the
provender they can bring in."

The man calmed down as if a bucket of water had been thrown on him. He
counted the payment with miserly care, testing each coin between his
teeth, then mounted his cart without a word of thanks, and, to the
disappointment of the gathering mob, drove away. Roland, seething with
anger, walked directly to the house of Herr Goebel, and found that
placid old burgher seated at his table.

"Ten thousand curses on your indolence!" he cried. "Where are your
committee, and the emissaries empowered to carry out this scheme of
relief I have ordered?"

"Committee? Emissaries?" cried the astonished man. "There has been no
time!"

"Time, you thick-headed fool! I'll time you by hanging you to your own
front door. There has been time for me to send my men out into the
country; time for a farmer to come in with a cartload of produce, and be
robbed here under your very nose! Maledictions on you, you sit here,
well fed, and cry there is no time! If I had not paid the yeoman he
would have gone back into the country crying we were all thieves here in
Frankfort. Now listen to me. I drew my sword once upon you in jest.
Should I draw it a second time it will be to penetrate your lazy carcass
by running you through. If within two hours there is not a paymaster at
every gate in Frankfort to buy and pay for each cartload of produce as
it comes, and also a number of guides to tell that farmer where to
deliver his goods, I'll give your town over to the military, and order
the sacking of every merchant's house within its walls."

"It shall be done; it shall be done; it shall be done!" breathed the
merchant, trembling as he rose, and he kept repeating the phrase with
the iteration of a parrot.

"You owe me thirty thalers," said the Prince calming down; "the first
payment out of the relief fund. Give me the money."

With quivering hands Herr Goebel, seeing no humor in the application,
handed over the money, which the Prince slipped into his wallet.

Dusk had fallen when at last he reached his room in Sachsenhausen, and
there he found awaiting him Joseph Greusel, in semi-darkness and in
total gloom.

"Your housekeeper let me in," said the visitor.

"Good! I did not expect you back so soon. Have the others returned?"

"I do not know. I came direct here. I carry very ominous news, Roland,
of impending disaster in Frankfort."

"Greater than at present oppresses it?"

"Civil war, fire, and bloodshed. Close