With that they came to an inn. The innkeeper, seeing through the window so many lords, ran out and took the horses. When he took the white steed, Jalmir asked: “Hast thou a stable apart?”
“Yes; and such a one!” boasted the innkeeper.
“Then put my horse in it alone,” said Jalmir, “for he is very vicious.”
Then he followed his brothers to a room where they were already seated at a table, and calling with terrible uproar on the innkeeper for wine. In a short time the innkeeper brought all that he had, and the brothers drank, sang, shouted, and rioted till the inn trembled; but Jalmir barely drank for one, because he was sick from the action of his brothers. But how grieved was he when one of the brothers said: “This is a different life from being at home with that grumbling father and that sickly brother.”
Gradually one after the other dropped under the table, overcome by wine. When all were asleep Jalmir said to the innkeeper: “Be careful that no harm comes to them; I will sleep a little too.”
Then he was going to lie on a bench near the fire. “Do not,” said the innkeeper; “I have a bed ready for thee. Come with me.”
Jalmir, after useless refusals, followed him at last; but before he lay down he visited the white steed to see if he had plenty of oats and water.
When the brothers woke in the morning they looked for Jalmir with a great outcry: “It would have been a nice thing if he had run away from us!” cried one to another. “Who would pay?—for I have no money.”
Soon Jalmir came to the room and told them to travel farther; all was settled.
“Thou art ours,” said they. All embraced him,—’tis a wonder they did not suffocate him. Escaping from the brothers, Jalmir went to his horse. The brothers followed his example, and soon the inn was far behind.