 CHAPTER 1 Considering the state of the Imperial City of Frankfurt, one would not expect to find such a gathering as was assembled in the Kaiser cellar of the Rheingold drinking tavern. Outside in the streets, all was turbulence and disorder, a frenzy on the part of the populace taxing to the utmost the efforts of the city authorities to keep it within bounds and prevent the development of a riot that might result in the partial destruction at least of this once prosperous city. And indeed, the inhabitants of Frankfurt could plead some excuse for their boisterousness. Temporarily at any rate, all business was at a standstill. The skilful mechanics of the town had long been out of work, and now to the ranks of the unemployed were added. From time to time, clerks and such-like clerical people, expert accountants, persuasive salesmen, and small shopkeepers, for no one now possessed the money to buy more than the bare necessities of life. Yet the warehouses of Frankfurt were full to overflowing, with every kind of store that might have supplied the needs of the people. And to the unlearned man, it seemed unjust that he and his family should starve while granaries were packed with the agricultural produce of the south, and huge warehouses were glutted with enough cloth from Frankfurt and the surrounding districts to clothe ten times the number of tentered dominions who clamored through the streets. The wrath of the people was concentrated against one man, and he the highest in the land. To blame, of course, in a secondary degree, but not the one primarily at fault for this deplorable state of things. The emperor, always indolent from the time he came to the throne, had grown old and craved and fat, caring for nothing but his flag and of wine that stood continually at his elbow. Laxity of rule in the beginning allowed his nobles to get the upper hand, and now it would require a civil war to bring them into subduction again. They, sitting snug in their strongholds, with plenty of wine in their cellars and corn in their bins, cared nothing for the troubles of the city. Indeed those who inhabited either bank of the Rhine, watching from their elevated castles the main avenue of traffic between Frankfurt and Cologne, or chief market, had throughout that long reign severely taxed to the merchants conveying goods downstream. During the last five years, their exactions became so puritical that finally they killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. So now the Rhine was without a boat, and Frankfurt without a buyer. For too long, Frankfurt had looked to the emperor, whose business it was to keep order in his domain, and when it last the merchants, combining to help themselves, made an effort towards freedom, it was too late. The result of their combination was a flotilla of nearly a hundred boats, which gathering at Frankfurt and Mayans, proceeded together down the river, convoyed by a fleet containing armed men, and thus they thought to win through to Cologne, and so dispose of their goods. But the robber barons combined also, hung chains across the river at the lorley rocks, its narrowest part, and realizing that this fleet could defeat any single one of them, they for once acted in concert, falling upon the boats when they're running against the chains through them into confusion. The nobles and their brigands were seasoned fighters all, while the armed men secured by the merchants were mere hirelings who fled in panic, and those not cut to pieces by their savage adversaries became themselves marauders on a small scale, scattered throughout the land, for there was little use of tramping back to the capital, where already a large portion of the population suffered the direst straits. Not a single bale of goods reached Cologne, for the robbers divided everything amongst themselves with some pretty quarrels, and then they sank the boats in the deepest part of the river as a warning, lest the merchants of Frankfurt and Mainz should imagine the Rhine belonged to them. Meantime, all petitions to the Emperor being in vain, the merchants gave up the fight. They were a commercial, not a war like people. They discharged their servants and underlings and starvation slowly settled down upon the distressed city. After the maritime disaster on the Rhine, some of the merchants made a futile attempt to amend matters for which their leaders paid dearly. They appealed to the seven electors finding their petitions to the Emperor were in vain. Asking these seven noblemen, including the three war-like archbishops of Cologne, Trevez, and Mainz to depose the Emperor, which they had power to do, and elect his son in his stead. But they overlooked the fact that a majority of the electors themselves, and probably the archbishops also, benefited directly or indirectly by the piracies on the Rhine. The answer to this request was the prompt hanging of three leading merchants, the imprisonment of a score of others, and a warning to the rest that the Shoemaker should stick to his last, leaving high politics to those born to rule. This misguided effort caused the three archbishops to arrest Prince Roland, the Emperor's only son, and incarcerate him in Ehrenfels, a strong castle on the Rhine belonging to the Archbishop of Mainz, who was thus made custodian of the young man and responsible to his brother prelates of the Cologne and Trevez for the safekeeping of the Prince. The archbishops, as has been said, were too well satisfied with the weak administration then established at Frankfurt to wish a change. So the lad was removed from the capital that the citizens of Frankfurt might be under no temptation to place him at their head and endeavor to overturn the existing order of things. This being the state of affairs in Frankfurt, with everyone gloomy and a majority starving, it was little wonder that the main cellar of the Rhine gold tavern should be empty, although when times were good it was difficult to find a seat there after the sun went down. But in the smaller Kaiser cellar along each side of the single long table sat young men numbering a score, who ate black bread and drank Rhine wine to the roaring of song and the telling of story. They formed a close coterie admitting no stranger to their circle if one dissenting voice was raised against his acceptance. Yet in spite of this exclusiveness there was not a drop of noble blood in the company. They belonged, however, to the aristocracy of craftsmen, metal workers for the most part, ingenious artificers and iron, beaters of copper, fashioners of gold and silver, glorious blacksmiths they called themselves, but now like everyone else with nothing to do. In spite of their city upreading all were stalwart, well set up young men and indeed the swinging of hammers is good exercise for the muscles of the arm. And in those turbulent days a youth who could not take care of himself with his stick or his fist was like to fair ill if he ventured forth after nightfall. This indeed had been the chief reason for the forming of their guild. And if one of their number was set upon, the secret call of the organization shouted aloud brought instant help were any of the members within hearing. Belonging neither to the military nor the aristocracy, they were not allowed to wear swords and to obtain this privilege was one of the objects of their organization. Indeed each member of the guild secretly possessed the weapon of the best, although he risked his neck if ever he carried it abroad with him. Among their number were three of the most expert sword makers in all Germany. These three sword makers had been instrumental in introducing to their order the man who was now its leader. This youth came to one of them with ideas concerning the proper construction of a sword and the balancing of it so that it hung easily in the hand as though part of the forearm. Usually the expert has small patience with the theories of an amateur, but this young fellow whose ambition it was to invent a sword possessed such intimate knowledge of the weapon as it was used not only in Germany, but also in France and Italy. That the sword maker introduced him to fellow craftsmen at other shops and they taught him how to construct a sword. These instructors, learning that although as Roland Laffingley said he was not allowed to wear a sword he could wield it with a precision little short of marvelous. The guild gave permission for the stranger to be a guest at one of their weekly meetings at the Kaiser cellar where he exhibited his wonderful skill. Not one of them nor indeed all of them together stood any chance when confronting him. They clamored to be taught offering good money for the lessons believing that if they acquired but a tithe of his excellence with the blade they might venture to wear it at night and let their skill save them from capture, but the young fellow refused their money and somewhat hotly declined the role of fencing master whereupon they unanimously elected him a member of the coterie waving for this one occasion the rule which forbade the choice of any but a metal worker. When the stranger accepted the election he was informed that it was the duty of each member to come to the aid of his brethren when required and they therefore requested him to teach them swordmanship. Roland Laffingley seeing how he had been trapped as it were with his own consent acceded to the universal wish and before a year had passed his twenty comrades were probably the leading swordsmen in the city of Frankfurt. Shortly after the disaster to the merchants fleet at the Lorely Roland disappeared without a word of farewell to those who had come to think so much of him. He had been extremely reticent regarding his profession if he had one and no one knew where he lodged. It was feared that the authorities had arrested him with the sword in his possession for he grew more reckless than any of the others in carrying the weapon. One night however he reappeared and took his seat at the head of the table as if nothing had happened. Evidently he had traveled far in on foot for his clothes were dusty and the worst for wear. He refused to give any account of himself but admitted that he was hungry, thirsty and in need of money. His hunger and thirst were speedily satisfied but the money scarcity was not so easily remedied. All the score arrived of employment with the exception of the three sword makers who's trade the uncertainty of the times augmented rather than diminished. The cheer up Roland who was a young fellow of unquenchable geniality they elected him to the empty honor of being their leader. Kurzbold's term of office having ended. The guild met every night now instead of once a week and it may be shrewdly suspected that the collation of black bread and sausage formed a soul meal of the day for many of them. Nevertheless their hilarity was undiminished and the raptors rang with song and laughed and echoed also melodictions upon a supine government and on the rapacious ryan lords but the bestowal of even black bread and the least expensive of wine could not continue indefinitely. They owed a bill to the landlord upon which that worthy patient as he had proved himself always hoping for better times wished for at least something on account. All his other customers had deserted him and if they drank it all chose some place where the wine was thin and cheap. The landlord held out bravely for three months after Roland was elected president then bemoaning his fate informed the guild that he would be compelled to close the ryan gold tavern. Give me a week cried Roland rising in his place at the head of the table and I will make an effort to get enough gold to settle the bill at least with perhaps something over for each