The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

to pay 5,500 guldens of war indemnity. From 1627
to 1637, 29,595 guldens had been exacted of it.
The inhabitants dwindled away, and in a short
while the place became almost as deserted as the
wilderness. In 1636 there were only two married
couples in the village. In 1641, first Bannier, and
after him the French were quartered there in
winter; one half-acre was the whole extent of soil
cultivated, and the population amounted to just
four persons.
After the Peace of Westphalia, under the
fostering care of Duke Ernest, the pious sovereign
of Gotha, this as well as the other abandoned
villages were quickly re-populated, so that in 1650
there was held also in Dolstadt a festival in honor
of the peace. The morning of the 19th of August
was ushered in by the singing of hymns. At six
o'clock the bells were set a-ringing, and the whole
population of the place assembled before the
entrance of the village – the women grouped on
one side of the path, and the men on the other.
Before the females stood an allegorical figure of
Peace, dressed in a robe of green silk, crowned
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