ls. There
is gold enough in each one, to make the company rich. Now this way!
Directly behind the city-hall lies the Zucker Canal. There live
stiff-necked people, who dine off of silver every day. Notice the
street!"

Then he led him back to the square, and continued "The streets here all
lead to the quay. Do you know it? Have you seen the warehouses? Filled
to the very roof! The malmsey, dry canary and Indian allspice, might
transform the Scheldt and Baltic Sea into a huge vat of hippocras."

Ulrich followed his guide from street to street. Wherever he looked, he
saw vast wealth in barns and magazines; in houses, palaces and churches.

Hans Eitelfritz stopped before a jeweller's shop, saying:

"Look here! I particularly admire these things, these toys: the little
dog, the sled, the lady with the hoopskirt, all these things are pure
silver. When the pillage begins, I shall grasp these and take them to
my sister's little children in Colln; they will be delighted, and if it
should ever be necessary, their mother can sell them."

What a throng crowded the most aristocratic streets! English, Spanish,
Italian and Hanseatic merchants tried to outdo the Netherland traders in
magnificent clothes and golden ornaments. Ulrich saw them all assembled
in the Gothic exchange on the Mere, the handsomest square in the city.
There they stood in the vast open hall, on the checkered marble floor,
not by hundreds, but by thousands, dealing in goods which came from all
quarters of the globe--from the most distant lands. Their offers and
bids mingled in a noise audible at a long distance, which was borne
across the square like the echo of ocean surges.

Sums were discussed, which even the winged imagination of the
lansquenet could scarcely grasp. This city was a remarkable treasure,
a thousand-fold richer booty than had been garnered from the Ottoman
treasure-ship on the sea at Lepanto.

Here was the fortune the Eletto needed, to build the palace in which he
intended to place Ruth. To whom else would fall the lion's share of the
enormous prize!

His future happiness was to arise from the destruction of this proud
city, stifling in its gold.

These were ambitious brilliant plans, but he devised them with gloomy
eyes, in a darkened mind. He intended to win by force what was denied
him, so long as the power belonged to him.

There could be no lack of flames and carnage; but that was part of his
trade, as shavings belong to flames, h