# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 01 09_S75
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

75

At last there came four or five of them with spears or partisans, and when they saw me standing in my priestly habit, and learned how I had come there, they demanded nothing of us, but said: We shall see whether you, priest, will stand firm; and so they went away. Since we now had nothing more in money, and nothing else besides, and moreover had to fear that such harassment would go on continually, we went out of the said chamber and large rooms, and climbed two flights of stairs up to the topmost loft in the same house, so that we could go no higher, and went into a chamber in which many made beds stood one after another. What fear, terror and mortal anguish we had and endured there for a considerable while, dear God knows, and we who had to pour out our hearts so hotly. In the meantime we had to hear a dreadful beating of drums, outcry, and the entering of many horses. In the house and beneath us everything was being hewn open with axes by force, in such fury and rage that one's hair stood on end, and the heart trembled and quaked. Our best comfort, next to God, in such anguish was this, that we still heard nothing but Germans speaking. In the meantime we prayed dear God that a colonel might be quartered there, with whom one could deal better than with the common soldiers, so we hoped it would go better with us. But we had to endure in patience. Until at last, when below and on the middle loft everything had been hewn open, they came up to us also; we soon placed ourselves before the stairs so that they might see us. Among the first band was one who had in his hand a great pointed pickaxe, with which he wanted to play upon my head. His comrade, however, restrained him, and said: What would you do, do you not see that he is a preacher? Then he let it be and went away. At last there comes a mad swashbuckler up the stairs, who had a pointed rapier in his hand; and as he takes the last step up, he struck me at once with it on the head and on the side of the forehead and said at the same time: Priest, give money! Now since I bled very much, so that my white priestly collar and my coat were full of blood, and the members of my household on that account behaved very badly, he set the pointed sword straight against the wife's body, so that I thought nothing else but that he would now run her through. But as I looked on, his arm became very crooked, so that he bent aside and thrust past.

Since I now bled very much, the fellow looked at me, and because we were so patient, it seemed to me that he pitied us; therefore I said: Ah, let me speak with you, I do not belong here in this house, but have been summoned to comfort the wounded patient down below, as he would have seen: he should come with us to our house, and we would give him what we still had. Thereupon he said: Well then, come, priest, give me your money, I will tell you the word: JEsus Maria is the word; if you say that, no soldier will do anything more to you, etc., for he could not speak German well. Thereupon my wife seized him firmly by the cloak, and so we went down the stairs into the court, supposing we had now fished well.

When we came upon the broad way, how many thousands of people we saw there, shouting and crying, riding and going. As we now went toward our church of St. Catharine, and on the way saw the dead bodies lying, behold, not far from there, a distinguished colonel was halting on a brown horse, who soon noticed us and said to our wretched comforter, the iron-eater: Fellow, fellow, deal fairly with these people, that it may be answerable. Woman, he said further, is that your house? Ah no, my lord Colonel. He said: Well then, take hold of my stirrup, take your husband by the hand and lead me to your house, you shall have quarters. To me, however, he said, as it were in a somewhat lower voice, beckoning with his hand: You gentlemen, you gentlemen, you might also well have done otherwise. But I did not know what was meant by that. In the meantime our soldier had taken to his heels, so that we did not know where he had gone, and the good rascal had to depart for this time from us with an empty purse, as we could easily do without him; nevertheless he left me a memorial, which I have to show as long as I shall live, by God's will. —

So we marched toward our house; as we now came before it, one was just going out who had thrown my wife's three fine skirts over his shoulder, and carried them off, had bought them at a fairly good bargain and given little ready money for them, but we kept silent. — Our colonel rode before the door, and said to those who were still inside: Out, out; whereupon they all had to come out. And to us he said: Now, woman, go in, bind up your husband until we get a surgeon, and told her also what she should take for it; no harm, he said, shall now befall you any more, I will have my quarters with you, set the house in order again. He placed us also forthwith, as a safeguard, two of his bodyguards, who were to watch us and let no more soldiers into the house. In the meantime the colonel rode away, with the promise that he would soon come again to us and see what we were doing, as indeed also happened. When in the meanwhile others came and wanted to enter the house, they were kept off by our guard, with the declaration that the Colonel, Sergeant-Major and Captain under the Savelli regiment had his quarters there, and they must admit no one; and although some made themselves very bold, asking whether that was right, Tilly had said: Three days of plundering, robbing, killing, etc., yet they had to stay out of the house, unless they asked once for a drink and then went away again. To our sentinels we set cold roast meat and a fresh can of good beer, which tasted to them very good, so that they said: It was a precious drink, we should keep it diligently for the Colonel, so that it might serve him well; we treated them kindly, as much as we could, and thanked God from the heart that He had sent us this colonel as an angel. Soon after this our guards said: Well, what do we get by it, we can make no booty, because we must guard you. We pacified them, and each one was presented with two rose-nobles; with that they were also quite content, and said: If we perhaps had still a good friend, we should have him fetched, there was now no danger for us.

Soon afterward our colonel came riding again and asked whether we also still had good peace, and when we answered Yes, he said: Be of good cheer, I will just ride a little way and see whether an order can be made to check the fire somewhat. But he had hardly ridden out of the lane upon the broad way when he came back in haste and said: Woman, take my horse by the bridle, and your husband by the hand, and lead me out of the city, or we must all burn in the fire. For the fire was gaining the upper hand mightily, so that even the great and beautiful house of the Lord Burgomaster Georgius Schmidt was already burning in bright flames, and behind our church on the broad way one saw a great and black smoke ascending, so that in our garden a sack was already smoldering from the great heat, which we put into the water and quenched. —

Thereupon we threw everything that was still at hand into the cellar, among it my fine warm sheepskin, which would have done me much good afterward if I had taken it with me, also my dear daily Bible, etc. But it was not possible for me to carry anything: we shut the cellar, and shoveled a little earth upon the door. My wife took one of my priestly coats on her shoulder, my maid, however, the child of my godfather and neighbor Joachim Kröger, which was standing before the door and would otherwise have been burned in the fire, on her arm, and so we went away. My wife had to lead the colonel's horse by the bridle, and since all the gates were standing in full fire, we went toward the fishers' bank, where we then saw on the way how St. Peter's and St. John's parishes were already burning in bright flames, which I had indeed not thought; and so we had to pass through many thousands of soldiers, where on the way many dead bodies lay. And because the Croats and other rabble saw that I was a preacher, they wanted continually to shoot at me, hew and stab, so that our colonel had enough to do to defend us. But his servants surrounded us, so that we got through as far as the high rampart, where they had come running up with the scaling ladders; there we had to go down, so that one might have grown dizzy at it, but it availed nothing, we had to go down. On the way we saw indeed some acquaintances, but could not speak with them, for it was not the time. But when we went through their camp, we had to hear much blasphemy, scorn and mockery from the sol-