saddles were emptied, and some that fell were crushed under the horses’ hoofs. Then came Jump-i’-th’-field leaping down the ravine and crying, “Huntsman here!” At this the fellows were yet more terrified and so dismayed that they would ride neither backward, forward nor sideways, but leapt down and tried to escape on foot. Yet I had them all seventeen prisoners with the lieutenant that had commanded them, and then attacked the wagons, where I unharnessed four-and-twenty horses, and yet got only a few bales of silk and holland: for I dared not spare the time to plunder the dead, far less to search the wagons well, for the wagoners were up and away on the horses as soon as the action began, and so might I be betrayed at Dorsten, and caught again on the way back. So when we had packed up our plunder comes Jupiter from the wood and cried to us, “Would his Ganymede desert him?” I answered him, yes, if he would not grant the fleas the privilege they demanded. “Sooner,” says he, “would I see them all lying in hellfires.” At that I must needs laugh, and because in any case I had horses to spare I had him set on one: yet as he could ride no better than a tailor, I must have him bound upon his horse: and then he told us our skirmish had reminded him of that of the Lapithae and the centaurs at Pirithous’ wedding. So when all was over and we galloping away with our prisoners as if we were pursued, the lieutenant we had captured began to consider what a fault he had committed, as having delivered so bold a troop of riders into the hand of the enemy and given over thirteen brave fellows to be butchered, and so, being desperate, he refused the quarter I had given him, and would fain have compelled me to have him shot; for he thought that not only would this mistake turn to his great shame, and he be answerable, but also would hinder his advancement, even if it came not to this, that he must pay for his error with his head. So I talked with him and showed him that with many a good soldier inconstant fortune had played her tricks; yet had I never seen anyone that therefore had been driven desperate, and that so to act were a sign of faintheartedness: for brave soldiers were ever devising how to make up for losses sustained; nor should he ever bring me to break my plighted word or to commit so shameful a deed against all righteousness and against the custom and tradition of honourable soldiers. When he saw I would not do it he began to revile me in the hope to move me to anger, and said I had not fought with him honestly and openly, but like a rogue and a footpad, and had stolen the lives of his soldiers like a thief: and at this his own fellows that we had captured were mightily afraid, and mine so wroth that they would have riddled him like a sieve if I had allowed it; and I had enough to do to prevent it. Yet I was in no wise moved at his talk, but called both friend and foe to witness of what happened, and had him bound and guarded as a madman, but promised him so soon as we came to our camp, and if my officers permitted, to equip him with mine own horses and weapons, of which he should have the choice, and prove to him in open field, with sword and pistol, that ’twas allowed in war to use craft against the adversary: and asked him why he had not stayed with the wagons, which he was ordered to do; or, if he must needs see what was in the wood, why he had not made a proper reconnaissance, which had been better for him than now to begin to play fool’s tricks to which no one would take heed. Herein both friend and foe approved me right, and said that among a hundred partisans they had never met one that would not for such words of reviling have not only shot the lieutenant dead, but would have sent all the prisoners to the grave after him.
So next morning I brought my prisoners and plunder safely to Soest, and gained more honour and fame from this foray than ever before: for each one said, “This will prove another young John de Werth”;22 which tickled me greatly. Yet would not the commandant permit me to exchange shots or to fight with the lieutenant: for he said I had twice overcome him. And the more my triumphs thus increased the more grew the envy of those that in any case would have grudged me my luck.
VIII
How He Found the Devil in the Trough, and How Jump-I’-Th’-Field Got Fine Horses
Now I could by no means be rid of my Jupiter: for the commandant would have none of him, as a pigeon not worth the plucking, but said he made me a free gift of him. So now I had a fool of mine own and needed to buy none, though a year before I must needs allow others to treat me as such. So wondrous is fortune and so changeable the times! Even now had the lice troubled me, and now had I the very god of fleas in my power; half a year before was I serving a miserable dragoon as page, and now I had command of two servants that called me master; and so I reflected at times that nothing is so certain in this world as its uncertainty. And so must I fear if ever Fortune should let loose her hornets upon me it would altogether overwhelm my present happiness.
Now just then Count von der Wahl, as colonel in command of
