pistol in hand a carter from Greifswald, maltreated him, and finally carried off his best horse. The Greifswald council wrote to Stralsund in the most measured terms, as ought to be done among neighbours. The reply was supercilious, and couched in most intemperate terms. I was, therefore, instructed to draw up an appeal to the duke. The moment was unquestionably exceedingly well chosen, considering the behaviour of Stralsund in the matter of the bow-nets. And although the reports of that lawsuit were as yet not published, I was familiar with them, and had no difficulty in conceiving the irritation of the prince against the Lorbeers. I nevertheless disadvised having recourse to his intervention; I deemed it more prudent to go to Stralsund and discuss the matter.
The moment I had presented my credentials the Stralsund council met in solemn a.s.sembly. One of them received me most graciously, and introduced me. Burgomaster Lorbeer's polite anxiety to make room for me on the bench of the council showed to me his secret hope of seeing me betray the interests of my clients, and of metaphorically falling at his feet. After the usual civilities, I pointed out to the meeting the seriousness of the case, going fully into the facts in a firm and perhaps somewhat plain language, reminding them of the Imperial ”orders” with regard to the preservation of the public peace. Nor did I scruple to represent, as a good neighbour ought to have done, the danger of obstinacy, above all with a prince who was already more or less displeased.
I could read the exoneration for this bold speech on many a countenance, but Christopher Lorbeer and his staunch adherents, who were not accustomed to hear the truth to their faces, turned colour; their hitherto affable looks changed into scowls, and the burgomaster, beside himself with anger, rose and said: ”Thou art too eager to break thy first lance. I beg to submit that this man be strictly watched.”
”And clapped into gaol if necessary,” I retorted. Thereupon Lorbeer walked out, and I was dismissed without being reconducted as I had been introduced. In a little while, word was sent that the affair requiring further examination, the answer would be communicated later on. A couple of hours afterwards Dr. Gentzkow, the syndic, sent for me to come to the St. Nicholas' Church. ”I am obliged to admit,” he said, ”that your language was justified in law as in fact, but Master Christopher has taken mortal offence at it, inasmuch as he is not accustomed to have people adopt this tone with him, or to hear himself and his sons taxed with disturbing the public peace. He can do you a great deal of good or a great deal of harm. His influence, both in the city and in the country, is immense. In short, if the council have rightly interpreted your message, the Greifswald folk desire to terminate this affair in a friendly manner; very well, let us appoint a day at Reinberg to arrange matters as good neighbours should. I am asking you for your best endeavours to bring this about.”
The Stralsund people made their preparations for the day in question by slaughtering a great many birds and game, by roasting and boiling the same, and by broaching casks upon casks of beer and wine. Besides the princ.i.p.al burghers of the city related to them by blood and in thorough sympathy, the Lorbeers invited their friends from the neighbourhood, and their young boon companions, who appeared armed with pistols, arquebuses and spikes, so that the gathering looked more like a call to arms than like a friendly meeting. Consequently, some of the councillors and citizens of Stralsund secretly warned the people of Greifswald to send no one to the spot, and my father was particularly cautioned not to let me go, for that I should surely be killed. The Greifswald magistrates remained coy, and did not reply a word to the invitation; then, at the very hour of the invasion of Reinberg by the Lorbeer band, they wrote that if the horse were returned to them in three days they would return the nets sequestrated in just reprisal. If this were not done, the prince would be requested to dispense justice.
At the news of Greifswald's abstention from the quasi-festivities the Lorbeer camp broke into an avalanche of imprecations and threats. Wound up with drink, they swore that they would murder everybody.
Nevertheless, before the three days had expired, a stable-man brought back the horse, receiving in return the nets; and so there was an end of that disagreement.