"I, my lord! my brother, the minister of Blumenthal, says it for me every day."
"Ah, baron, are you all Turks? So it will fall to me to say grace."
And the Marquis said in a loud voice, "Great St. Hubert, please to make the venison fat, the wine good, the appetite ravenous, and the thirst unquenchable." Then he emptied at one draught the tankard which held a pint of Rhine wine, wiped his mustaches with the back of his hand, and, putting the mug on the table, said Amen.
This pleasantry made the worthy governor almost burst with laughter; imitating the prowess of his guest, he drank at one breath his cup of wine, repeated Amen with the voice of a Stentor, and found his solicitor a jolly good fellow.
The two servants, quite as much tickled as their master by the strange blessing of the Marquis, nevertheless moderated the expression of their gayety.
"Selbitz," said the governor, soon animated by the good cheer and the sallies of Létorière, "go and refill our tankards, and don't forgot yours and Erhard's; it is a fête to-day at Henferester, in honor of my guest."
And the baron affectionately tendered his great hand to the Marquis, whose fingers he rudely squeezed, as much in genuine cordiality as to show his strength.
Létorière, who, under a delicate exterior, concealed great muscular strength, answered his pressure quite as roughly. The baron, who had not expected this proof of his vigor, said, laughing, with an astonished air:
"A rod of steel is often as strong as a great bar of iron, my guest."
"But unhappily, baron, a great glass will hold more than a little one," replied the Marquis.