It so befell that, tired and hungry, the Spaniard stopped at a hostelry; they laid the table for him, but at the sight of the earthenware he waxed indignant. "What's the meaning of this?" he bellowed. "Am I a nothing at all?" Thereupon he orders his servant to bring out his own silver. The landlord, who had ample time, in the kitchen, to look at it, recognized it from its description, sent for reinforcements, and his three customers were taken back to Rome. When interrogated, the Spaniard denounced the Jews as receivers; his money was taken from him, the silver was found at the Jews' houses, and they were immediately put under lock and key.
A great number of Jews dwell in Rome, practically confined to one long street, closed at both ends. Any one who should be imprudent enough to come out of that street during Passion week, commemorating, as it does, the martyrdom of Christ, would infallibly be murdered. When Easter is gone Jews are as secure as they were before; they go everywhere, and transact their business without being hampered or molested. The two receivers were the principal and the richest members of their tribe; thousands of crowns were offered for their ransom, but it was all in vain. The five criminals perished on the gallows, erected by the St. Angelo bridge, the Spaniard in the centre, a copper crown on his head, to single him out as king of the thieves.
In fact, no week went by without a hanging. I was an eye-witness of the following. The hangman was about to push a condemned man from the ladder, when a friendly voice in the crowd cried: "Messere Nicolao, confide in uno Dio!" to which the thief replied: "Messere, si." At the same moment he was hurled into space.
I have often seen the strappado given; among others, to priests guilty of having said more than one mass per day, a practice considered hurtful to the interest of their fellow-priests. A pulley is fixed to the coping of the roof; in the middle of the rope there is a stick which stops the rope running along the groove farther than that. The culprit, his hands tied behind his back, is attached to the one end of the rope, which is in the street. After that he is hoisted up and left to fall suddenly to within a yard of the ground. In that way the wrists pass over the head, and the shoulders are dislocated. After three hoistings he is unbound, taken into the house, where his limbs are set, an operation which the lictores perform with the greatest ease in virtue of their great practice. There are, however, patients who remain maimed all their lives; on the other hand, I have known a priest, who, in consideration of a Julius, consented to suffer those three turns.
I was beginning to think about my homeward journey, and felt greatly perplexed about it. The dog-days were drawing near, and Northern folk are unable to bear them in Italy. On the other hand, along the whole of my route war was raging, and the Welch soldiers are a hundred times greater devils than the Germans; though in Germany itself it would have been a difficult task to get through the lines of those formidable imperial cohorts, the savage bands of Bohemians, and, in fine, the Protestant army. Was I to prolong my stay in Rome? Wisdom said no. I remembered but too well Cardinal St. Flore remark about my brother, "Frustra eum admonui, ut non legeres libros suspectos." Moreover, my opinion on the Asylum of the Holy Spirit had scandalized Dr. Hoyer, and the provider of the St. Brigitta institute had exclaimed with an oath: "Profecto tu es Lutheranus." The Spanish Inquisition was acting with the utmost rigour; and inasmuch as the wine was excellent I was very nigh forgetting for a little while the prudent counsel of my former master, the commander of St. John. Consequently, after ripe reflection, full of trust in the Almighty, and also counting on the faithful company of Petrus, I told Dr. Hoyer of my impending departure. He considered it incumbent on him to point out the dangers of the journey, but perceiving that my mind was fully made up, he handed me my brother's property and gave me a letter for my father. I parted with the Swede bonâ cum veniâ, seeing that he gave me a crown for the six weeks I had served him.
I had told my friend Petrus that until my going I should confide to Dr. Hoyer the valuables the cardinal had restored to me. From that particular moment he talked about leaving Rome, especially as the enlisting had begun, and the mercenaries were almost immediately after their registration dispatched to Bologna. We finally fixed our departure for July 5. God, once more, took me under His wing. I had become acquainted with a companion of my own age, named Nicholas, the son of a tailor at Lubeck. He told me that after many years stay at Rome he wished to see his own country again, but that he had not the necessary money for the journey. If I did not mind paying his expenses on the road, he would reimburse them at Lubeck, and consider himself my debtor ever afterwards. I was really glad at his request, for I considered him a man of honour and most loyal. He was, moreover, thoroughly master of Italian, which I knew very badly. I therefore thanked Providence who sent me a comitem mente fideque parem.
On the eve of our departure I went to inform Petrus of the excellent news. He turned pale, grew low-spirited, and did not utter a syllable. I ascribed his coolness to something that had annoyed him, and told him that we should come for him very early in the morning. After a moment's hesitation he said "yes," and walked away. Next morning Nicholas and I, prepared and equipped for our journey, knocked at his door. Petrus lodged with poor people; he was a simple landsknecht, and, according to his landlady, he carried all his belongings on his back. The woman then told us that Petrus, after leaving us, had promptly enlisted and betaken himself off, from fear of his creditors and in spite of his promise to pay them all with the money he was shortly expecting. Let my children give praise to the Almighty who saved my life at the moment I was blindly going to trust it to the mercy of a vagrant mercenary. No doubt that, shortly after leaving the city, he would have killed me in some solitary spot, of which there is no lack in the neighbourhood of Rome. Not a soul would have troubled about what had become of me. The least he would have done to me was to rob me of everything I possessed before letting me go free, and, as I am ignorant of the language of the country, I cannot help shuddering at the thought of the fate that was in store for me.
And here I record, for the benefit of my children, the prediction of that sainted Doctor Martin Luther. "War," he had said, "will make Germany expiate her sins. It shall be staved off while I live, but the moment I am gone it will break out." Now, he went to sleep in the Lord on February 18 of this year (1546) at Eisleben, his natal town; and the historians have stated that the preparations for war commenced in February at the moment he fell ill. I myself had superabundant proofs in April of both the emperor and the pope arming on all sides; and it was at the beginning of June that the Cardinal of Trent reached Rome, dispatched by his Imperial Majesty to hurry the departure of the 10,000 Italian foot-soldiers and the 500 light horsemen.
[CHAPTER VII]
From Rome to Stralsund, by Viterbo, Florence, Mantua, Trent, Innspruck, Ratisbon and Nuremberg--Various adventures