At this moment there came an interruption. I heard a loud argument outside in the court-yard.
"Tell me what you want with the servant of the most learned Doctor!" cried a voice.
"That is his business, and mine—not yours, rusty son of a stable-sweeper!" was the answer.
I went out immediately, and there, facing each other in a position of mutual defiance, I saw Peter of the Pigs and the decent legal domestic of Master Gerard von Sturm.
"Get out of my wind, old Muck-to-the-Eyes!" said the servitor, offensively; "you poison the good, wholesome air that is needed for men's breath."
"Go back to your murderer of the saints," responded Peter of the Pigs, valiantly. "Your master and you will swing in effigy to-night in every street in Thorn. Some day before long you will both swing in the body—if a hair of this angel's head be harmed."
"I must see this learned Doctor's servant!" persisted the man of law, avoiding the personal question.
"Here he is," said I; "and now what would you with him?"
"I am sent to invite you to come to the Weiss Thor immediately, on business which deeply concerns you."
"That is not enough for me," said I. "Who sends for me?"