Page:Tales by Musæus, Tieck, Richter, Volume 1.djvu/40

 and want had been exiled from the busy town. In all probability, thought he, there must be many of my father’s debtors who have risen again, and will gladly make me full payment whenever I substantiate my claims. After resting for a while from his fatigues, he set about obtaining, in the inn where he was quartered, some preliminary knowledge of the situation of his debtors.

“How stands it with Peter Martens?” inquired he one day of his companions at table; “is he still living, and doing much business?”

“Peter Martens is a warm man,” answered one of the party; “has a brisk commission trade, and draws good profit from it.”

“Is Fabian van Plürs still in good circumstances?”

“O! there is no end to Fabian’s wealth. He is a Councillor; his woollen manufactories are thriving incredibly.”

“Has Jonathan Frischkier good custom in his trade?”

“Ah! Jonathan were now a brisk fellow, had not Kaiser Max let the French chouse him out of his Princess. Jonathan had got the furnishing of the lace for the bride’s dress; but the Kaiser has left poor Frischkier in the lurch, as the bride has left himself. If you have a fair one, whom you would remember with a bit of lace, he will give it you at half-price.”

“Is the firm Op de Bütekant still standing, or has it sunk?”

“There was a crack in the beams there some years ago; but the Spanish caravelles have put a new prop to it, and it now holds fast.”

Franz inquired about several other merchants who were on his list; found that most of them, though in his father’s time they had “failed,” were now standing firmly on their legs; and inferred from this, that a judicious bankruptcy has, from of old, been the mine of future gains. This intelligence refreshed him mightily: he hastened to put his documents in order, and submit them to the proper parties. But with the Antwerpers, he fared as his itinerating countrymen do with shopkeepers in the German towns: they find everywhere a friendly welcome at their first appearance, but are looked upon with cheerfulness nowhere when they come collecting