Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/421

 said Ernest.—"That is a pretty question!" exclaimed Willibald. "I lay a wager that it is the arrival of the Turkish ambassador; it is thus they call, if you do not know it, the baron Exter, the funniest original who has ever, in the memory of man, walked under the heavenly vault. He was formerly ambassador to Constantinople, and to believe his own story, he has enacted in that country all the adventures, all the illusions of the Thousand and one Nights. He goes so far as to vaunt himself upon possessing the marvellous secrets of the great king Solomon, the patron of the charlatans who call themselves magicians. This baron Exter affects mystical actions which produce great effect upon simple people; and thanks to his grimaces he has gained great ascendancy over counsellor Reutlinger. Both are furious enthusiasts in the doctrines of Mesmer, and I present them to thee as visionaries such as are seldom seen."

Willibald had hardly finished this panegyric, when the ex-Turkish ambassador entered the garden. He was a kind of rotund little man dressed in the oriental costume, with the exception of an enormous wig. powdered and curled, and a pair of furred boots which he wore from private considerations of health. The people who accompanied him playing the fife and tambourine, were no less than his major domo and three or four of his upper servants, ail greased with a thick coat of black coloring matter, which gave them the appearance of Africans, and dressed in pointed caps like those worn by Spanish penitents.

The baron Exter leaned on the arm of an old officer who appeared to have been resuscitated from the seven years' war. This was general Rixendorf, military authority in the city of G, who had muffled himself for this day's solemnity in his old uniform covered with gold lace.—"Salama Milek," said the counsellor to baron Exter, coming to meet him with open arms. The baron took his turban off to return the salutation of his worthy host and friend. At the same time something brilliant like a mannikin covered with gilded spangles,