 Chapter 1 of Anne of Geyerstein or The Maiden of the Mist, Volume 2 by Sir Walter Scott. This is a LibriVox recording. Our LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Dionne Giants, Salt Lake City, Utah. What, Oslar, a plague on thee, Hast never an eye in thy head, Canst thou not hear, And toward not as good a deed, As drink to break the paint of thee, I am a very villain, Come and be hanged, Hast thou no faith in thee? Gadshill, I pray thee, lend me thy lantern To see my gilding in the stable. Second Carrier, nay soft I pray you, I know a trick worth two of that. Gadshill, I pray thee, lend me thine. Third Carrier, I, when, can't tell, Lend thee my lantern. Quartha, Mary, I'll see thee hanged first. Henry IV. The social spirit peculiar to the French nation had already introduced into the ins of that country the gay and cheerful character of welcome upon which Erasmus, at a later period, dwells with strong emphasis as a contrast to the Saturnine and sullen reception which strangers were apt to meet with at a German caravansera. Philipson was therefore in expectation of being received by the busy civil and talkative host by the hostess and her daughter, all softness, coquetry, and glee, the smiling and supple waiter, the officious and dimpled chambermaid. The better ins in France boast also separate rooms where strangers could change or put in order their dress where they might sleep without company in their bedroom and where they could deposit their baggage in privacy and safety. But all these luxuries were as yet unknown in Germany and in Alsace where this scene now lies as well as in the other dependencies of the empire. They regarded as effeminacy everything beyond such provisions as were absolutely necessary for the supply of the wants of travelers and even these were coarse and indifferent and accepting in the article of wine sparingly ministered. The Englishman, finding that no one appeared at the gate, began to make his presence known by calling aloud and finally by alighting and smiting with all his might on the doors of the hostelry for a long time without attracting the least attention. At length the head of a grizzled servitor was thrust out at a small window who, in a voice which sounded like that of one displeased at the interruption rather than hopeful of advantage from the arrival of a guest, demanded what he wanted. Is this an in? replied Philipson. Yes, bluntly replied the domestic and was about to withdraw from the window when the traveler added. And if it be, can I have lodgings? You may come in, was the short and dry answer. Send someone to take the horses, replied Philipson. No one is at leisure, replied this most repulsive of waiters. You must litter down your horses yourself in the way that likes you best. Where is the stable? said the merchant, whose prudence and temper were scarce proof against this Dutch flam. The fellow, who seemed as sparing of his words as if, like the princess in the fairytale, he had dropped due cuts, with each of them only pointed to a door in an outer building, more resembling that of a cellar than of a stable. And as if weary of the conference drew in his head and shut the window sharply against the guest as he would against an importionate beggar, cursing the spirit of independence, which left a traveler to his own resources and exertions. Philipson, making a virtue of necessity, led the two nags towards the door, pointed out as that of the stable, and was rejoiced at heart to see light glimmering through its chinks. He entered with his charge into a place very like the dungeon vault of an ancient castle, rudely fitted up with some racks and majors. It was of considerable extent in point of length, and at the lower end two or three persons were engaged in tying up their horses, dressing them, and dispensing them their provinder. This last article was delivered by the Osbler, a very old lame man who neither put his hand to wisp or curry comb, but sat weighing forth hay by the pound and counting out corn, as it seemed, by the grain, so anxiously did he bend over his task by the aid of a blinking light enclosed within a horn lantern. He did not even turn his head at the noise which the Englishman made on entering the place with two additional horses. Far less did he seem disposed to give himself the least trouble or, the stranger, the smallest assistance. In respect of cleanliness, the stable of August bore no small resemblance to that of this Alsatian dwarf, and it would have been an exploit worthy of Hercules to have restored it to such a state of cleanliness as would have made it barely decent in the eyes and tolerable to the nostrils of the punctilious Englishman. But this was a matter which disgusted Phillipson himself much more than those of his party which were principally concerned. They fed Delacet the two horses, seeming perfectly to understand that the rule of the place was first come, first served. He sent to occupy the empty stalls which happened to be nearest to them. In this one of them at least was disappointed being received by a groom with a blow across the face with a switch. Take that, said the fellow, for forcing thyself into the place taken up for the horses of the baron of Randall Shine. Never in the course of his life had the English merchant more pain to retain possession of his temper than at that moment. Reflecting, however, on the discredit of quarreling with such a man in such a cause, he contented himself with placing the animal, thus repulsed from the stall he had chosen, into one next to that of his companion, to which no one seemed to lay claim. The merchant then proceeded, notwithstanding the fatigue of the day, to pay all that attention to the mute companions of his journey, which they deserve from every traveler who has any share of prudence to say nothing of humanity. The unusual degree of trouble which Phillipson took to arrange his horses, although his dress and much more his demeanor seemed to place him above this species of surveilled labor, appeared to make an impression, even upon the iron insensibility of the old Ostler himself. He showed some alacrity in furnishing the traveler, who knew the business of a groom so well, with corn, straw, and hay, though in small quantity, and at exorbitant rates, which were instantly to be paid. Nay, he even went as far as the door of the stable that he might point across the cord to the well, from which Phillipson was obliged to fetch water with his own hands. The duties of the stable being finished, the merchant concluded that he had gained such an interest with the grim master of the horse as to learn of him whether he might leave his bales safely in the stable. You may leave them if you will, said the Ostler, but touching their safety, you will do much more wisely if you take them with you and give no temptation to anyone by suffering them to pass from under your own eyes. So saying, the man of Oates closed his oracular jaws, nor could he be prevailed upon to unlock them again by any inquiry which his customer could devise. In the course of this cold and comfortless reception, Phillipson recollected the necessity of supporting the character of a prudent and wary trader, which he had forgotten once before in the course of the day, and imitating what he saw the others do, who had then, like himself, engaged in taking charge of their horses, he took up his baggage and removed himself and his property to the inn. Here he was suffered to enter, rather than admit it, into the general or public stube or room of entertainment, which like the Ark of the Patriarch received all ranks without distinction, whether clean or unclean. The stube or stove of a German inn derived its name from the great hypocost, which is always strongly heated to secure the warmth of the apartment in which it is placed. Their travelers of every age and description assembled. There, their upper garments were indiscriminately hung up around the stove to dry or to air, and the guests themselves were seen employed in various acts of ablution or personal arrangement, which are generally, in modern times, referred to the privacy of the dressing room. The more refined feelings of that Englishman were disgusted with this scene, and he was reluctant to mingle in it. For this reason, he inquired for the private retreat of the landlord himself, trusting that by some of the arguments powerful among his tribe he might obtain separate quarters from the crowd and a morsel of food to be eaten in private. A gray-haired guinea-meat, to whom he put the question where the landlord was, indicated a recess behind the huge stove, where veiling his glory in a very dark and extremely hot corner, it pleased the great man