ide of the
Frauengasse where Sebastian lived. There was a wealth of meaning in the
nod. For Peter Koch lived round the corner in the Kleine Schmiedegasse,
and of course--well, it is only neighbourly to take an interest in those
who drink milk from the same cow and buy wood from the same Jew.

The fishwife looked thoughtfully down the Frauengasse where every house
has a different gable, and none of less than three floors within the
pitch of the roof. She singled out No. 36, which has a carved stone
balustrade to its broad verandah and a railing of wrought-iron on either
side of the steps descending from the verandah to the street.

"They teach dancing?" she inquired.

And Koch nodded again, taking snuff.

"And he--the father?"

"He scrapes a fiddle," replied the verger, examining the lady's basket
of fish in a non-committing and final way. For a locksmith is almost
as confidential an adviser as a notary. The Dantzigers, moreover, are a
thrifty race and keep their money in a safe place; a habit which was to
cost many of them their lives before the coming of another June.

The marriage service was a long one and not exhilarating. Through the
open door came no sound of organ or choir, but the deep and monotonous
drawl of one voice. There had been no ringing of bells. The north
countries, with the exception of Russia, require more than the ringing
of bells or the waving of flags to warm their hearts. They celebrate
their festivities with good meat and wine consumed decently behind
closed doors.

Dantzig was in fact under a cloud. No larger than a man's hand,
this cloud had risen in Corsica forty-three years earlier. It had
overshadowed France. Its gloom had spread to Italy, Austria, Spain; had
penetrated so far north as Sweden; was now hanging sullen over Dantzig,
the greatest of the Hanseatic towns, the Free City. For a Dantziger
had never needed to say that he was a Pole or a Prussian, a Swede or a
subject of the Czar. He was a Dantziger. Which is tantamount to having
for a postal address a single name that is marked on the map.

Napoleon had garrisoned the Free City with French troops some years
earlier, to the sullen astonishment of the citizens. And Prussia had not
objected for a very obvious reason. Within the last fourteen months the
garrison had been greatly augmented. The clouds seemed to be gathering
over this prosperous city of the north, where, however, men continued to
eat and drink, to marry and to be