of our pockets. This promise brought forth applause and a rattle of flagans on the table so palpably empty that the ever hopeful landlord proceeded forthwith to fill them. There is one Provisio said Roland as they drank his health in the wine his offer produced to get this money I must do something in return. I have a plan in mind which it would be premature to disclose. If it succeeds none of us will ever need to bend back over a workman's bench again or hammer metal except for our own pleasure but acting alone I am powerless so I must receive your promise that you will stand by any pledge I make on your behalf and follow me into whatever danger I choose to lead you. There was a great uproar at this and a boisterous consent. This is day week then said Roland as he strapped sword to side through cloak over shoulders so that it completely concealed the forbidden weapon waved a hand to his cheering comrades and went out into the night once ascended the cellar steps the young man stood in the narrow street as though hesitating what to do faintly there came to him the sound of singing from the cellar he had quitted and he smiled slightly as he listened to the rousing chorus he knew so well from the direction of the palace a more sinister echo floated on the night air the unmistakable howl of anger pain and terror the noise that a pursued and stricken mob makes when driven by soldiers the populace had evidently been engaged in its futile and dangerous task of demonstrating and proclaiming its hunger and the authorities were scattering it keeping it ever on the move it was still early not yet 10 o'clock and a full moon shown over the city unlighted otherwise drawing his cloak closer about him Roland walked rapidly in an opposite direction to that from which the tumult of the rabble came until he arrived at the wide for goss a street running north and south at southern end terminating at the old bridge along this thoroughfare lived the wealthiest merchants of frankfort Roland turned and proceeded slowly towards the river critically examining the tall picturesque buildings on either hand cogitating the question which of them would best answer his purpose they all seemed uninviting enough for their windows were dark most of them tightly shuttered and indeed the thoroughfare looked like a street of the dead the deserted appearance enhanced rather than relieved by the white moonlight lying on its cobblestones nearing the bridge he discovered one stout door or jar on behind it shown the yellow glow of a lamp he paused and examined critically the facade of the house which with its quiet dignified architectural beauty seemed to the abode of wealth although the shutters were closed his intent inspection showed him thin shafts of light from the chinks and he surmised that an assemblage of some sort was in progress probably a secret convention the members of which entered unannounced and left the door a jar ready for the next comer for a moment he thought of venturing in but remembering his mission required the convincing of one man rather than the persuasion of a group he for a bore but noted in his mind that the position and the designation of the house resolving to select this building as the theater of his first effort and returned to it next morning it would serve his purpose as well as another Roland's attention was then suddenly directed to his own position standing in the bright moonlight for their swung round from the river road into the furgos a small and silent company who marched as one man the moon was shining almost directly up the street but the houses to the west stood in its radiance while those in the east were still in shadow Roland pressed himself back against the darkened wall to his left near the partially opened door between it and the river the silent procession advanced to the door jar and they're paused forming their ranks into two lines thus making a passage for a tall fine-looking bearded man who walked to the threshold then turned and raised his bonnet in salute my friends he said this is kind of you and although i have been silent i ask you to believe that deeply i appreciate your welcome escort and now enter with me and we will drink a stoop of wine together to the somber toast god save our stricken city no no air gabel tonight is sacred we have seen you safely to your waiting family and at that reunion there should be no intruders but tomorrow night if you will have us we will drink to the city and to your own good health air go bell this sentiment was applauded by all and the merchant seemed that they would not accept his present invitation bowed in acquiescence and bade them goodbye when the door closed the delegation separated into units and each went his own way Roland stepping out of the shadow accosted the rearmost man pardon me manair he said but may i ask what ceremony is this in which you have been taking part the person accosted looked at with some alarm at his questioner but the moonlight revealed a face singularly gentle and winning a face that in spite of its youth inspired instinctive confidence the tone too was very persuasive and seemed to devoid even of the offense of curiosity to his no ceremony said the delegate but merely the return home of our friend air go bell has he then been on a journey sir you are very young and probably unacquainted with frankfort i have lived here my whole life said roland i am a native of frankfort in that case replied the other you show yourself amazingly ignorant of its concerns otherwise you would know that air go bell is one of the leading merchants of the city a man honorable enlightened and energetic an example to us all and one is deemed alike by noble or peasant we honor ourselves in honoring him air go bell should be proud of such commendation manair coming i judge from one to whom the words you use might also be applied the merchant bowed gravely at this compliment but made no remark upon it pardon my further curiosity continued the young man but from whence does air go bell return he comes from prison said the other he made the mistake of thinking that our young prince would prove a better ruler than his father our emperor and but that they are bishops feared a riot if they went to extremes air go bell ran great danger of losing his life rather than his liberty what say you mean air interest me very much and they thank you for your courtesy my excuse for questioning you is this i am moved by a desire to enter the employee of such a man as air go bell and i propose calling upon him tomorrow if you think he would be good enough to receive me he will doubtless receive you reply the other but i am quite certain your mission will fail at the present moment none of us are engaging clerks however competent ignorant though you are of civic affairs you must be aware that all business is at a standstill in frankfort although air go bell has said nothing about it i learned from an unquestionable source that he himself is keeping from starvation all his former employees so i am sure he would not take on for a stranger any further obligation sir i am well acquainted with the position of affairs and it is to suggest a remedy that i desire speech with air go bell i do not possess the privilege of acquaintance with any merchant in the city so one object of my accosting you was to learn if possible how i might secure some note of introduction to the merchant that would ensure his receiving me and obtained from a hearing when once i had been admitted to his house if roland expected the stranger to volunteer such a note he quite underestimated the caution of a frankfort merchant as i said before you will meet with no difficulty so far as entrance to the house is concerned may i take it that you yourself understand the art of writing oh yes replied roland then indict your own letter of introduction say that you have evolved a plan for the redemption of frankfort and air go bell will receive you without demure he will listen patiently and give a definite decision regarding the feasibility of your project and now good sir my way lies to the left i wish you success and bid you good night the stranger left roland standing in the intersection of two streets one of which led to the salhoff they had been approaching the romberg or marketplace the center of frankfort when the merchants so suddenly ended the conversation and turned aside roland remembered that no jew was allowed to set foot in the romberg and now surmise the nationality of his late companion the youth proceeded alone through the romberg and down directly to the river reaching the spot where the huge salhoff faced its flood roland saw that triple guards surrounded the emperors palace the mob had been cleared away but no one was allowed to linger in its precincts and the youth was gruffly ordered to take himself elsewhere which he promptly did walking up the sal gaze and past the cathedral until he came once more into the fire gas down which he proceeded pausing for another glance at gobell's house until he came to the bridge where he stood with arms resting on the parapet thoughtfully shaping in his mind what he would say to air gobell in the morning along the opposite side of the river lay a compact mass of barges ugly somber black in the moonlight silent witnesses to the ruin of frankfort the young man gazed at this melancholy accumulation of useless floating stock and breathed the deeper when he reflected that whoever could set these boats in motion again would prove himself temporarily at least the savior of the city when the bells began to toll 11 roland roused himself walked across the bridge to socks and housing and so to squalid lodging consoling himself with the remembrance that the great king charlemagne had made this his own place of residence here before retiring to bed he wrote the letter which he was to send in the next day to air gobell composing it with some care so that it aroused curiosity without satisfying it it was half past 10 next morning when roland presented himself at the door of the leading merchant in the far gas and sent in to that worthy his judiciously worded a pistol he was kept waiting in the hall longer than he expected but at last the venerable porter appeared and said air gobell would be pleased to receive him he was conducted up the stair to the first floor and into a front room which seemed to be partly library and partly business office here seated at a stout table he recognized the grave burger whose homecoming he had witnessed the night before the keen eyes of the merchant seemed to penetrate to his inmost thought and it struck roland that there came into them an expression of disappointment for he probably did not expect so youthful a visitor will you be seated mean air said his host and roland with an inclination of the head accepted the invitation my time is very completely occupied today continue the elder man for although there is little business afoot in frankfort my own affairs have been rather neglected of late and i am endeavoring to overtake the arrears i know that said roland i stood by your door check last night when you returned home did you so may i ask why there is no particular reason it happened that i walked down the far gas endeavoring to make up my mind upon whom i should call today and why have i received the preference perhaps sir it would be more accurate to say your house received the preference if it is such i was struck by its appearance of solidarity and wealth and differing from all others in the door being a jar i lingered before it last night was some inclination to enter then the procession which accompanied you came along i heard your address to your friends and wondered what the formality was about after the