to obscure himself from vulgar gaze. There was something remarkable about this person. Short, stout, bandylaked, and consequential, he was in these respects, like many brethren of the profession in all countries, but the countenance of the man and still more his manners differed more from the merry host of France or England than even the experienced Philipson was prepared to expect. He knew German customs too well to expect the suppliant and serviceable qualities of the master of a French inn, or even the more blunt and frank manners of an English landlord. But such German innkeepers, as he had yet seen, though indeed arbitrary and peremptory in their country fashions, yet being humored in these they, like tyrants in their hours of relaxation, dealt kindly with the guests over whom their sway extended and mitigated by jest and jollity the harshness of their absolute power. But this man's brow was like a tragic volume in which you were as unlikely to find anything of jest or amusement as in a hermit's breviary. His answers were short, sudden, and repulsive, and the air and manner with which they were delivered was as surly as their tenor, which will appear from the following dialogue betwixt him and his guest. Good host, said Philipson, in the mildest tongue, he could assume, I am fatigued and far from well, may I request to have a separate apartment, a cup of wine, and a morsel of food in my private chamber? You may, answered the landlord, but with a look strangely at variance with the apparent acquiescence, which his words naturally implied. Let me have such accommodation, then, with your earliest convenience. Soft, replied the innkeeper, I have said that you may request these things, but not that I would grant them. If you would insist on being served differently from others, it must be at another inn than mine. Well, then, said the traveler, I will shift without supper for a night. Nay, more, I will be content to pay for a supper, which I do not eat, if you will cause me to be accommodated with a private apartment. Signor Traveler said the innkeeper, every one here must be accommodated as well as you, since I'll pay alike. Who so comes to this house of entertainment must eat as others eat, drink as others drink, sit at table with the rest of my guests, and go to bed when the company have done drinking. All this, said Phillipson, humbling himself where anger would have been ridiculous is highly reasonable, and I do not oppose myself to your laws or customs, but added he, taking his purse from his girdle, sickness craves some privilege, and when the patient is willing to pay for it, me thinks the rigor of your laws may admit of some mitigation. I keep an inn, signor, and not a hospital. If you remain here, you shall be served with the same attention as others. If you are not willing to do as others do, leave my house and seat another inn. On receiving this decisive rebuff, Phillipson gave up the contest and retired from the sanctum sanctorum of his ungracious host to await the arrival of supper, hand up like a bullock in a pound amongst the crowded inhabitants of the stoop. Some of these exhausted by fatigue snored away the interval between their own arrival and that of the expected repast. Others converse together on the news of the country, and others again played at dice or such games as might serve to consume the time. The company were of various ranks from those who were apparently wealthy and well appointed to some whose garments and manners indicated that they were but just beyond the grasp of poverty. A begging friar, a man apparently of a gay and pleasant temper, approached Phillipson and engaged him in conversation. The Englishman was well enough acquainted with the world to be aware that whatever of his character and purpose it was desirable to conceal would be best hidden under a sociable and open demeanor. He therefore received the friar's approaches graciously and conversed with him upon the state of Lorraine and the interest which the Duke of Burgundy's attempt to seize that thief into his own hands was likely to create both in France and Germany. On these subjects satisfied with hearing his fellow traveler's sentiments, Phillipson expressed no opinion of his own but after receiving such intelligence as the friar chose to communicate preferred rather to talk upon the geography of the country, the facilities afforded to commerce and the rules which obstructed or favored trade while he was thus engaged in the conversation which seemed most to belong to his profession. The landlord suddenly entered the room and mounting on the head of an old barrel glanced his eyes slowly and steadily round the crowded apartment and when he had completed his survey pronounced in a decisive tone the double command shut the gates spread the table. The Baron Saint Antonio be praised said the friar our landlord has given up hope of any more guests tonight until which blessed time we might have starved for want of food before he had relieved us I here comes the cloth the old gates of the courtyard are now bolted fast enough and when Johann Mengs has once said shut the gates the stranger may knock on the outside as he will but we may rest assured that it shall not be opened to him Mein Herr Mengs maintains strict discipline in his house said the Englishman as absolute as the Duke of Burgundy answered the friar after 10 o'clock no admittance the seek another in which is before that a conditional hint becomes after the clock has struck and the watchman have begun their rounds an absolute order of exclusion he that is without remains without and he that is within must in like manner continue there until the gates open at break of day till then the house is almost like a beleaguered citadel John Mengs it's semishaw and we its captives good father said Phillipson well content am I a wise traveler must submit to the control of the leaders of the people when he travels and I hope a goodly fat potentate like John Mengs will be as clement as his station and dignity admit of while they were talking in this manner the aged waiter with many a weary sigh and many a groan had drawn out certain boards by which a table that stood in the midst of the stew had the capacity of being extended so as to contain the company present and covered it with a cloth which was neither distinguished by extreme cleanliness nor fineness of texture on this table when it had been accommodated to receive the necessary number of guests a wooden trencher and spoon together with a glass drinking cup were placed before each he being expected to serve himself with his own knife for the other purposes of the table as for forks they were unknown until a much later period all the Europeans of that day making the same use of the fingers to select their morsels and transport them to the mouth which the asiatics now practice the board was no sooner arranged than the hungry guests hastened to occupy their seats around it for which purpose the sleepers were awakened the dicers resigned their game and the idlers and politicians broke off their sage debates in order to secure their station at the supper table and be ready to perform their part in the interesting solemnity which seemed about to take place but there is much between the cup and the lip and not less sometimes between the covering of a table and the placing food upon it the guests sat in order each with his knife drawn already menacing the victuals which were still subject to the operations of the cook they had waited with various degrees of patience for full half an hour when at length the old attendant before mentioned entered with a pitcher of thin moselle wine so light and so sharp tasted that phillips then put down his cup with every tooth in his head set on edge by the slender portion which he had swallowed the landlord john mangs who had assumed a seat somewhat elevated at the head of the table did not omit to observe this mark of insubordination and to annum advert upon it the wine likes you not i think my master said he to the english merchant for wine no answered phillipsen but could i see anything requiring such sauce i have seldom seen better vinegar this just though uttered in the most calm and composed manner seemed to drive the innkeeper to fury who are you he exclaimed for a foreign peddler that ventures to quarrel with my wine which has been approved of by so many princes dukes reigning dukes graves reingraves counts barons and knights of the empire whose shoes you are altogether unworthy even to clean was it none of this wine that the count palatine of nimmer sot drank six quarts before he ever rose from the blessed chair in which i now sit i doubt it not my host said phillipsen nor