The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

show with much interest the retreats where their
wretched forefathers sought refuge from the fury of
the soldiery. The peasant always came back to his
village -- too commonly to find it only a ruin; but
his attachment to the spot set him eagerly to work
to rebuild his overturned habitation, and sow the
little seed he had saved in the down-trodden soil.
He had been robbed of his horse, it may be, but he
would harness himself to the plough, and obeying
the force of habit, would continue the processes of
tilling and sowing, though he had but small hopes
of reaping. The little left him he was careful to
conceal, and strove to look even poorer than he
was. He taught himself to live amid dirt and
squalor and apparent poverty, and he even
extinguished, the fire on his hearth, lest its light,
shining through the casement, should attract to his
dwelling any straggler who might be on the
outlook for a comfortable lodging for the night.
"His scanty food he concealed in places from
which even the ruthless enemy turned away in
horror, such as graves, coffins, and amongst
skulls."[2]
50