five in the afternoon
There was a burgher of the town who , seeing a boat coming near him , but out of his call , by the help of a speaking trumpet , told the soldiers in it he would give them 20,000 dollars to fetch him off . They rowed close to the shore , and got him with his wife and six children into the boat , but such throngs of people got about the boat that had like to have sunk her , so that the soldiers were fain to drive a great many out again by main force , and while they were doing this some of the enemies coming down the street desperately drove them all into the water . The boat , however , brought the burgher and his wife and children safe , and though they had not all that wealth about them , yet in jewels and money he gave them so much as made all the fellows very rich . I can not pretend to describe the cruelty of this day : the town by five in the afternoon was all in a flame ; the wealth consumed was inestimable , and a loss to the very conqueror . I think there was little or nothing left but the great church and about a hundred houses . This was a sad welcome into the army for me , and gave me a horror and aversion to the emperor 's people , as well as to his cause . I quitted the camp the third day after this execution , while the fire was hardly out in the city ; and from thence getting safe-conduct to pass into the Palatinate , I turned out of the road at a small village on the Elbe , called Emerfield , and by ways and towns I can give but small account of , having a boor for our guide , whom we could hardly understand , I arrived at Leipsic on the 17th of May .