For one
year more people managed to live somehow or other, thrashing up what old
corn there was; the rich made money, for corn rose very high. Autumn
came. Where anybody had or purchased old seed, they sowed it; and
entreated the Lord, hoped in the love of God, if God would give
fertility, "if God would forgive our sins." But it was not so. They did
not obtain the love of God. When they cast the seed into the holy earth,
that was the last they saw of it; if it germinated somewhat, if it sent
up shoots, it withered away close to the ground. Woe! and abundance of
it! God's world went on, sorrowed and wept, for now it was manifest
that death by hunger was approaching. They somehow got miserably through
the winter. Spring came. Where anybody had still any grain, they sowed
it. What would come to pass? No blessing was poured forth, for the
thought began with wind. Moreover, there was but little snow in the
winter, and everything dried up so that the black earth remained as it
was. It now came to this--all the world began to perish! The people
died; the cattle perished; as misery carried them, so did the people
proceed.
There was at that time a powerful emperor in a certain empire: as the
young ordinarily cleave to the young, so would he associate only with
young men. Whether in council or in office or in the army, there were
none but young men; no old men had access to anything anywhere.
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