door was closed i costed one of those who escorted you and learned your name business and reputation you must be a stranger in frankfurt when you needed to make such inquiry those are almost the same words that my acquaintance of last night used and he seemed astonished when i replied that i was born in frankfurt and had lived here all my life i suppose no man is so well known as he thinks he is but i ventured to assert that you are not engaged in business here sir you are in the right i fear i have hitherto led a somewhat useless existence on money earned by someone else perhaps again you hit the nail on the head ergo bell i lodge on the other side of the river and coming to and fro each day the site of all those useless barges depresses me and i have formulated a plan for putting them in motion again i fear sir their wiser heads the nearest have been meditating upon that project without a veil i should have been more gratified ergo bell if you had said older heads the suspicion of a smile hovered for a brief instant around the shrewd firm lips of the merchant young sir your gentle reproof is deserved i know nothing of your wisdom and so should have referred to the age and not to the equipment of your head it occurs to me as i study you more closely that i have met you before your face seems familiar tiz but a chance resemblance i suspect until very recently i've been absorbed in my studies and rarely left my father's house i am doubtless mistaken but to return to our theme as you are ignorant of my name and standing in the city you are probably unaware of the efforts already made to remove the deadlock on the rine and that ergo bell you are at fault i know an expedition of folly was promoted at enormous expense and that the empty barges numbering something like five score now rest in the deepest part of the rine why do you call it an expedition of folly surely the result shows it to be such a plan may meet with disaster even with every precaution has been taken we did the best we could and if the men we had paid for the protection of the flotilla had not with base cowardice deserted their post these barges would have reached cologne never the defenders you chose were riffraff picked up in the gutters of frankfort and you actually supposed such cattle undisciplined and untrained would stand up against the fearless fighters of the barons swashbucklers hardened to the use of sword and pike what else was to be expected the goods were not theirs but yours they had received their pay and so speedily took themselves out of danger you forget sir or you do not know that several hundred of them are cut to pieces i know that also but the knowledge does not in the least nullify my contention i am merely endeavoring to show you that the heads you spoke of a moment ago were only older but not necessarily wiser than mine it would be impossible for me to devise an expedition so preposterous what should we have done for one thing you should have gone yourselves and defended your own bales the merchant showed visible signs of a slowly rising anger and had the young man's head contained the wisdom he appeared to claim for it he would have known that his remarks were entirely lacking intact and that he was making no progress but rather the reverse you speak like a heedless untutored youth how could we defend our bales with no merchant is allowed to wear a sword roll and rose and put his hands to the throat of his cloak i am not allowed to wear a sword and saying this he dramatically flung wide his cloak displaying the prohibited weapon hanging from his belt the merchant set back in his chair visibly impressed you seem to repose great confidence in me he said what if i were to inform the authorities the youth smiled you forget ergo bell that i learned much about you from your friend last night i feel quite safe in your house he flung his cloak once more over the weapon and sat down again what is your occupation sir asked the merchant i am a teacher of swordmanship i practice the art of a fencing master your clients are aristocrats then not so the class with which i am now engaged contains 20 skilled artisans of about my own age if they do not belong to the aristocracy your instruction must be surreptitious because it is against the law it is both surreptitious and against the law but in spite of these disadvantages my 20 pupils are the best swordsmen in frankfort and i would willingly pit them against any 20 nobles with whom i am acquainted so cried the merchant you are acquainted with 20 nobles are you well you see explained the young man fleshing slightly these metal workers whom i drill being out of employment cannot afford to pay for their lessons and naturally as you indicated a fencing master must look to the nobles for his bread i used the word acquaintance hastily i'm acquainted with the nobles in the same way that a clerk in the woolen trade might say he was acquainted with the score of merchants to none of whom he had ever spoken i see am i to take it that your project for opening the ryan depends for its success on those 20 metal workers who quite lawlessly know how to handle their swords yes tell me what your plan is i do not care to disclose my plan even to you i thought you came here hoping i should further your project and perhaps finance it am i wrong in such a surmise sir you are not the very first proviso is that you pay to me across this table a thousand thailers in gold a smile came again to the lips of the merchant anything else he asked yes you will select one of your largest barges and fill it with whatever class of goods you deal in don't you know what class of goods i deal in no i do not gobel's smile broadened that a you so ignorant of everything pertaining to the commerce of frankfort should come in this boldly and demand a thousand thailers in gold from a man whose occupation he did not know seemed to the merchant one of the greatest pieces of impudence he had encountered in his long experience of men after all my merchandise he said matters little one way or another when i am engaged with such a customer as you what next you will next place a price upon the shipload a price such as you would accept if the boat reached cologne intact i agree to pay you that money together with the thousand thailers when i return to frankfort and when will that be young sir you are better able to estimate the length of time than i i do not know for instance how long it takes a barge to voyage from frankfort to cologne given feather weather which we may expect in july and promising that there are no interruptions let us say a week would a man journeying on horseback from cologne to frankfort reach here sooner than the boat the barge having to make headway against a strong current i should say the horsemen would accomplish the trip in a third of the time very well to allow it for all contingencies i promise to pay the money one month from the day we leave the wharf at frankfort that would be imminently satisfactory i forgot to mention that i expect you knowing more about navigation than i to supply a trustworthy captain and an efficient crew for the manning of the barge i should like men who understand the currents of the river and who have questioned by the barons would not be likely to tell more than they were asked i can easily provide such a set of sailors very well ergo bell those are my requirements will you agree to supply them with great pleasure my young and enthusiastic friend provided that you comply with one of the most common of our commercial rules and what is that minor before you depart you will leave with me ample security that if i never see you again the value of the goods plus the thousand thailers will be repaid to me when the month is passed ah said the young man you impose an impossible condition give me a bond then signed by three responsible merchants sir as i am acquainted with no merchant in this city except yourself how could i hope to obtain the signature of even one responsible man how then do you expect to obtain my consent to a project which i know cannot succeed while i bear all the risk pardon me ergo bell i am my comrades risk our lives you risk merely your money in your goods you intend then to fight your way down the rine surely how else supported by only 20 followers yes and you hope to succeed where a thousand of our men failed yes they were hirelings as i told you with my 20 i could put them all to flight aside from this i should like to point out to you that the merchants of frankfort formed their combination at public meetings called together by the barco master there was no secrecy about their deliberations every robber baron along the ryan knew what you were going to attempt and was prepared for your coming i intend that your bar shall leave frankfort at midnight my company will proceed across the country and join her at some agreed spot probably below binyin i see well my young friend you have placed before me a very interesting proposal but i am a businessman and not an adventurer unless you can furnish me with security i declined to advance a single thaler not to mention a thousand the young man rose to his feet in the merchant with the sigh seemed glad that the conference was ended ergo bell you deeply disappoint me i am sorry for that and regret the forfeiting of your good opinion but despite that disadvantage i must persist in my obstinacy i do not wonder that this fair city lies desolate if her prosperity depends upon her merchants and if you are a chief among them yet i cannot forget that you risked life and liberty on my behalf though now you will not venture a miserable thousand failures on my word of honor on your behalf what do you mean i mean ergo bell that i am prince roland only son of the emperor and that you placed your neck in jeopardy to elevate me to the throne end of chapter one chapter two part one of the sword maker this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox dot org recording by roman noble roman noble dot com the sword maker by robert bar chapter two part one every epoch seems to have possessed a two word phrase that contained as it were the condensed wisdom of the age and was universally believed by the people for instance the aphorism know thyself rose to popularity when cultured minds turned towards science and the period to which this recital belongs the adage blood tells enjoyed universal acceptance it was in fact that erroneous statement the king can do no wrong done up into tabloid form from it to spring that double worded maxim of the day of chivalry no bless oblige and our own time the two worded phrases money talks and if diligent inquirers probe deeply into the matter they will find that the aspirations of the people always correspond with reasonable accuracy to the meaning of the phrase then in use nothing could be more excellent for instance than the proverb money talks as representing two commercial countries like america and england in that short sentence is packed the essence of many other wise and drastic sayings as for instance the devil take the hindmost for of course if money talks then the man without it must remain silent and his place is at the tail of the procession or the devil prowls about like a cossack at the rear of napoleon's army confronting each other in that ancient house on the fargos we witnessed then the personification of the two phrases ancient and modern blood represented by the standing lad and money by the seated merchant i am prince roland only son of the emperor the young man had said and he saw it once by the expression on the face of his host that could he be convinced of the truth of the assertion the thousand thailers that the prince had demanded would be his on the