should i think of scandalizing the sobriety of your honorable guest even if he had drunk and twice the quantity silence thou malicious raylor said the host and let instant apology be made to me and the wine which you have culminated or i will instantly command the supper to be postponed till midnight here there was a general alarm among the guests all abjuring any part in the censures of phillipsen and most of them proposing that john mangs should avenge himself on the actual culprit by turning him instantly out of doors rather than involve so many innocent and famished persons in the consequences of his guilt the wine they pronounced excellent some two or three even drank their glass out to make their words good and they all offered if not with lives and fortunes at least with hands and feet to support the ban of the house against the contumatious englishmen while petition and roman strants were assailing john mangs on every side the friar like a wise counselor and a trusty friend endeavored to end the feud by advising phillipsen to submit to the host's sovereignty humbled thyself my son he said bend the stubbornness of thy heart before the great lord of the spigot and but i speak for the sake of others as well as my own for heaven alone knows how much longer they or i can endure this extenuating fast worthy guests said phillipsen i am grieved to have offended our respected host and am so far from objecting to the wine that i will pay for a double flagon of it to be served all round to this honorable company so only they do not ask me to share of it these last words were spoken aside but the englishmen could not fail to perceive from the rye mouths of some of the party who were possessed of a nicer palette that they were as much afraid as himself of a repetition of the acid quotation the friar next addressed the company with a proposal that the foreign merchant instead of being immersed in a measure of the liquor which he had scandalized should be molted in an equal quantity of the more generous wines which were usually produced after the repast had been concluded in this mine host as well as the guests found their advantage and as phillipsen made no objection the proposal was unanimously adopted and john mangs gave from his seat of dignity the signal for supper to be served the long expected meal appeared and there was twice as much time employed in consuming as there had been in expecting it the articles of which the supper consisted as well as the mode of serving them up were as much calculated to try the patience of the company as the delay which had preceded its appearance messes of broth and vegetables followed in succession with platters of meat sodden and roasted of which each in its turn took a formal course around the ample table and was specially subjected to everyone in rotation black puddings hung beef dried fish also made the circuit with various condiments called botargo caviar and similar names composed of the rows of fish mixed with spices and the like preparations calculated to awaken thirst and encourage deep drinking flagans of wine accompanied these stimulating dainties the liquor was so superior in flavor and strength to the ordinary wine which had awakened so much controversy that it might be objected to on the opposite account being so heady fiery and strong that in spite of the rebuffs which his criticism had already procured phillips and ventured to ask for some cold water to allay it you are too difficult to please sergast replied the landlord again bending upon the Englishman a stern and offended brow if you find the wine too strong in my house the secret to allay its strength is to drink the less it is indifferent to us whether you drink or not so you pay the reckoning of those good fellows who do and he laughed a gruff laugh phillips son was about to reply but the friar retaining his character of mediator plucked him by the cloak and entreated him to forbear you do not understand the ways of the place said he it is not here as in the hostilities of england and france where each guest calls for what he desires for his own use and where he pays for what he has required and for no more here we proceed on a broad principle of equality and fraternity no one asks for anything in particular but such provisions as the host thinks sufficient are set down before all indiscriminately and as with the feast so is it with the reckoning all pay their proportions alike without reference to the quantity of wine which one may have swallowed more than another and thus the sick and infirm nay the female and the child pay the same as the hungry peasant and strolling lawns necked it seems an unequal custom said phillips son but travelers are not to judge so that when a reckoning is called everyone i am to understand pays alike such is the rule said the friar accepting perhaps some poor brother of our own order whom our lady and st francis sent into such a scene as this that good christians may bestow their alms upon him and so make a step on their road to heaven the first words of this speech were spoken in the open and independent tone in which the friar had begun the conversation the last sentence died away into the professional wine of mendicity proper to the convent and at once a prized phillips son at what price he was to pay for the friar's council and mediation having thus explained the custom of the country good father gration turned to illustrate it by his example and having no objection to the new service of wine on account of its strength he seemed well disposed to signalize himself amongst some stout toppers who by drinking deeply appeared determined to have full penny worths for their share of the reckoning the good wine gradually did its office and even the host relaxed his sullen and grim features and smiled to see the kindling flame of hilarity catch from one to another and at length embrace almost all the numerous guests at the table to hope except a few who were too temperate to partake deeply of the wine or too fastidious to enter into the discussions to which it gave rise on these the host cast from time to time a sullen and displeased eye phillips son who was reserved and silent both in consequence of his abstinence from the wine pot and his unwillingness to mix in conversation with strangers was looked upon by the landlord as a defaulter in both particulars and as he aroused his own sluggish nature with the fiery wine men's began to throw out obscure hints about killjoy mar company spoilsport and such like appetites which were plainly directed against the Englishman phillips son replied with the utmost equanimity that he was perfectly sensible that his spirits did not at this moment render him an agreeable member of a merry company and that with the leave of those present he would withdraw to his sleeping apartment and wish them all a good evening and continuance to their mirth but this very reasonable proposal as it might have elsewhere seemed contained in it treason against the laws of german computation who are you said john mangs who presume to leave the table before the reckoning is called and settled supplement dirt tofu we are not men upon whom such an offense is to be put with impunity you may exhibit your polite pranks in ram's alley if you will or in east cheap or in smithfield but it shall not be in john mangs golden fleece nor will i suffer one guest to go to bed to blink out of the reckoning and so cheat me and all the rest of my company phillips son looked around to gather the sentiments of the company but saw no encouragement to appeal to their judgment indeed many of them had little judgment left to appeal to and those who paid any attention to the matter at all were some quiet old soakers who were already beginning to think of the reckoning and were disposed to agree with the host in considering the english merchant as a flincher who was determined to evade payment of what might be drunk after he left the room so that john mangs received the applause of the whole company when he concluded his triumphant denunciation against phillips son yes sir you may withdraw if you please but pause element it shall not be for this time to seek for another end but to the courtyard shall you go and know farther there to make your bed upon the stable litter and good enough for the man that will needs be the first to break up good company it is well said my jovial host said a rich trader from rattlesbone and here are some six of us more or less who will stand by you to maintain the good old customs of germany and the um laudable and and praiseworthy rules of the golden fleece nay be not angry sir said phillips son yourself and your three companions whom the good wine has