The landlord chuckled and nodded his head sagely.
"A droop of the eyelids is as good as a wag of the tongue with me, and I fully understand you, though it please you to speak lightly of your own worth. I had no doubt of it from the first, for I knew that common folk are not let through a Frankfort gate at midnight, if their coming is unwelcome to the Court."
"By my favourite Saint," cried the archer, as if an unaccustomed idea had penetrated his not too alert mind, "there is something in that, Conrad, though it had not occurred to me before. You remember how I dreaded the closed gate, and how the others at the foot of the walls said they could not get through, yet three raps from my Lord's hilt sent bolts flying as if he held a wizard's wand. 'Tis most like my Lord is well known at Court, aye, and well thought of, too."
"That is no news," replied Conrad, quietly. "You yourself heard him tell the Black Count he knew the Emperor."
"True. So I did, but I did not believe it until now."
The increasing shouts had drawn the incurious landlord from the room, and he now returned in high excitement.
"The Emperor comes at the head of his horsemen. There is not a moment to lose, and you will have as good a view of him as though you were one of his followers; better, indeed, than if you were among the troop of horse. But come at once."
Conrad immediately sprang to his feet, but the archer hung back a moment to take another huge mouthful of the black bread and to drain his flagon to the dregs. Then, drawing the back of his hand across his mouth, he followed the others, hastily gulping down his food as he went.
The city had indeed undergone a sudden transformation that well deserved all the landlord's eulogies.
From every window and from every projection of the many-gabled street hung rainbow-coloured lengths of silk or more common cloth. Flags flew from every staff, and cheering men clung perilously to the roofs and eaves of the buildings, or wherever precarious foothold could be found. Opposite the Golden Flagon a dense crowd was massed, but the cleared way led directly past the door of the inn and gave colour to the assertion of the landlord that his hostelry was indeed favoured by the Court. A continuous line of pikemen, standing shoulder to shoulder, kept back the jubilant throng, whose volleys of acclamation rang upwards and joined the cheers from the house-tops.