instant for a full minute roland thought he had succeeded but as the surprise died out of the merchant's countenance there replaced it that mask of caution which had had so much to do with the building of his fortune during their conference ergo bell crudgelt his brain trying to remember where he had seen this young man before but memory had roamed among clerks salesmen and industrious people of that sort were somehow this young fellow did not fit in when roland suddenly sprang on him the incredible statement that he was a member of the imperial family the merchant's recollection then turned towards pageants he had seen and one of which this young stranger might very well have borne apart blood was beginning to tell but now experience came to the merchant's aid only in romances did princess of the blood royal wonder about like troubadours even a member of the lesser nobility did not call unheralded at the house of a merchant the aristocracy always wanted money it is true but what they thought they might require they went and took as witness the piratical barons of the rine whose exactions brought misery on the great city of frankfort then all at once came the clenching remembrance that when the electors were appealed to on behalf of the young prince the three arch bishops had promptly seized his royal highness and in spite of the pleadings of the empress the emperor was drunk and indifferent placed him in the custody of the arch bishop nearest to frankfort the warrior prelate of my aunts who imprisoned him in the strong fortress of erinfels from which well guarded and isolated as it was upon a crag overhanging the rine no man could escape will you kindly be seated again sir requested the merchant and if he had spoken a short time before he would have put the phrase your royal highness in the place of the word sir rolling after a moment's hesitation sat down he saw that his coup had failed because he was unable to back it up by proofs his dramatic action had been like a brilliant calvary charge for a moment successful but coming to not because there was no solid infantry to turn the temporary confusion of the enemy into complete route realizing that the battle must be fought over again the prince set back with the sigh of disappointment a shade of discontent on his handsome face find myself and rather a quandary preceded the merchant if indeed you are the emperor's son it is not for such as i to cross examine you ask me any questions you like sir i shall answer them promptly enough if i beg you to supply proof of the statement you make you would be likely to reply that as you dared not enter your father's palace you are unable to furnish me with cooperation sir you put the case in better language than i could employ in more halting terms that is what i should have said when were you last in the palace about the same time sir that you took up your residence in prison ah yes that naturally would be your answer now my young friend you have shown me that you know nothing of mercantile practice therefore it may perhaps interest you if i explain some of our methods ergo bell you may save your breath such a recital must not only fail to interest me but will bore me extremely i care nothing for your mercantile procedure and to be quite plain with you i despise your trade and find some difficulty in repressing my contempt for those who practice it if an emissary of mine returned gobell and perturbed approach to client or customer for the purpose of obtaining a favor and used as little tact as you do i should dismiss him i'm not asking any favors from you you wish me to hand over to you a thousand thailers otherwise why came you here i desire to bestow upon you the greatest of boons namely to open up the rine and bring back prosperity to frankfort which you brainless cowardly merchants have allowed to slip through your fingers blaming now the barons now the emperor now the electors centering everybody in fact except the real culprits yourselves you speak of the money as a favor but is merely in advance for a few weeks and will be returned to you yet because i desire to confer this inestimable gift upon you in your city you expect me to cringe to you and flatter you as if i were a member of your own sycophantic league i refuse to do anything of the kind and yet by god i'll have the money the merchant for the first time during their conference laughed heartily the young man's face was aflame with anger yet the truculent words he used did more to convince ergo bell that he belonged to the aristocracy than if he had spoken with the most exemplary humility gobell felt convinced he was not the prince but some young noble who intimate with the royal family and knowing the emperor's son to be out of the way thought it's safe to assume his name the better to carry forward his purpose whatever that purpose might actually be that it was to open the rine he did not for a moment credit and that he would ever see his cash again if once he parted with it he could not believe at the risk of tiring you i shall nevertheless proceed with what i am about to say we merchants for our own protection contribute to a fund which might be entitled one for secret service this fund enables us to procure private information that may be of value in our business among other things we need to know our accurate details pertaining to the intentions and doings of our rulers for whatever our own shortcomings may be the actions of those above us affect business one way or the other may i read you a short report that came in while i was serving my term of imprisonment i'll read what you like said rolling indifferently throwing back his head and partially closing his eyes with an air of ennui the merchant drew towards him a file of papers and going through them carefully selected a document and drew it forth then clearing his throat he read aloud at an hour after midnight on saint stannis slas day three nobles one representing the archbishop of my second the archbishop of travez and the third the archbishop of cologne armed with authority from these three electors and princes of the church entered the salhoff from the side facing the river and arrested in his bed the young prince roland they assured the empress who protested that the prince would be well cared for and that as an insurrection was feared in frankfurt it was considered safer that the person whom they intended to elevate to the throne on the event of the emperor's death should be out of harm's way being placed under the direct care of the archbishop of my aunts they informed the empress that the archbishops would not remove the prince from the palace in opposition to the wishes of either the emperor or herself but if this permission was not given a meeting of the electors would at once be called and someone else selected to succeed the present ruler this consideration exerted a great influence upon the empress who counseled her son to acquiesce the young man was led to a boat then in waiting by the river steps of the palace and so conveyed down the main to the rine which was reached just after daybreak without landing and keeping as much as possible to the middle of the river the party proceeded down the rine past being in to the foot of the craig on which stands the castle of arafels their prince was taken up to the castle where he now remains the archbishops from their revenues a lot to him 700 thailers a month in addition to his maintenance it is impossible for him to escape from the stronghold unnated and as the emperor takes no interest in the matter and the empress has given her consent he is like to be an inmate of air and fells during the pleasure of the archbishops who doubtless will not elect him to the throne in succession unless he proves compliant to their wishes the prince may be a young man of no particular force of character the merchant paused in his reading and looked across at his visa v with a smile but the latter appeared to be asleep he will probably succumb to the archbishops therefore merchants are advised to base no hopes upon an improvement in affairs even though the son should succeed the father despite the precautions taken the arrest and imprisonment of the prince and even the place of his detention became rather generally known in frankfort but the news is in the form of rumor only and excites little interest throughout the city there sir roland what do you say to that nothing much reply roland the account might have stated that in the boat were five roars who worked lustily until we reached the rine when the wind being favorable a sail was hoisted and with the current assisting the wind we made excellent time to air and fells i observe further that your secret service keeps you very well informed and therefore withdraw a tithe of the harsh things i have said regarding the stupidity of the merchants many thanks for the concession said gobell replacing the document with its fellows now as a plain and practical man what strikes me is this you need only return to air and fells for two months and as there is little use for money in that fortress your maintenance being guaranteed and 700 thailers allowed you can come away with 400 thailers more than the sum you demand from me and thus put your project into force without being under obligations to any despised merchant true ergo bell but can you predict what will happen in frankfort before two months are passed you learn from that document that the shrewd archbishops anticipate an insurrection and doubtless they command the force at hand ready to crush it but during this conflict which you seem to regard so lightly does it ever occur to you that the merchant's palaces along the far gas may be sacked and burnt that of course is possible commented the merchant nay it is absolutely certain civil war means ruin to innocent and guilty alike you are in the right now will you tell me how you escaped from Aaron fells yes if you agree to my terms without further haggling I shall agree to your terms if I believe your story it seems impossible sir to pin you down to any definite bargain is this the way you conduct your business yes unless I am well assured of the good faith of my customer I offered you ordinary business terms when I asked for security or for the signature of three responsible merchants to your bond it is because I am a merchant and not a speculator that I haggle as you term it very well then I will tell you how I got away but I begin my recital rather hopelessly for you always leave yourself a loophole of escape if you believe my story you say yes could I weave a romance about tearing my sheets into ropes of luring myself in the dark from the battlements to the ground of an alarm given of tortures flashing of diving into the Rhine and swimming under the water until I nearly strangled of floating down over the rapids with arrows whizzing round me in the night of climbing dripping to the farther shore far from side of the Aaron fells then doubtless you would believe but my escape was prosaically commonplace depending on the cupidity of one man the material for it was placed in my hands by the arch bishops themselves your account states that the castle is well guarded so it is but when the arch bishop needs an augmentation of his force he withdraws his men's from Aaron fells to my ends as my prison is the nearest of his possessions to his capital city and thus at times it happens that the castle is bereft of all save the custodian and his family his eldest son happens to be of my own age and not unlike me in appearance none of the guards saw me except the custodian and you must remember he was a very complacent jailer for the reason that he knew well every rising son might bring with it tidings that