This old house saw Charles the
Great embracing the chief magistrate of his liege city yonder. Some swear
he slept in it. He did not sneeze at smaller chambers than our Kaisers
abide. No gold ceilings with cornice carvings, but plain wooden beams.'
'Know that the men of great renown,
Were men of simple needs:
Bare to the Lord they laid them down,
And slept on mighty deeds.'
'God wot, there's no emptying thy store of ballads, Grete: so much shall
be said of thee. Yes; times are changeing: We're growing degenerate. Look
at the men of Linz now to what they were! Would they have let the lads of
Andernach float down cabbage-stalks to them without a shy back? And why?
All because they funk that brigand-beast Werner, who gets redemption from
Laach, hard by his hold, whenever he commits a crime worth paying for. As
for me, my timber and stuffs must come down stream, and are too good for
the nixen under Rhine, or think you I would acknowledge him with a toll,
the hell-dog? Thunder and lightning! if old scores could be rubbed out on
his hide!'
Gottlieb whirled a thong-lashing arm in air, and groaned of law and
justice.
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