bed, helped to draw off his boots, bound up a wound in his ancle, and wished him good night. The next morning he was by no means so friendly as he had been, and gave me to understand, with a cross look, that he must be paid for his protection. I represented the impossibility of giving him any thing, on which he demanded an additional ration of oats for his horse, and rode sullenly away. I afterwards found he had taken with him the cap I had given him to sleep in-the only one I had left-together with other things.

I now followed the example of some of my neighbouring brethren, and in order not to be recognised as the clergyman, I dressed myself in peasants' clothes; for from that time we were again daily visited by the French, as in the preceding autumn. In this manner we passed about three sorrowful weeks, when one day, at noon, six dragoons came riding at full speed into the village, with drawn swords, demanding, with the greatest violence and the most dreadful menaces, a sum of money which it was impossible to raise ; and on its not being immediately produced they struck right and left with their sabres, and rode about the village like madmen. Every one had hidden himself, with the exception of a few peasants, who were with the magistrate. My wife had fled with the children into the fields, and I found a retreat in the church-loft, from whence

I could perceive, unobserved, but not without painful sympathy, how the monsters smote the poor defenceless peasants with their sabres. At length, after two hours had elapsed, they went off with sixteen dollars; and the inhabitants, who had concealed themselves amongst the corn and in the hedges and ditches, timidly reappeared.

The following day, at one o'clock-consequently before we had recovered from the terrors of the day preceding-another half-dozen of these terrible fellows came galloping into the village with drawn swords, and a dreadful uproar. All the inhabitants again sought their hiding-places. My own family were scattered one here and another there, without knowing where the rest were. A countryman, who happened to be with me at the time, and two of my children, went with me into the loft above the church. These tyrants behaved in a still more frightful manner than their comrades had done, for they not only struck with the flat sides of their swords, but wounded several whom they caught with the edges, so that bleeding faces were seen in different directions: at length not an inhabitant of the village was visible, and a dead silence reigned. They now made an attack upon several houses, violently burst open the doors, and stole whatever they pleased, or could pack upon their horses. The turn soon

came to the parsonage, from whence they dragged out whatever they were able to tie up and carry away. I beheld all this quietly from the churchloft ;-God had answered my prayer, and I could not have felt more indifferent had the things they took from my house belonged to my worst enemy. After remaining full half an hour in my house, and packing their plunder upon their horses, I thought they would then have ridden off, but all at once I heard them making a great hubbub at the church-door. My distress was now at its height: I fell on my knees, and entreated the Lord not to let me fall into the hands of these barbarians. This petition was heard; for after they had burst open the door, looked about them for a few minutes in the church, and found nothing, they left it, mounted their horses, and rode away with their booty.

But what a sight presented itself as I entered my home! there lay bedding, chairs, tables, utensils, &c. all on a heap. My wife had hidden herself with her child of two years and a-half old in a ditch in the wood, and returned to the plundered and desolated house completely wet through; the rest of the children gradually made their appearance, and we all stood there, looking with grief on the devastation that had been committed, weeping together, in order that we might thus give vent to our oppressed hearts.

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The very same evening complaint was made at the French head-quarters in Wiesbaden: respecting this affair, but we obtained, alas! only French relief; for the next day six hussars arrived, with orders from the commanding officer to range twice every day through all the places in the neighbourhood of Wiesbaden, in order to discover the plunderers. These hussars determined what they would have to eat and drink, and drew up a bill of fare, which might have served for as many generals. Whatever could be brought together was procured for them; but after they had finished their dinner, each of them demanded, in addition, a sheep ready killed, and a sack of corn. The case was the same the second day, when the patrole came round once more; and if it had continued thus, we had resolved to have applied again to the commanding officer, to relieve us from the aid intended for our safety, but, happily, they did not return on the third day, and the former also kept away, although we were still daily visited by the enemy: but even if they had come, we should no longer have sought help against them, for experience teaches prudence.

Till the month of September, when these oppressions had an end, numberless scenes of the kind occurred, which, in order to avoid being too prolix, I pass over. It was, generally speaking, a time of trial I shall never forget a season of tribulation of which it was literally true, that

“sufficient for the day was the evil thereof—” but also a period of suffering abundantly useful to my soul, because it drove me to the word of God and prayer, and united me more closely with God and my Saviour, whilst, at the same time, it led me still deeper into my natural corruption. The Bible now became an inexhaustible source of blessing, scarcely ever absent from my hands. Ah! what boundless and powerful consolation did my heart receive, especially from the songs of David! How was my spirit animated to bless and praise my divine Redeemer in the midst of affliction, being now acquainted with its wise and gracious intention! It is indeed no vision of the imagination to awake out of the sleep of sin, to arise from the dead, be enlightened by Christ, (Eph. v. 14,) and stand in closer union with God by faith in Christ Jesus. It is a blissful foretaste of heaven, for the sake of which we ought gladly to sacrifice and cast away every thing of an earthly nature. All my former self-complacent works, which I regarded as virtues acceptable in the sight of God, and estimated so highly, appeared to me very different after an insight had been granted into my inner man, even as a filthy rag," or, as Paul says, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, and esteem them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having on my own righteousness,

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