I was his emperor so he cultivated my acquaintance to learn in his own thrifty peasant way what manner of ruler I might become and I having no one else to talk to made much of his company frequently he impressed upon me that his task of jailer was most irksome to him but poverty compelling what could he do he swore he would accomplish whatever was in his power to mitigate my captivity and this indeed did so at last when the castle was empty I made him a proposal now remember sir merchant that what I tell you is in confidence and should you break faith with me I will have you hanged if I become emperor or slit your throat with my own sword if I don't go on I shall tell no one I said to my jailer there are not half a dozen people in this world who know me by sight and among that half dozen no elector is included outside the palace of frankfort I am acquainted with a sword maker or two and about a score of good fellows who are friends of theirs but to them I am merely a fencing master now 700 thailers a month pass through your honest hands to mine and will continue to do so your son seems to be even more silent than yourself and he is a young fellow whom I suspect knows the difference between a thailer and a button on his own coat if you do what I wish there will be some slight risk but think of the reward immediate and in future and once you will come into an income of 700 thailers a month if I am elected emperor I shall ennoble you and present you with the best post in the land if you don't do what I wish I shall cause your head cut off as the first act of my first day of power you did not threaten to slit his throat with your own sword failing your elevation as the merchant with a smile no he was quite safe from my vengeance unless I came to the throne in that case I should say the custodian need not fear the future but please go on with your account I proposed that his son and I should exchange costumes in short the young man was to take my place occupying the suite of rooms assigned to me in the castle I told his father there was not the slightest fear of discovery for if the archbishop of Mayans sent someone to see that the prince was safe or even came himself all the young man need do was to follow my example and keep silent for I had said nothing from the time I was roused in my room in the salhoff until I was lodged in Erephels I promised if set at liberty to keep within touch of frankfurt where at the first rumor of any crisis I could return instantly to Erenfels the custodian is a slow minded man although not so laggard in coming to an agreement as yourself he took a week to turn the matter over in his mind and then made the plunge he is now jailer to his own son and that young peasant lives in a style he never dreamed of before the archbishops are satisfied because they believe I cannot escape from the stronghold like yourself holding but a poor opinion of my abilities and their devout lordships know that outside the fortress no person not even my mother wishes me forth I took in my wallet 500 thailers and fared like the peasant I seem to be down the Rhine now on one side now on the other until I came to the ancient town of Kosterbannensia of the Romans which named the inhabitants now shortened to bond there I found the archbishop in residence and not at Cologne as I had supposed the town being thronged with soldiers and inquisitive people of Cologne's court I returned up the Rhine again remembering I had gone rather far afield and although you may not believe it I called upon my old friend the custodian of verifels and enjoyed an excellent meal with him consuming some of the seductive wine that is grown on the same side of the river about a league above Aaron fells I dare say said the merchant that I can give the reason for this apparently reckless visit of yours to Aaron fells you were in want of money the 500 thailers being spent sir you are exactly in the right and I got it too without nearly so much talk as I have been compelled to waste on the present occasion what was your object in going down the river instead of turning to Frankfurt I had become interested in my prison and had studied methods by which it could be successfully attacked I knew that my father allowed the barons of the Rhine to override him and I wondered if his wisdom was greater than I thought probably said I to myself he knew their castles to be impregnable but with the curiosity of youth I desired to form an opinion of my own I therefore lodged as a wayfarer at every castle too I could gain admittance making friends with some underling and getting a bed on occasion in the stables although often I lodged within the castle itself thus I came to the belief which I bring to you that assisted by 20 fearless men I can capture any castle on the Rhine with the exception of three and now ergo bell I have said all I intend to say do you discredit my story the merchant gazed across at him quizzically for some time without making any reply then he said do you think I believe you frankly I do not if I am unable to give you the gold I can at least furnish some good advice set up as a poet good master Roland and we for our delectation stories of the Rhine I think your imagination if cultivated would give you a very high place among the romancers of our time with the patience that ergo bell had not expected Roland replied it grieves me to return empty handed to my 20 friends who last night made me a very confident adieu yes they will be very disappointed and I truly suspect that my thousand thailers would not go towards the prosecuting of the expedition you have outlined a rather infesting and in wine again sir you are right it is unfortunate that I am so often compelled to corroborate your statements when all the acumen with which you credit my mind is turned towards the task approving you a purse proud fool puffed up in your own conceit and as short-sighted as an owl in the summer sunlight however let us stick to our text if what I said had been true although of course you know it isn't you have nevertheless enough common sense to be aware that I would certainly show a pardonable reluctance about visiting my father's palace it is thronged with spies of the archbishop and although as I have said I am not very well known there is a chance that one or another might recognize me and then almost instantly a man on a swift horse would be on his way to my ends if I knew that I had been discovered I should make it once for Erenfels arriving there before an investigation was held but my 20 comrades would wait for me in vain nevertheless I shall venture into the south off this very afternoon and bring to you a letter written by my mother certifying that I am her son would that convince you yes were I sure the signature was genuine ah there you go again always a loophole the young man spoke in accents of such genuine despair that his host was touched despite his incredulity look you hear he said bending across the table there is of course one chance in 10 000 that you are what you say I have never seen the signature of the empress and such a missive could easily be forged by a scholar which I take you to be if then you wish to convince me I'll put before you a test which will be greatly to your advantage in which I will accept without the loophole in heaven's name let's hear what it is there is something that you cannot forge the great seal of the realm attached to all documents signed by the emperor I have had no dealings with my father for years cried the young man I have not even seen him these many past months I can obtain the signature of my mother to anything I like to write but not that of my father patience patience said the merchant holding up his hand it is well known that the empress can bend the emperor to her will when she chooses to exert it you see in spite of all I am quite taking it for granted that you are the prince otherwise tour useless to waste time in this talk you display all the confidence of youth and speaking of the exploits you propose and indeed it is cheering for a middle aged person like myself to meet one so confident of anything in these pessimistic days but have you considered what will happen if something goes wrong during one of your raids nothing can go wrong I feel no fear on that score end of chapter two part one chapter three of the sword maker this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Theseus Francis the sword maker by Robert Barr chapter three dissension in the iron workers guild up to the time of his midnight awakening prince Roland had led a carefree uneventful life although he received the general education supposed to be suitable for a youth of his station he interested himself keenly in only two studies but as one of these challenged the other as it were the result was entirely to the good he was a very quiet boy much under the influence of his mother seeing little or nothing of his easygoing inebriated father it was his mother who turned her son's attention towards the literature of his country and he became an omnivorous reader of the old monkish manuscripts with which the palace was well supplied especially had his mind been attracted by the stories and the legends of the Rhine the mixture of history fiction and superstition which he found in these vellum pages so daintily limbed and so artistically embellished with initial letters and gold and crimson and blue fascinated him and filled him with that desire to see those grim strongholds on the mountain sides by the river which later on resulted in his journey from Erenfels to Bonn when his ingenuity and the cupidity of his custodian freed him from the very slight thralldom in which he was held by the archbishop of Mayance if his attention had been entirely absorbed by the reading of these tomes he might have become a mere dreamy bookworm his intellect saturated with the sentimental and romantic mysticism permeating Germany even unto this day and as he cared nothing for the sports of boyhood body might have suffered as brain developed but luckily he had been placed under the instruction of rinaldo the greatest master of the sword that the world had up to that period produced rinaldo was an italian from Milan whom gold tempted across the alps for the purpose of instructing the emperor's son in frankfort he was a man of grace and politeness and young rolin took to him from the first exhibiting such aptitude in the art of fencing that the italian was not only proud of one who did such credit to his tuition but came to love the youth as if he were his own son for the sword making of germany the italian expressed the utmost contempt the course weapons produced by the iron workers of frankfort needed strength rather than skill in their manipulation between the italian method and the german was all the contrast that exists between the catching of salmon with a delicate line and a gossamer fly or clubbing the fish to death as did the boatman at that fishery called the wag down the rine by saint gore roland listened intently and without defense to the dire tribe against his country's weapons and the clumsy method of using them but although he said nothing he formed opinions of his own believing there was some merit in strength which the italian ignored so studying the subject he himself invented a sword which while lacking the stoutness of the german weapon retained some of its stability and was almost as easily handled as the italian rapier without the disadvantage of its extreme frailty thus it came about that young roland stole away from the palace and made the acquaintance of the sword makers the practice of fencing exercises every muscle in the body and roland's constant bouts with rinaldo did more than make him a master