multiplied into six shall have your own way of ordering the matter and since you will not permit me to go to bed i trust that you will take no offense if i fall asleep in my chair how say you what thank you my host said the citizen from rattlesbone may the gentleman being drunk as you see he is since he cannot tell that three and one makes six i say may he being drunk sleep in the elbow chair this question introduced a contradiction on the part of the host who contended that three and one made four not six and this again produced a retort from the rattlesbone trader other clamors rose at the same time and were at length with difficulty silenced by the stanzas of a chorus song of mirth and good fellowship which the friar now become somewhat oblivious of the rule of st francis thundered forth with better good will than he ever sang a canticle of king david undercover of this tumult phillips son drew himself a little aside and though he felt it impossible to sleep as he had proposed yet was enabled to escape the reproachful glances with which john mangs distinguished all those who did not call for wine loudly and drink it lustily his thoughts roamed far from the stube of the golden fleece and upon matter very different from that which was discussed around him when his attention was suddenly recalled by a loud and continued knocking on the door of the hostelry what have we here said john mangs his nose reddening with very indignation who the foul feigned presses on the golden fleece at such an hour as if he thundered at the door of a bordell to the turret window someone jeffrey nape austler or thou old timothy tell the rash man there is no admittance into the golden fleece save at timious hours the men went as they were directed and might be heard in the stube vying with each other in the positive denial which they gave to the ill-fated guest who was pressing for admission they returned however to inform their master that they were unable to overcome the obstinacy of the stranger who refused positively to depart until he had an interview with mangs himself roth was the master of the golden fleece at this ill-omend pertinacity and his indignation extended like a fiery exhalation from his nose all over the adjacent regions of his cheeks and brow he started from his chair grasped in his hand a stout stick which seemed his ordinary scepter or leading staff of command and muttering something concerning cudgels for the shoulders of fools and pitchers of fair or foul water for the drenching of their ears he marched off to the window which looked into the court and left his guests nodding winking and whispering to each other in full expectation of hearing the active demonstrations of his wrath it happened otherwise however for after the exchange of a few indistinct words they were astonished when they heard the noise of the unbolting and unbarring of the gates of the inn and presently after the footsteps of men upon the stairs and the landlord entering with an appearance of clumsy courtesy prayed those assembled to make room for an honored guest who came though late to add to their numbers a tall dark form followed muffled in a traveling cloak on laying aside which philipson at once recognized his late fellow traveler the black priest of st. paul's there was in the circumstance itself nothing at all surprising since it was natural that a landlord however coarse and insolent to ordinary guests might yet show deference to an ecclesiastic whether from his rank in the church or from his reputation for sanctity but what did appear surprising to philipson was the effect produced by the entrance of this unexpected guest he seated himself without hesitation at the highest place of the board from which john mangs had dethroned the aforesaid trader from rattlesbon notwithstanding his zeal for ancient german customs his steady adherence and loyalty to the golden fleece and his propensity to brimming goblets the priest took instant and unscrupulous possession of his seat of honor after some negligent reply to the host's unwanted courtesy when it seemed that the effect of his long black vestments in place of the slashed and flounced coat of his predecessor as well as of the cold gray eye with which he slowly reviewed the company in some degree resembled that of the fabulous gorgon and if it did not literally convert those who looked upon it into stone there was yet something petrifying in this steady unmoved glance with which he seemed to survey them looking as if desirous of reading their very inmost souls and passing from one to another as if each upon whom he looked in succession was unworthy of longer consideration philipson felt in his turn that momentary examination in which however there mingled nothing that seemed to convey recognition all the courage and composure of the englishman could not prevent an unpleasant feeling while under this mysterious man's eye so that he felt a relief when it passed from him and rested upon another of the company who seemed in turn to acknowledge the chilling effects of that freezing glance the noise of intoxicated mirth and drunken disputation the clamorous argument and the still more boisterous laugh which had been suspended on the priest entering the eating apartment now after one or two vain attempts to resume them died away as if the feast had been changed to a funeral and the jovial gas had been at once converted into the legubrious mutes who attended on such solemnities one little rosy faced man who afterwards proved to be a tailor from augsburg ambitious perhaps of showing a degree of courage not usually supposed consistent with his effeminate trade made a bold effort and yet it was with a timid and restrained voice that he called on the jovial friar to renew his song but whether it was that he did not dare to venture on an uncanonical pastime in presence of a brother-in-orders or whether he had some other reason for declining the invitation the merry churchman hung his head and shook it with such an expressive air of melancholy that the tailor drew back as if he had been detected in cabbaging from a cardinal's robes or cribbing the lace of some cope or altar gown in short the revel was hushed into deep silence and so attentive were the company to what should arrive next that the bells of the village church striking the first hour after midnight made the guest start as if they heard them rung backwards to announce an assault or conflagration the black priest who had taken some slight and hasty repast which the host had made no kind of objection to supplying him with seemed to think the bells which announced the service of lads being the first after midnight a proper signal for breaking up the party we have eaten he said that we may support life let us pray that we may be fit to meet death which waits upon life as surely as night upon day or the shadow upon the sunbeam though we know not when or from whence it is to come upon us the company as if mechanically bent their uncovered heads while the priest said with his deep and solemn voice a latin prayer expressing thanks to god for protection throughout the day and in treating for its continuance during the witching hours which were to pass aired the day again commenced the hearers bowed their heads in token of acquiescence in the holy petition and when they raised them the black priest of saint paul's had followed the host out of the apartment probably to that which was destined for his repose his absence was no sooner perceived than signs and nods and even whispers were exchanged between the guests but no one spoke above his breath or in such connected manner as that philipsen could understand anything distinctly from them he himself ventured to ask the friar who sat near him observing at the same time the undertone which seemed to be fashionable for the moment whether the worthy ecclesiastic who had left them was not the priest of saint paul's on the frontier town of la ferrette and if you know it is he said the friar with a countenance and a tone from which all signs of intoxication were suddenly banished why do you ask of me because said the merchant i would willingly learn the spell which so suddenly converted so many merry tiplers into men of sober manners and a jovial company into a convent of carthusian friars friend said the friar thy discourse savoreth mightily of asking after what thou knowest right well but i am no such silly duck as to be taken by a decoy if thou knowest the black priest thou canst not be ignorant of the terrors which attend his presence and that it were safer to pass a broad jest in the holy house of loretto than where he shows himself so saying and as if desirous of avoiding further discourse he