A bottle of Rhenish wine was standing on a sideboard at one end of the room. He went over and opened it, and filled two glasses.
"Let us drink," said he, and handed one to me "Let us drink to ourselves," and he raised the glass to his lips.
"Nay," I cried, "to the King first"
"Very well, to the King first, if you will, and to ourselves next. What matters the toast, so long as we drink it?" and he drained his glass to the bottom. I followed his example.
"Now to ourselves," said he; and he filled them again. "It is a good fashion," he continued, in a musing tone, "that of drinking to the King. For so one drinks double, and never a word can be said against it." I noticed, however, that he drank triple and quadruple before he had come to an end. Then he looked at my breeches and laughed.
"And so the wench boxed your ears," he said, and, becoming quite serious, he took me by the arm. "Lawrence, let's drink to her!"
"I should reel in my saddle if I did," said I, drawing back.
"Then don't sit in it!" he replied. "Let's drink to her several times, and then we'll go to bed."
"I trust to go to bed a good twenty miles from Commercy."
He shook his head at me.