of the weapon with equal facility in his right arm or his left it produced an athlete of the first quality agile and strong developing his physical powers universally and not in any one direction meanwhile roland remained deplorably ignorant regarding affairs of state this being a subject of which his mother knew nothing the emperor who should have been his son's natural teacher gave his whole attention to the wine flag and letting affairs drift towards disaster allowing the power that deserted his trembling fingers to be grasped by stronger but unauthorized hands roland's surreptitious excursions into the city to confer with the sword makers taught him little of politics for his conversations with these mechanics were devoted entirely to metalworking he was hustled now and again by the turbulent mob in going to and fro but he did not know why it clamored and indeed took little interest in the matter conscious only that he came more and more to hate the city and loathe its inhabitants when he could have his own way he said to himself he would retire to some country castle with his father owned and there to vote himself to such employment as fell in with his wishes but he was to receive a sharp lesson that no man however highly placed is independent of his fellows he was unaware of the commotion that arose round his own name and of the grim hanging of the leaders who chose him as their supreme head when bewildered and sleepy he was aroused at midnight and saw three armed men standing by his bedside he received a shock that did more to awaken him than the grip of alien hands on his shoulders during that night ride in the boat he said nothing but thought much he had heard his mother plead for him without for a moment delaying his parter she evidently was powerless there was then in the land a force superior to that of the throne something that had been said quieted his mother's fears for at last she allowed him to go without further protest but weeping a little and embracing him much there was no roughness or rudeness on the part of those who conveyed him down the river main and finally along the Rhine to Erenfels but rather the utmost courtesy and deference yet Roland remained silent throughout the long journey agitated by this new invisible irresistible sovereignty animated with the will and power to do what it liked with him at the castle of Erenfels he found awaiting him no rigorous imprisonment he was treated as a welcome guest of an invisible host it was his conversations with the garrulous custodian who was a shrewd observer of the passing show that gradually awakened the young prince to some familiarity with the affairs of the country he learned now in what a deplorable state the capital stood through the ever-increasing exactions of the robber barons along the Rhine he asked his instructor why the merchants did not send their goods by some other route which was a very natural query but was told there existed no other route a great forest extended for the most part between frankfort and cologne and through the wilderness were no roads for even those constructed by the romans had been allowed to fall into decay overgrown with trees nature thus destroying the neglected handiwork of man the forest reclaiming its own indeed continued the custodian for the last ten years things have been going to the devil for the lack of a strong hand in the capital a strong hand is needed by nobles and outlaws alike we want to know Frederick Barbarossa the hangman's rope and the torch judiciously applied might be the saving of the country Erenfels belonging to the archbishop was not a nest of piracy and so its guardian could talk in this manner if he chose but had he uttered these sentiments farther down the Rhine he himself would have experienced the utility of the hangman's rope Roland knowing by this time who had taken him into custody said why do not the three archbishops put a stop to it they possessed the power the old jailer shrugged his shoulders my chief the great prelet of my aunts would do it speedily enough if he stood alone but the archbishops of treves have ever been robbers themselves and cologne is little better therefore they neutralize one another no two of them will allow the other to act fearing he may gain in power and thus upset the balance of responsibility which I assure your highness is very nicely adjust each of the three claim allegiance from this baron or the other and although the archbishops themselves may not lay told directly on the Rhine their ardent partisans do which produces a deadlock thus roland received an education not to be had in palaces and saying little beyond asking an occasional question he thought much and came to certain conclusions he arrived at an ambition to open the lordly Rhine and spend his time gathering knowledge and forming plans 12 hours after receiving the 500 collars from the merchant he again presented himself at the now familiar door in the fargas in the room on the first floor he found with her gobel a thick set heavily bearded weather beaten man who stood bonnet in hand while the merchant gave him final instructions good morning sir roland tried her gobel cheerfully he exhibited no resentment for his treatment of the night before and apparently daylight brought with it renewed confidence that the young man might succeed in his mission there was now no hesitation in the merchant's manner alert and decided almost trust seemed to have vanished this is captain blumenfels whom i put in charge of the barge and who has gathered together a crew on which he can depend although of course you must not expect them to fight no said roland i shall attend to that portion of the enterprise now captain blumenfels continued her gobel this young man is commander you are to obey him in every particular just as you would obey me the captain bowed without speaking i shall not detain you any longer captain as you will be anxious to see the bales disposed of to your liking on the barge the captain thereupon took himself off and roland came to the conclusion that he liked this rough and ready mariner with so little to say for himself a silent man of action evidently her gobel turned his attention to roland i have ordered bales of cloth the value of a trifle more than four thousand tallers to be placed in the barge he said the bales are numbered and i have given the captain an inventory showing the price of each i suppose you despise our vulgar traffic and indeed i had no thought of asking so highly placed a person as yourself to sell my goods therefore blumenfels will super intend the marketing when you reach cologne that is if you ever get so far you'll pardon her gobel but i have my own plans regarding the disposal of your goods i intend to be quit of them long before i see cologne indeed should i prosper i hope your boat will set its nose southward for the return journey some distance this side of corblance the merchant gazed up at him in astonishment your design is impossible there is no sale for cloth nearer than corblance your remarks prove you unacquainted with the river i have walked every foot of both sides of the river between erin fels and bonn there are many wealthy castles on this side of true my good sir true but how became they wealthy simply by robbing the merchants are you not aware that each of these castles is inhabited by a titled brigand you surely do not expect to sell my cloth to the barrens why not remember how long it is since the cloth barge went down the rine think for a moment of the arduous life with these barrens lead hunting the boar the bear and the deer tearing recklessly through thicket and over forest covered ground why our noble friends must be in rags by this time or clad in the skins of the beasts they kill they will be delighted to see and handle a piece of well-woven cloth once more for a full minute the merchant gaped aghast at the senseless talk so seriously put forward then a smile came to his lips prince roland i begin to understand you your words are on par with the practical joke you played upon me so successfully last night of course you know as well as i that the barrens will buy nothing they will take such goods as they want if you but give them opportunity what you say is merely your way of intimating it is none of my affair of how the goods are disposed of so long as you hand over to me four thousand tallers four thousand five hundred if you please i shall be quite content with the four thousand regarding the extra five hundred is paid for services rendered now can i do anything further to aid you yes i wish you to send a man on horseback to lorch there to await the barge choose a man as silent as your captain one whom you trust implicitly for i hope to send back with him four thousand five hundred tallers and also some additional gold which i beg of you to keep safely for me until i return prince roland there can be no gold for me at lorch dispatch a trustworthy man in case i receive the money you will be anxious to know how we prosper and i can at least forward a budget of news but should there be gold he cannot return safely with it to frankfurt oh yes if he keeps to the eastern bank of the rine there is no castle between lorch and frankfurt except erinfels and that being the property of the archbishop may be passed safely very well the man shall await you at lorch inquire for her pruger at mergler's inn that night in the kaiser cellar another excellent supper was spread before the members of the metal workers league it was quite as hilarious as the banquet of the night before perhaps more so because now for the first time in months the athletic young men were well fed with money in their pouches each was clad in a new suit of clothes nothing like uniformity and costume had been attempted there being but one day in which to replenish the wardrobes which involved the acquiring of garments already made however no trouble was experienced about this for each branch the metal workers had its own recognized outfit which was kept on hand in all sizes by various dealers catering to the wants of artisans from apprentices to masters of their trade the costumes were admirably adapted to the use for which they were intended there was nothing superfluous in their makeup and being loosely cut they allowed ample play to stalwart limbs for dealing with metal the wearers required a cloth tightly woven of a texture as nearly as possible resembling leather and better accoutrement for a rough and tumble freebooter's excursion could not have been found short of coats of mail or failing that of leather itself roland appeared in the trousers and double it of a sword maker and his comrades cheered loudly when he threw off his cloak and displayed for the first time that he was actually one of themselves hitherto something in the fashioning of his wearing apparel had in a manner differentiated him from the rest of the company but now nothing in his dress indicated that he was leader of their coterie and this pleased the independent metal workers the previous night after the landlord's bill was generously liquidated each man had received upwards of 30 tallers roland then related to them his adventure with the merchant and the result of his swordplay in the vicinity of her gobels throat two accomplishments he possessed endeared roland to his comrades first the ability to sing a good song and second his talent for telling an interesting story whether it was a personal adventure a legend of the rine or some tale of the gnomes which as everyone knows haunt the gloomy forests in the mountain regions his account of the evening spent with her gobble aroused much laughter and applause which greatly augmented when the material advantages of the