to counsel and aid us. And those proud lords, the citizens of Straspurk, came to us in the inn, and welcomed us honourably, and gave us fish and wine, and inquired after the health of the King of Bohemia, our gracious lord. And when Lord Albert Kostka spake with them and inquired which way we could travel safely into France, they told us, that we could not travel safely at all, which ever way we turned; but that, whether we went down the Rhine to Kolin (Cologne), or went up the Rhine, we should undoubtedly have a fight. So they told us, that, if we wished and it was agreeable to us, they would give us fifty or one hundred horsemen, to escort us through these dangerous passages to France or whithersoever we would. And thus it came to pass, that they gave us fifty well-armed horsemen on good horses, queer-looking Germans, twenty-eight of whom were
C
