Since we in that war together

Lay before the bivouac-fire;

And I see it by my son's growth,

Who is now a strapping fellow--

Four-and-twenty years he reckons.

First a page unto his highness

The Grand Duke of Würtemberg;

Then to Tübingen I sent him.

If I by his debts can judge well,

Which I had to pay for him there,