interview were distributed among the guild this evening he purposed making a still more important disclosure thus when the meal was finished and the landlord after replenishing the flagans had retired the new swordmaker rose in his place at the head of the table i crave your strict attention for a few minutes although i refuse to confide my plans to her gobble i consider it my duty to inform you minutely of what is before us and if i speak with some solemnity it is because i realize we may never again meet round this table we depart from frankfort tomorrow upon a hazardous expedition and some of us may not return oh i say roland protested conrad kersbold don't mara jovial evening with a note of tragedy it's bad art you know kersbold was one of the three actual sword makers and had been president of the guild until he gave place to roland he was the oldest of the company an ambitious man a glib talker with great influence among his fellows and a natural leader of them what he said generally represented the opinion of the gathering for once kersbold i must ask you to forgive me persisted roland it is necessary that on this the last opportunity i should place before you exactly what i intend to do i'm very anxious not to minimize the danger i wish no man to follow me blindfold thus i speak early in the evening that you may not be influenced by the enthusiasm of wine and coming to a decision i desire each man here to estimate the risk and shoes before we separate tonight whether or not he will accompany the expedition here is the compact made with hair gobel i promise that with the help of my comrades i would endeavor to open the rine to mercantile traffic on the strength of such a promise he gave me the money at this announcement rose a wild round of applause and with the thunder of flagans on the table and the shouting of each member no single voice could make itself heard above the tumult these lads had no conception of the perils they were to face and roland alone remained imperturable becoming more and more serious as the uproar went on when at last quiet was restored he continued with a gravity and striking contrast to the hilarity of his audience hair gobel is filling his largest barge with bales of cloth and he has engaged an efficient crew and a capable captain who will assume charge of the navigation the barge will proceed tomorrow night down the main leaving frankfort as un ostentatiously as possible while we march across the country to osmondhausen and there join this craft it is essential that no hint of our intentions shall spread abroad and gossipy frankfort therefore depending on captain blumenfels to get his boat clear of the city without observation and before the moon rises i ask you to leave tomorrow separately by different gates meeting me at hushed something more than two leagues down the river i dare say you all know the electors palace whose beautiful tower is a landmark for the country round i protest against such a rendezvous objected kersbald make it the tavern of the nasaur hoff roland we shall all be thirsty after a walk of two leagues not at that time in the morning i hope said roland for i shall await you in the shadow of the tower at nine o'clock let every man drink his fill tonight for i intend to lead a sober company from hush tomorrow oh you're optimistic roland cried john ginsbein give us till twelve o'clock to cool our heads drink all you wish this evening repeated roland but tomorrow we begin our work with a long day's march ahead of us so nine is none too early for a start from hushed sufficient to the day is the wine thereof said konrad kersbald rising to his feet wine blessed liquor as it is possesses nevertheless one defect which blot in its discussion is that it cannot carry it over till next day except in so far as a headache is concerned and a certain dryness of the mouth it is futile to bid us lay in a supper tonight that will be of any use tomorrow morning for my part i give you warning roland that i shall make directly for the nasaur hoff or for the shon ashit where they keep most excellent vintages to this declaration roland made no reply but continued his explanatory remarks we shall join the barge as i have said above osmondhausen probably at night and then crossed directly over the river the first castle with which i intend to deal is that celebrated robbers roost rynstein standing 260 feet above the water disembarking about a league of the river from rynstein before daybreak we will all lie concealed in the forest within sight of the castle gates when the sun is well risen captain bloominfells will navigate his boat down the river and as it approaches rynstein we shall probably enjoy the privilege of seeing the gates open wide as the company from the castle descends precipitously to the water while they rifle the barge we shall rifle the castle overpowering whoever we may find there and taking in return for the cloth they steal such gold or silver as the treasury affords we will then imprison all within the castle so that a premature alarm may not be given if we are hurried we may lock them in cellars or place them in dungeons then leave the castle with our booty but i do not purpose descending to the river until we have traversed a league or more of the mountain forest where we may remain concealed until the barge appears and so take ship again the next castle is falkenberg the third sonic both on the same side of the river as rynstein and within a short distance from the stronghold but the plan with each being the same as that already outlined it is not necessary for me to repeat it an excellent arrangement cried several but john ginsbean spoke up in criticism is there to be no fighting he asked i expected you to say that after we had secured the gold we would fall on the robbers to the rear and smite them hip and thigh there is likely to be all the fighting you can wish for replied roland for at some point our scheme may go awry it is not my intention to attack but i expect you to fight like heroes in our own defense i agree with her roland put in conrad kerr's bold rising to his feet if we purpose to win our way down to cologne it is unnecessary to search for trouble because we shall find enough of it awaiting us at one point or another but roland stopped his account at what seems to me the most interesting juncture what is the destination of the gold we loot from the castles the first call upon our accumulation will be the payment of four thousand five hundred talars to her gobl oh damn the merchant cried conrad we are risking our lives and i don't see why he should reach out his claws he will profit enough through our exertions if we open the rine true but that was the bargain i made with him we risk our lives as you say but he risks his goods besides providing barge captain and crew he also furnished us with the five hundred talars now in our pockets we must deal honestly with the man who has supported us in the beginning uh very well growled kerr's bold have it your own way but in my opinion the merchants should combine and raise a fund with which to reward us for our exertions if we succeed still i shall not press my contention in the face of an overwhelming sentiment against me however i should like to speak to our leader on one matter which it seemed ungracious to mention last night the merchant offered him a thousand talars and gold and he with a generosity i must point out to him was exercised at our expense returned half that money to her gobel i confess that all i received has been spent my hand is lonesome when it enters my pouch i should be glad of that portion which might have been mine and when i speak for myself i speak for all were it not for the misplaced prodigality of our leader who possessing the money was so thoughtless of our fellowship that he actually handed over five hundred talars to a man who had not the slightest claim upon it her course bold said roland with some severity many penniless knights have passed over our heads in this room if you know so much better than i how to procure money why did you not do so i should not venture to criticize a man who without any effort on my part placed 30 talars at my disposal there was a great clamor at this everyone except kerr's bold who stood stubbornly in his place and ginsbeen who sat next to him becoming vociferous in defense of their leader it is uncomrade like cried eberhard above the din to spend the money and then growl i speak in the interests of us all shouted kerr's bold in the interests of our leader no less than ourselves but the others howled him down roland holding up his right hand seemed to request silence and obtained it i am rather glad he said that this discussion has arisen because there is still time to amend our program hergobels barge will not be loaded until tomorrow night so the order may even yet be countermanded the 500 talars which belong to me i say nothing about but the 500 advanced by hergobel must be returned to him unless we are in perfect unanimity at this suggestion kerr's bold sat down with some suddenness i told you when i left this room promising to find the money within a week that one condition was the backing of my fellows you empowered me to pledge the efforts of our club as though it contained but one man if that promise is not to be kept in spirit as well in letter i shall retire from the position i now hold and you may elect in my stead conrad kerr's bold john ginsbeen or anyone else that pleases you but first i must be in a position to give back intact hergobels money then as i have divulged to you my plans conrad kerr's bold may approach him and make better terms than i was able to arrange there were cries of nonsense nonsense don't take a little opposition in that spirit roland we are all free speaking comrades you know you are our leader and must remain so kerr's bold rose to his feet for the third time literally and figuratively my friend roland has me on the hip for my hip pocket contains no money and it is impossible for me to refund i imagine if the truth were told we are all more or less in the same condition for we have had equipment to buy and whatnot also ho keimer said one at which there was a laugh as kerr's bold was noted for his love of good wine up to this point roland had carried the assemblage with him but now he made an injudicious remark that instantly changed the spirit of the room i am astonished he said that any objection should be made to the fair treatment of hergobel for you are all of the merchant class and should therefore hold by one of your own order he could proceed no farther standing there pale and determined he was simply stormed down his ignorance of affairs of which on several occasions the merchant himself had complained led him quite unconsciously to touch the pride of his hearers it was john ginsbeen who angrily gave expression to the sentiment of the meeting to what class do you belong i should like to know do you claim affinity with the merchant class if you do you are no leader of ours i inform you sir that we are skilled artisans with the craft to turn out credible work while the merchants are merely the vendors of our products which therefore takes the higher place in a community and which deserves it the better he who with artistic instinct unites the efforts of brain and hand to produce wares that are at once beautiful and useful or he who merely chaffers over his counter to get as much lucre as he can for the creations that come from our benches to roland's aristocratic mind every man who lacked noble blood in his veins stood on the same level and it astonished him that any mere plebeian should claim precedence over another he himself felt immeasurably superior to those present