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Page 23
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
cartloads 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 green sward,
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 Peenem�nde), 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
green sward, 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 fore-feet 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 high 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 haec_" 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 patriae libera regna meae;
Tunc meliora student nostrae tibi carmina musae,
Tunc tua, maxime rex, Martia facta canam.
Tu modo versiculis ne spernas vilibus ausum
Auguror et res est ista futura brevi!
Sis foelix, fortisque diu, vive optime princeps,
Omnia, et ut possis vincere, dura. Vale!
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 tuce pulchritudim! et si favente
Deo redux fuero victor, promissum carmen et praeterea duo oscula
exspecto_."
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