withdrew to a distance from philipsen at the same moment the landlord again appeared and with more of the usual manners of a publican than he had hitherto exhibited commanded his waiter jeffrey to hand round to the company a sleeping drink or pillow cup of distilled water mingled with spices which was indeed as good as philipsen himself had ever tasted john mungs in the meanwhile with somewhat of more deference expressed to his guests a hope that his entertainment had given satisfaction but this was in so careless a manner and he seemed so conscious of deserving the affirmative which was expressed on all hands that it became obvious there was very little humility in proposing the question the old man timothy was in the meantime mustering the guests and marking with chalk on the bottom of a trencher the reckoning the particulars of which were indicated by certain conventional hieroglyphics while he showed on another the division of the sum total among the company and proceeded to collect an equal share of it from each when the fatal trencher in which each man paid down his money approached the jolly friar his countenance seemed to be somewhat changed he cast a piteous look towards philipsen as the person from whom he had the most hope of relief and our merchant though displeased with the manner in which he had held back from his confidence yet not unwilling in a strange country to incur a little expense in the hope of making a useful acquaintance discharge the mendicant's score as well as his own the poor friar paid his thanks in many a blessing in good german and bad latin but the host cut them short for approaching philipsen with a candle in his hand he offered his own services to show him where he might sleep and even have the condescension to carry his mail or portmanteau with his own landlordly hands you take too much trouble my host said the merchant somewhat surprised at the change in the manner of john mangs who had hitherto contradicted him at every word i cannot take too much pains for a guest was the reply whom my venerable friend the priest of st paul's hath especially recommended to my charge he then opened the door of a small bedroom prepared for the occupation of a guest and said to philipsen here you may rest till tomorrow at what hour you will and for as many days more as you incline the key will secure your wares against theft or pillage of any kind i do not this for everyone for if my guests were everyone to have a bed to himself the next thing they would demand might be a separate table and then there would be an end of the good old german customs and we should be as faubish and frivolous as our neighbors he placed the portmanteau on the floor and seemed about to leave the apartment when turning about he began a sort of apology for the rudeness of his former behavior i trust there is no misunderstanding between us my worthy guest you might as well expect to see one of our bearers come aloft and do tricks like a jackenapes as one of us stubborn old germans play the feats of a french or an italian host yet i pray you to note that if our behavior is rude our charges are honest and our articles what they profess to be we do not expect to make moselle has forenish by dint of a bow and a grin nor will we sauce your mess with poison like the wily italian and call you all the time illustrissimo and magnifico he seemed in these words to have exhausted his rhetoric for when they were spoken he turned abruptly and left the apartment philipsen was thus deprived of another opportunity to inquire who or what this ecclesiastic could be that had exercised such influence on all who approached him he felt indeed no desire to prolong a conference with john mangs though he had laid aside in such a considerable degree his rude and repulsive manners yet he longed to know who this man could be who had power with a word to turn aside the daggers of el satan bandidi habituated as they were like most borderers to robbery and pillage and to change into civility the proverbial rudeness of a german innkeeper such worthy reflections of philipsen as he doffed his clothes to take his much needed repose after a day of fatigue danger and difficulty on the pallet afforded by the hospitality of the golden fleece in the rind thull end of chapter one chapter two of an of geier steen volume two by sir walter scott this lip revox recording is in the public domain recording by dion giants set like city utah mcbeth how now ye secret black and midnight hags what is it ye do which is a deed without a name mcbeth we have said in the conclusion of the last chapter that after a day of unwanted fatigue and extraordinary excitation the merchant philipsen naturally expected to forget so many agitating passages in that deep and profound repose which is at once the consequence and the cure of extreme exhaustion but he was no sooner laid on his lowly pallet than he felt that the bodily machine over labored by so much exercise was little disposed to the charms of sleep the mind had been too much excited the body was far too feverish to suffer him to per take of needful rest his anxiety about the safety of his son his conjectures concerning the issue of his mission to the duke of burgundy and a thousand other thoughts which recalled past events or speculated on those which were to come rushed upon his mind like the waves of a perturbed sea and prevented all tendency to repose he had been in bed about an hour and sleep had not yet approached his couch when he felt that the pallet on which he lay was sinking below him and that he was in the act of descending along with it he knew not whether the sound of ropes and pulleys was also indistinctly heard though every caution had been taken to make them run smooth and the traveler by feeling around him became sensible that he and the bed on which he lay had been spread upon a large trap door which was capable of being let down into the vaults or apartments beneath. Phillipson felt fear in circumstances so well qualified to produce it for how could he hope a safe termination to an adventure which had begun so strangely but his apprehensions were those of a brave ready-witted man who even in the extremity of danger which appeared to surround him preserved his presence of mind his descent seemed to be cautiously managed and he held himself in readiness to start to his feet and defend himself as soon as he should be once more upon firm ground although somewhat advanced in years he was a man of great personal vigor and activity and unless taken at advantage which no doubt was at present much to be apprehended he was likely to make a formidable defense his plan of resistance however had been anticipated he no sooner reached the bottom of the vault down to which he was lowered than two men who had been waiting there till the operation was completed laid hands on him from either side and forcibly preventing him from starting up as he intended cast a rope over his arms and made him a prisoner as effectually as when he was in the dungeons of Laforet he was obliged therefore to remain passive and unresisting and await the termination of this formidable adventure secured as he was he could only turn his head from one side to the other and it was with joy that he at length saw lights twinkle but they appeared at a great distance from him from the irregular manner in which these scattered lights advanced sometimes keeping a straight line sometimes mixing and crossing each other it might be inferred that the subterranean vault in which they appeared was a very considerable extent their number also increased and as they collected more together phillips and could perceive that the lights proceeded from many torches born by men muffled in black cloaks like mourners at a funeral or the black friars of st francis's order wearing their cows drawn over their heads so as to conceal their features they appeared anxiously engaged in measuring off a portion of the apartment and while occupied in that employment they sang in the ancient german language rhymes more rude than phillips and could well understand but which may be imitated thus measures of good and evil bring the square the line the level rear the altar dig the trench blood both stone and ditch shall drench cubits six from end to end must the fatal bench extend cubits six from side to side judge and culprit must divide on the east the court assembles on the west the accused trembles answer brethren all and one is the ritual rightly done a deep chorus seemed to reply to the question many voices joined in it as well of persons already in the subterranean vault as of others who as yet remained without in various galleries and passages which communicated with it and