sensible of a fathomless gulf between him and them which he in his condescension might cross as suited his whim but over which none might follow him back again and this he was well aware they would be the first to admit did they but know his actual rank for a moment he was tempted to acknowledge his identity and crush them by throwing the crown at their heads but some hitherto undiscovered stubbornness in his nature asserted itself arousing a determination to stand or fall by whatever strength of character he might possess i withdraw that remark he said as soon as he could obtain a hearing i not only withdraw it but i apologize to you for my folly in making it it was merely thoughtlessness on my part and resting on your generosity i should like you to consider the words unset once more 18 of the 20 swung round to his side roland now turned his attention to conrad kursbold ignoring john ginsbeen who had sat down flushed after this declamation bewildered by the mutability of the many as coriolanus had been before him her kursbold began roland sternly have you any further criticism to offer no but i stand by what i have already said well i thank you for your honest expression of that determination and i announced that you cannot accompany this expedition again roland instantaneously lost the confidence of his auditors and they were not slow in making him of the fact this is simply tyranny said eberhard if a man may not open his mouth without running danger of expulsion then all comradeship is at an end and i take it that good comradeship is the pivot on which this organization turns i do not remember that we ever placed it in the power of our president merely by his own accord to cast out one of us from the fellowship i may add roland that you seem to harbor strange ideas concerning rank and power i have been a member of this guild much longer than you and perhaps understand better its purpose our leader is not elected to govern a band of serfs indeed and i say it subject to correction from my friends the very opposite is the case our leader is our servant and must conduct himself as we order it is not for him to lay down the law but whatever laws exist for our governance and i thank heaven there are few of them must be settled in conclave by a majority of the league right right was the unanimous try and when eberhard sat down all were seated except roland who stood at the end of the table with pale face and compressed lips we are he said about to set out against the barons of the rine entrenched in their strong castles hitherto these men have been completely successful defying alike the government and the people it was my hope that we might reverse this condition of things now brother eberhard name me a single baron along the whole length of the rine who would permit us one of his minute arms to bandy words with him on any subject whatever i should hope replied eberhard that we do not model our conduct after that of a robber the robbers i beg to point out to you eberhard are successful it is success we are after also a portion of that gold of which her kursbold has pathetically proclaimed his need do you consider us your minute arms then in the same sense that a rine baron would employ the term certainly you claim the liberty of expelling anyone you choose yes i claim the liberty to hang any of you if i find it necessary oh the devil cried eberhard sitting down as if this went beyond him he gazed up and down the table as much as to say i leave this in your hands gentlemen the meeting gave immediate expression of its agreement with eberhard gentlemen said roland i insist that conrad kursbold apologizes to me for the expressions he has used and promises not again to offend me in like manner i'll do nothing of the sort asserted kursbold with equal firmness in that case exclaimed roland i shall retire and i asked you to put me in a position to repay her gobel the money i extracted from him i resigned the very thankless office of so-called leadership at this several wallets came out upon the table but their contents clinked rather weakly the majority of the guild sat silent and sobered by the crisis that had so unexpectedly come upon them joseph grusel seeing that no one else made a move up rose and stood slowly he was a man who never had much to say for himself a listener rather than a talker in whom roland reposed great confidence believing him to be one who would not flinch if trial came and he had determined to make grusel his lieutenant if the expedition was not wrecked before it set out my friends said grusel gloomily we have arrived at a deadlock and i should not venture to speak but that i see no one else ready to make a suggestion i cannot claim to be nonpartisan in the matter this crisis has been unnecessarily brought about by what i state firmly is a most ungenerous attack on the part of conrad kursbold there were murmurs of descent but grusel proceeded stolidly taking no notice it is not disputed that kursbold accepted the money from roland last night spent it today and now comes penniless amongst us quite unable to refund the amount when his unjust remarks produced their natural effect he is like a man who makes a wager knowing he hasn't the money to pay should he lose if roland retires from this guild i retire also a shame to keep company with men who uphold a trick worthy of a ruined gambler my dear joseph cried eberhard springing up with a laugh you are misnamed in your infancy you should have been called hered practically justifying a slaughter of us innocence i stand by benjamin growled grusel the youngest and most capable of our circle the one who produced the money while all the rest of us talked you never talked till now joseph said eberhard still trying to ease the situation with a laugh and what you say is not only deplorably severe but uttered as i will show you upon entirely mistaken grounds we did not and do not support conrad kursbold in what he said at first now you rate us as if we were no better than thieves dishonest gamblers you call us and lord knows what else and then you've threatened withdrawal i submit that your diatribe is quite undeserved we all condemn kursbold for censuring roland's generosity to the merchant unanimously upholding roland in that action and have said so plainly enough what we object to is this roland arrogates himself to power which he does not possess a peremptorily expelling any member whose remarks displease him surely you cannot support him in that any more than we let us take one thing at a time resumed grusel not forgetting from whom came the original provocation i must know where we stand i therefore move a vote of censure on conrad kursbold for his unmerited attack upon our president a nint his dealings with her gobel i second that with great pleasure said eberhard now as we cannot ask our leader to put that motion i shall take the liberty of submitting it myself continued grusel all in favor of the vote of censure which you have heard make it manifest by standing up everyone arose except roland ginsbeen and kursbold there we have removed that obstacle to a clear understanding of the case and before i formally deliver this vote of censure to her kursbold i'd request him to reconsider his position and of his own motion to make such delivery unnecessary if it is the case that roland assumes authority to expel whom he pleases from this guild i shall not support him it is the case it is the case shouted several pardon me comrades i have the floor continued grusel i am not attempting oratory but trying to disentangle a skein in which we have involved ourselves i wish to receive neither applause nor hissing until i have finished the business you say it is the case i say it is not roland gave her kursbold the alternative either of apologizing or paying over the money so that it might be returned to the merchant as i understand the matter our president does not insist on kursbold leaving the guild but merely announces his own withdrawal from it you have allowed kursbold to put you in the position of being compelled to choose between himself and roland if you are logical men you cannot pass a vote of censure on kursbold and then choose him instead of roland i therefore move a vote of confidence in our chief the man who has produced the money a thousand talars and all half of which was his own and has divided it equally amongst us when the landlord's bill was paid withholding not a single talar nor irrigating i think that was your word friend eberhard to himself a stiver more of the money than each of the others received while kursbold has praded of comradeship roland has given us an excellent example of it and i think he deserves our warmest thanks and our cordial support i therefore submit to you the following motion this meeting tenders to the president its warmest thanks for his recent efforts on behalf of the guild and begs to assure him of its most strenuous assistance in carrying out the project he has put before it tonight joseph said eberhard rising with his usual laugh you are a very clever man although you usually persist in hiding your light under a bushel i desire to associate myself with the expressions you have used and therefore second your motion i now put the resolution which you have all heard said grusel and i ask those in favor of it to stand everyone stood up promptly enough except the two recalcitrants and of those two john ginsbeen showed signs of hesitation and uneasiness he half rose sat down again then apparently at the urging of the man next to him stood up a picture of irresolution kursbold finding himself now alone laughed and got upon his feet thus making the vote unanimous as the company seated itself grusel turned to the president sir it is said that all's well that ends well it gives me pleasure to tender you the unanimous vote of thanks and confidence of the iron workers guild and before calling upon you to make any reply if such should be your intention i will ask konrad kursbold to say a few words which i am sure we will all be delighted to hear kursbold rose bravely enough in spite of the fact that joseph grusel's diplomacy had made a complete separation between him and all the others i should like to say he began with an air of casual indifference that my first mention of the money was wholly ingest our friend rolin took my remark seriously which of course i should not have resented and there is little use in recapitulating what followed as however my utterances gave a fence which was not intended by me i have no hesitation in apologizing for them and withdrawing the ill advised sentences no one here feels a greater appreciation of what our president has done than i and i hope he will accept my apology in the same spirit in which it is tendered now master of the guild said grusel as rolin took the floor once more i have nothing to say but thank you the antagonists whom we hope to meet our men brave determined and ruthless if anyone in this company holds rancor against me i ask him to turn it towards the barons and punish me after the expedition is accomplished let us tolerate no disagreements in the face of the foe the young man took his cloak and sword from the peg on which they hung passed down along the table and thrust across his hand a curse bold who shook it warmly arriving at the door rolin turned around i wish to see captain blumenfels and give him final instructions regarding our rendezvous on the rine so good night i hope to meet you all under the shadow of the electors tower and host tomorrow morning at nine and with that the president departed being too inexperienced to know that soft words do not always turn away wrath and that mutiny is seldom quelled with a handshake end of chapter three