Not for the papacy, to which my good aunt would have raised a ladder for me of three steps, – Abbot, Bishop, Cardinal, – would I renounce the Tokay of to-night for the business of to-morrow. Come, gentlemen, let us drink my aunt's health.«

»Memory, you would say, Count.«

»Memory, most learned friend; you are right: Ah! gentlemen, she was a woman worthy to be had in remembrance: for she invented a capital plaster for gunshot wounds; and a jollier old fellow over a bottle of Tokay there is not at this day in Suabia, or in the Swedish camp. And that reminds me to ask, gentlemen, have any of you heard that Gustavus Horn is expected at Falkenberg? Such news is astir; and be sure of this – that, in such a case, we have cracked crowns to look for. I know the man. And many a hard night's watching he has cost me; for which, if you please, gentlemen, we will drink his health.«

»But our business, dear Count –«

»Shall wait, please God, until to-morrow; for this is the time when man and beast repose.«

»And truly, Count, we are like – as you take things – to be numbered with the last. Fie, Count St. Aldenheim! are you the man that would have us suffer those things tamely which the Landgrave has begun?«

»And what now hath his Serenity been doing? Doth he meditate to abolish burgundy? If so, my faith! but we are, as you observe, little above the brutes. Or, peradventure, will he forbid laughing, – his highness being little that way given himself?«

»Count St. Aldenheim! it pleases you to jest. But we are assured that you know as well as we, and relish no better, the insults which the Landgrave is heaping upon us all. For example, the sentinel at your own door – doubtless you marked him? How liked you him? –«

»Methought he looked cold and blue. So I sent him a goblet of Johannisberg.«

»You did? and the little court of guard – you have seen that? and Colonel Von Aremberg, how think you of him?«

»Why surely now he's a handsome man: pity he wears so fiery a scarf! Shall we drink his health, gentlemen?«

»Health to the great fiend first!«

»As you please, gentlemen: it is for you to regulate the precedency. But, at least,

 

Here's to my aunt – the jolly old sinner,

That fasted each day, from breakfast to dinner!

Saw any man yet such an orthodox fellow,

In the morning when sober, in the evening when mellow?

Saw any man yet,« etc.

 

»Count, farewell!« – interrupted the leader of the party; and all turned round indignantly to leave the room.

»Farewell, gentlemen, as you positively will not drink my aunt's health; though, after all, she was a worthy fellow; and her plaster for gunshot wounds, –«

But with that word the door closed upon the Count's farewell words. Suddenly taking up a hat which lay upon the ground, he exclaimed, »Ah! behold! one of my friends has left his hat. Truly he may chance to want it on a frosty night.« And, so saying, he hastily rushed after the party, whom he found already on the steps of the portico. Seizing the hand of the leader, he whispered, –

»Friend! do you know me so little as to apprehend my jesting in a serious sense? Know that two of those whom you saw on my right hand are spies of the Landgrave. Their visit to me, I question not, was purposely made to catch some such discoveries as you, my friends, would too surely have thrown in their way, but for my determined rattling. At this time, I must not stay. Come again after midnight – farewell.«

And then in a voice to reach his guests within, he shouted, »Gentlemen, my aunt, the Abbot of Ingelheim, – Abbess, I would say, – held that her spurs were for her heels, and her beaver for her head. Whereupon, Baron, I return you your hat.«

Meantime, the two insidious intelligencers of the Landgrave returned to the palace with discoveries, not so ample as they were on the point of surprising, but sufficient to earn thanks for themselves, and to guide the counsels of their master.

 

 

Chapter VIII

That same night a full meeting of the most distinguished students was assembled at the mansion of Count St. Aldenheim. Much stormy discussion arose upon two points; first, upon the particular means by which they were to pursue an end upon which all were unanimous. Upon that, however, they were able for the present to arrive at a preliminary arrangement with sufficient harmony. This was to repair in a body, with Count St. Aldenheim at their head, to the castle, and there to demand an audience of the Landgrave, at which a strong remonstrance was to be laid before his highness, and their determination avowed to repel the indignities thrust upon them with their united forces. On the second they were more at variance. It happened that many of the persons present, and amongst them Count St. Aldenheim, were friends of Maximilian. A few, on the other hand, there were who, either from jealousy of his distinguished merit, hated him, or, as good citizens of Klosterheim, and connected by old family ties with the interests of that town, were disposed to charge Maximilian with ambitious views of private aggrandizement at the expense of the city, grounded upon the Emperor's favour, or upon a supposed marriage with some lady of the Imperial house. For the story of Paulina's and Maximilian's mutual attachment had transpired through many of the travellers; but with some circumstances of fiction.