whom phillips and now presumed to be very numerous the answer chanted ran as follows on life and soul on blood and bone one for all and all for one we warrant this is rightly done the original strain was then renewed in this same manner as before how where's the night doth morning shine in early radiance on the rhyme what music floats upon his tide do birds the tardy morning chide brethren look out from hill and height and answer true how where's the night the answer was returned though less loud than at first and it seemed that those by whom the reply was given were at a much greater distance than before yet the words were distinctly heard the night is old on rines broad breast glanced drowsy stars which long to rest no beams are twinkling in the east there is a voice upon the flood the stern still call of blood for blood tis time we listen the behest the chorus replied with many additional voices up then up when days at rest his time that such as we are watchers rise to judgment brethren rise vengeance knows not sleepy eyes he and night are matchers the nature of the verses soon led phillips and to comprehend that he was in presence of the initiated or the wise men names which were applied to the celebrated judges of the secret tribunal which continued at that period to subsist in swabia phanconia and other districts of the east of germany which was called perhaps from the frightful and frequent occurrence of executions by command of those invisible judges the red land phillips and had often heard that the seat of a free count or chief of the secret tribunal was secretly instituted even on the left bank of the rine and that it maintained itself in all says with the usual tenacity of those secret societies though duke charles of burgundy had expressed a desire to discover and discourage its influence so far as was possible without exposing himself to danger from the thousands of panyards which that mysterious tribunal could put in activity against his own life an awful means of defense which for a long time rendered it extremely hazardous for the sovereigns of germany and even the empires themselves to put down by authority those singular associations so soon as this explanation flashed on the mind of phillips and it gave some clue to the character and condition of the black priest of saint paul's supposing him to be a president or chief official of the secret association there was little wonder that he should confide so much in the inviolability of his terrible office as to propose vindicating the execution of the hagenbach that his present should surprise bartholomew whom he had power to have judged and executed upon the spot and that his mere appearance at supper on the preceding evening should have appalled the gas for though everything about the institution its proceedings and its officers was preserved in as much obscurity as is now practiced in free masonry yet the secret was not so absolutely well kept as to prevent certain individuals from being guessed or hinted at as men initiated and entrusted with high authority by the fame garrett or tribunal of the bounds when such suspicion attached to an individual his secret power and supposed acquaintance with all guilt however secret which was committed within the society in which he was conversant made him at once the dread and hated of everyone who looked on him and he enjoyed a high degree of personal respect on the same terms on which it would have been yielded to a powerful enchanter or a dreaded genie in conversing with such a person it was especially necessary to abstain from all questions alluding however remotely to the office which he bore in the secret tribunal and indeed to testify the least curiosity upon a subject so solemn and mysterious was sure to occasion some misfortune to the inquisitive person all these things rushed at once upon the mind of the Englishman who felt that he had fallen into the hands of an unsparing tribunal whose proceedings were so much dreaded by those who resided within the circle of their power that the friendless stranger must stand a poor chance of receiving justice at their hands whatever might be his consciousness of innocence while Phillipson made this melancholy reflection he resolved at the same time not to forsake his own cause but defend himself as he best might conscious as he was that these terrible and irresponsible judges were nevertheless governed by certain rules of right and wrong which formed a check on the rigors of their extraordinary code he lay therefore devising the best means of obviating the present danger while the persons whom he beheld glimmered before him less like distinct and individual forms than like the phantoms of a fever or the phantasmagoria with which a disease of the optic nerves has been known to people a sick man's chamber at length they assembled in the center of the apartment where they had first appeared and seemed to arrange themselves into form and order a great number of black torches were successively lighted and the scene became distinctly visible in the center of the hall Phillipson could now perceive one of the altars which are sometimes to be found in ancient subterranean chapels but we must pause in order briefly to describe not the appearance only but the nature and constitution of this terrible court behind the altar which seemed to be the central point on which all eyes were bent there were placed in parallel lines two benches covered with black cloth each was occupied by a number of persons who seemed assembled as judges but those who held the foremost bench or fewer and appeared of a rank superior to those who crowded the seat most remote from the altar the first seemed to be all men of some consequence priests high in their order knights or noblemen and notwithstanding an appearance of equality which seemed to pervade this singular institution much more weight was laid upon their opinion or testimonies they were called free knights counts or whatever title they might bear while the inferior class of the judges were only termed free and worthy burgers for it must be observed that the vemic institution which was the name that it commonly bore although its power consisted in a wide system of espionage and the tyrannical application of force which acted upon it was yet so rude were the ideas of enforcing public law accounted to confer a privilege on the country in which it was received and only free men were allowed to experience its influence serfs and peasants could not have a place among the free judges their assessors or assistants for there was in this assembly even some idea of trying the culprit by his peers besides the dignitaries who occupied the benches there were others who stood around and seemed to guard the various entrances to the hall of judgment or standing behind the seats on which their superiors were ranged looked prepared to execute their commands these were members of the order though not of the highest ranks Chopin is the name generally assigned to them signifying officials or sergeants of the vemic court whose doom they stood sworn to enforce through good report and bad report against their own nearest and most beloved as well as in cases of ordinary malefactors the Chopin or Scabini as they were termed in latin had another horrible duty to perform that namely of denouncing to the tribunal whatever came under their observation that might be construed as an offense falling under its cognizance or in their language a crime against the them this duty extended to the judges as well as to the assistants and was to be discharged without respect of persons so that to know and willfully conceal the guilt of a mother or brother inferred on the part of the unfaithful official the same penalty as if he himself had committed the crime which his silence screened from punishment such an institution could only prevail at a time when ordinary means of justice were excluded by the hand of power and when in order to bring the guilty to punishment it required all the influence and authority of such a confederacy in no other country than one exposed to every species of feudal tyranny and deprived of every ordinary mode of obtaining justice or redress could such a system have taken root and flourished we must now return to the brave Englishman who though feeling all the danger he encountered from so tremendous a tribunal maintained nevertheless a dignified and an altered composure the meeting being assembled a coil of ropes and a naked sword the well-known signals and emblems of themic authority were deposited on the altar where the sword from its being usually straight with a cross handle was considered as representing the blessed emblem of Christian