"The cage is getting too narrow for him," said Captain Van der Laen. "If this state of things lasts long, we shall all get dizzy like the sheep."
"And as stiff as the brazen Pagan god on the shelf yonder," added Colonel
Mulder.
"There was the same complaint during the first siege," replied the host, "but Herr von Noyelles drowned his discontent and emptied many a cask of my best liquor."
"Tell the gentlemen how he paid you," cried Colonel Mulder.
"There hangs the paper framed," laughed Aquarius. "Instead of sending money, he wrote this:
'Full many a favor, dear friend, hast thou done me,
For which good hard coin glad wouldst thou be to see
There's none in my pockets; so for the debt
In place of dirty coin,
This written sheet so fine;
Paper money in Leyden is easy to get.'"
"Excellent!" cried Junker von Warmond, "and besides you made the die for the pasteboard coins yourself."
"Of course! Herr von Noyelles' sitting still, cost me dear. You have already made two expeditions."
"Hush, hush, for God's sake say nothing about the first sally!" cried the captain. "A well-planned enterprise, which was shamefully frustrated, because the leader lay down like a mole to sleep! Where has such a thing happened a second time?"
"But the other ended more fortunately," said the host. "Three hundred hams, one hundred casks of beer, butter, ammunition, and the most worthless of all spies into the bargain; always an excellent prize."