The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

honor. His successor, John Schmidt, was a famous
Latin scholar, and owed his appointment to the fact
of his being found reading a Greek poem in the
guard-house, to which he had been taken by the
soldiers.
The story of Andrew Pochmann, afterwards
superintendent, illustrates the life led in those
times, so full of deadly dangers, narrow escapes,
and marvelous interpositions, which strengthened
the belief of the men who experienced them in a
watchful Providence which protected them, while
millions were perishing around them. Pochmann
was an orphan, who had been carried off with two
brothers by the Croats. Escaping with his brothers
during the night, he found means of entering a
Latin school. Being a second time taken by the
soldiers, he was made quarter-master gunner. In the
garrison he continued his studies, and finding
among his comrades scholars from Paris and
London, he practiced with them the speaking of
Latin. Once, when sick, he lay down by the watchfire
with his powder-flask, containing a pound and
a half of powder, under his sleeve. As he lay, the
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