redemption and the cord as indicating the right of criminal jurisdiction and capital punishment then the president of the meeting who occupied the center seat on the foremost bench arose and laying his hands on the symbols pronounced aloud the formula expressive of the duty of the tribunal which all the inferior judges and assistants repeated after him in deep and hollow murmurs i swear by the holy trinity to aid and cooperate without relaxation in the things belonging to the holy them to defend its doctrines and institutions against father and mother brother and sister wife and children against fire water earth and air against all that the sun enlightens against all that the dew moistened against all created things of heaven and earth or the waters under the earth and i swear to give information to this holy judicature of all that i know to be true or hear repeated by credible testimony by which the rules of the holy them is deserving of animadversion or punishment and that i will not cloak cover or conceal such my knowledge neither for love friendship or family affection nor for gold silver or precious stones neither will i associate with such as are under the sentence of this sacred tribunal by hinting to a culprit his danger or advising him to escape or aiding and supplying him with counsel or means to that effect neither will i relieve such culprit with fire clothes food or shelter though my father should require from me a cup of water in the heat of summer noon or my brother should request to sit by my fire in the bitterest cold night of winter and further i vow and promise to honor this holy association and do its behest speedily faithfully and firmly in preference to those of any other tribunal whatsoever so help me god and his holy evangelists when this oath of office had been taken the president addressing the assembly as men who judge in secret and punish in secret like the deity desired them to say why this child of the cord lay before them bound and helpless an individual rose from the more remote bench and in a voice which though altered and agitated philipson conceived that he recognized declared himself the accuser as bound by his oath of the child of the cord or prisoner who lay before them bring forward the prisoner said the president duly secured as is the order of our secret law but not with such severity as may interrupt his attention to the proceedings of the tribunal or limit his power of hearing and replying six of the assistants immediately dragged forward the palette and platform of boards on which philipson lay and advanced it towards the foot of the altar this done each unsheathed his dagger while two of them unloosed the cords by which the merchants hands were secured and admonished him in a whisper that the slightest attempt to resist or escape would be the signal to stab him dead arrives said the president listen to the charge to be preferred against you and believe you shall in us find judges equally just and inflexible philipson carefully avoiding any gesture which might indicate a desire to escape raised his body on the lower part of the couch and remained seated clothed as he was in his under vest and calisthenes or drawers so as exactly to face the muffled president of the terrible court even in these agitating circumstances the mind of the undaunted Englishman remained unshaken and his eyelid did not quiver nor his heart beat quicker though he seemed according to the expression of scripture to be a pilgrim in the valley of the shadow of death beset by numerous snares and encompassed by total darkness where light was most necessary for safety the president demanded his name country and occupation john philipson was the reply by birth and englishman by profession a merchant have you ever borne any other name and profession demanded the judge i have been a soldier and like most others had then a name by which i was known in war what was that name i laid it aside when i resigned my sword and i do not desire again to be known by it moreover i never bore it where your institutions have weight and authority answered the englishman know you before whom you stand continued the judge i may at least guess replied the merchant tell your guest then continued the interrogator say who we are and where for are you before us i believe that i am before the unknown or secret tribunal which is called them garrick then you are aware answered the judge that you would be safer if you were suspended by the hair over the abyss of schafhausen or if you lay below an axe which a thread of silk alone kept back from the fall what have you done to deserve such a fate let those reply by whom i am subjected to it answered philipson with the same composure as before speak accuser said the president to the four quarters of heaven to the ears of the free judges of this tribunal and the faithful executors of their doom and to the face of the child of the court who denies or conceals his guilt make good the substance of thine accusation most dreaded answered the accuser addressing the president this man hath entered the sacred territory which is called the red land a stranger under a disguised name and profession when he was yet on the eastern side of the alps at turen in lombardy and elsewhere he at various times spoke of the holy tribunal in terms of hatred and contempt and declared that were he duke of burgundy he would not permit it to extend itself from west philia or swabia into his dominions also i charge him that nourishing this malevolent intention against the holy tribunal he who now appears before the bench as child of the court has intimated his intention to wait upon the court of the duke of burgundy and use his influence with him which he both will prove effectual to stir him up to prohibit the meetings of the holy them in his dominions and to inflict on their officers and the executors of their mandates the punishment due to robbers and assassins this is a heavy charge brother said the president of the assembly when the accuser ceased speaking how do you propose to make it good according to the tenor of those secret statutes the perusal of which is prohibited to all but the initiated answered the accuser it is well said the president but i ask thee once more what are those means of proof you speak to holy and to initiated ears i will prove my charge said the accuser by the confession of the party himself and by my own oath upon the holy emblems of the secret judgment that is the steel and the cord it is a legitimate offer of proof said a member of the aristocratic bench of the assembly and it much concerns the safety of the system to which we are bound by such deep oaths a system handed down to us from the most christian and holy roman emperor charlemagne for the conversion of the heathen sericens and punishing such of them as revolted again to their pagan practices that such criminals should be looked to this duke charles of burgundy have already crowded his army with foreigners whom he can easily employ against this sacred court more especially with english a fierce insular people wedded to their own usages and hating those of every other nation it is not unknown to us that the duke have already encouraged opposition to the officials of the tribunal in more than one part of his german dominions and that in consequence instead of submitting to their doom with reverent resignation children of the court have been found bold enough to resist the executioners of the them striking wounding and even slaying those who have received commission to put them to death this contumacy must be put an end to and if the accused shall be proved to be one of those by whom such doctrines are harbored and inculcated i say let the steel and cord do their work on him a general murmur seem to approve what the speaker had said for all were conscious that the power of the tribunal depended much more on the opinion of its being deeply and firmly rooted in the general system than upon any regard or esteem for an institution of which all felt the severity it followed that those of the members who enjoyed consequence by means of their station in the ranks of the them saw the necessity of supporting its terrors by occasional examples of severe punishment and none could be more readily sacrificed than an unknown and wandering foreigner all this rushed upon phillipson's mind but did not prevent his making a steady reply to the accusation gentleman he said good citizens burgesses or by whatever other name you please to be addressed know that in my former days i have stood in as great peril as now and have never turned my heel to save my life cords and daggers are not calculated to strike terror into those who have seen