Page:Tales by Musæus, Tieck, Richter, Volume 1.djvu/35

Rh vanced to meet his guest, and shook him by the hand so heartily, that he was like to shout with pain, and bade him welcome with a Stentor’s voice, as if the stranger had been deaf, and seemed withal to be a person still in the vigour of life, full of fire and strength,—put the timorous wanderer into such a terror, that he could not hide his apprehensions, and began to tremble over all his body.

“What ails you, my young master,” asked the Ritter, with a voice of thunder, “that you quiver like an aspen leaf, and look as pale as if Death had you by the throat?”

Franz plucked up a spirit; and considering that his shoulders had at all events the score to pay, his poltroonery passed into a species of audacity.

“Sir,” replied he, “you perceive that the rain has soaked me, as if I had swum across the Weser. Let me have my clothes dried or changed; and get me, by way of luncheon, a well-spiced aleberry, to drive away the ague-fit that is quaking through my nerves; then I shall come to heart, in some degree.”

“Good!” replied the Knight; “demand what you want; you are at home here.”

Franz made himself be served like a bashaw; and having nothing else but currying to expect, he determined to deserve it; he bantered and bullied, in his most imperious style, the servants that were waiting on him; it comes all to one, thought he, in the long-run. “This waistcoat,” said he, “would go round a tun; bring me one that fits a little better: this slipper burns like a coal against my corns; pitch it over the lists: this ruff is stiff as a plank, and throttles me like a halter; bring one that is easier, and is not plastered with starch.”

At this Bremish frankness, the landlord, far from showing any anger, kept inciting his servants to go briskly through with their commands, and calling them a pack of blockheads, who were fit to serve no stranger. The table being furnished, the Ritter and his guest sat down to it, and both heartily enjoyed their aleberry. The Ritter asked: “Would you have aught farther, by way of supper?”

“Bring us what you have,” said Franz, “that I may see how your kitchen is provided.”

Immediately appeared the Cook, and placed upon the table a repast with which a duke might have been satisfied. Franz