swords and lenses my answer to the accusation is that i am an englishman one of a nation accustomed to yield and to receive open handed and equal justice dealt forth in the broad light of day i am however a traveler who knows that he has no right to oppose the rules and laws of other nations because they do not resemble those of his own but this caution can only be called for in lands where the system about which we converse is in full force and operation if we speak of the institutions of germany being at the time in france or spain we may without offense to the country in which they are current dispute concerning them as students debate upon a logical thesis in a university the accuser objects to me that at torrent or elsewhere in the north of italy i spoke with censure of the institution under which i am now judged i will not deny that i remember something of the kind but it was in consequence of the question being in a manner forced upon me by two guests with whom i chanced to find myself at table i was much and earnestly solicited for an opinion ere i gave one and was that opinion said the presiding judge favorable or otherwise to the holy and secret them garrick let truth rule your tongue remember life is short judgment is eternal i would not save my life at the expense of a falsehood my opinion was unfavorable and i expressed myself thus no laws or judicial proceedings can be just or commendable which exist and operate by means of a secret combination i said that justice could only live and exist in the open air and that when she ceased to be public she degenerated into revenge and hatred i said that a system of which your own jurists have said non frotter of frotter non hospice a hospit tutas was too much adverse to the laws of nature to be connected with or regulated by those of religion these words were scarcely uttered when their burst a murmur from the judges highly unfavorable to the prisoner he blasphemes the holy them let his mouth be closed forever hear me said the englishman as you will one day wish to be yourselves heard i say such were my sentiments and so i express them i say also i had a right to express these opinions whether sound or erroneous in a neutral country where this tribunal neither did nor could claim any jurisdiction my sentiments are still the same i would avow them if that sword were at my bosom or that cord around my throat but i deny that i have ever spoken against the institutions of your vam in a country where it had its course as a national mode of justice far more strongly if possible do i denounce the absurdity of the falsehood which represents me a wandering foreigner as commissioned to traffic with the duke of burgundy about such high matters or to form a conspiracy for the destruction of a system to which so many seem warmly attached i never said such a thing and i never thought it accuser said the presiding judge thou has heard the accused what is thy reply the first part of the charge said the accuser he have confessed in this high presence namely that his foul tongue have basely slandered our holy mysteries for which he deserves that it should be torn out of his throat i myself on my oath of office will appear as use and law is that the rest of the accusation namely that which taxes him as having entered into machinations for the destruction of the vammock institutions is as true as those which he has found himself unable to deny injustice said the englishman the accusation if not made good by satisfactory proof ought to be left to the oath of the party accused instead of permitting the accuser to establish by his own deposition the defects in his own charge stranger replied the presiding judge we permit to thy ignorance a longer and more full defense than consists with our usual forms know that the right of sitting among these venerable judges confers on the person of him who enjoys it a sacredness of character which ordinary men cannot attain to the oath of one of the initiated must counterbalance the most solemn a separation of everyone that is not acquainted with our holy secrets in the vammock court all must be vammock the environment of the emperor he being uninitiated would not have so much weight in our councils as that of one of the meanest of these officials the affirmation of the accuser can only be rebutted by the oath of a member of the same tribunal being of superior rank then god be gracious to me for i have no trust save in heaven said the englishman in solemn accents yet i will not fall without an effort i call upon thee thyself dark spirit who presidest in this most deadly assembly i call upon thyself to declare on thy faith and honor whether thou holdest me guilty of what is thus boldly avirred by this false colluminator i call upon thee by thy sacred character by the name of hold replied the presiding judge the name by which we are known in open air must not be pronounced in this subterranean judgment seat he then proceeded to address the prisoner and the assembly i being called on in evidence declare that the charge against the is so far true as it is acknowledged by thyself namely that thou hast in other lands than the red soil spoken lightly of this holy institution of justice but i believe in my soul and will bear witness on my honor that the rest of the accusation is incredible and false and this i swear holding my hand on the dagger and the cord what is your judgment my brethren upon the case which you have investigated a member of the first seated and highest class amongst the judges muffled like the rest but the tone of whose voice and the stoop of whose person announced him to be more advanced in years than the other two who had before spoken arose with difficulty and said with a trembling voice the child of the cord who is before us has been convicted of folly and rashness in slandering our holy institution but he spoke his folly to ears which had never heard our sacred laws he has therefore been acquitted by irrefragible testimony of combining for the impotent purpose of undermining our power or stirring up princes against our holy association for which death were too light a punishment he hath been foolish then but not criminal and as the holy laws of the them bear no penalty save that of death i propose for judgment that the child of the cord be restored without injury to society and to the upper world having been first duly admonished of his errors child of the cord said the presiding judge thou has heard thy sentence of acquittal but as thou desirous to sleep in an unbloody grave let me warn thee that the secrets of this night shall remain with thee as a secret not to be communicated to father nor mother to spouse son or daughter neither to be spoken allowed nor whispered to be told in words or written in characters to be carved or to be painted or to be otherwise communicated either directly or by parable and emblem obey this behest and thy life is insurity let thy heart then rejoice within thee but let it rejoice with trembling never more let thy vanity persuade thee that thou art secure from the servants and judges of the holy them though a thousand leagues lie between thee and the red land and thou speakest in that where our power is not known though thou should be sheltered by thy native island and defended by thy kindred ocean yet even there i warn thee to cross thyself when thou dost so much as think of the holy and invisible tribunal and to retain thy thoughts within thine own bosom for the avenger may be beside thee and thou mayest die in thy folly go hence be wise and let the fear of the holy them never pass from before thine eyes at the concluding words all the lights were at once extinguished with a hissing noise philipson felt once more the grasp of the hands of the officials to which he resigned himself as the safest course he was gently prostrated on his palate bed and transported back to the place from which he had been advanced to the foot of the altar the cordage was again applied to the platform and philipson was sensible that his couch rose with him for a few moments until a slight shock apprised him that he was again brought to a level with the floor of the chamber in which he had been lodged on the preceding night or rather morning he pondered over the events that had passed in which he was sensible that he owed heaven thanks for a great deliverance fatigue at length prevailed over anxiety and he fell into a deep and profound sleep from which he was only awakened by returning light he resolved on an instant departure from so dangerous a spot and without seeing anyone of the household but the old osler pursued his journey to strawsburg and reached that city without further accident end of chapter two