Neumann. Why, my good Master of the Cellar! you are
deep read in the chronicles of your country!
Master of the Cellar. So were my forefathers, and for that
reason were they minstrels, and served under Procopius and [70]
Ziska. Peace be with their ashes! Well, well! they fought
for a good cause though—There! carry it up!
Neumann. Stay! let me but look at this second quarter.
Look there! That is, when at Prague Castle the Imperial
Counsellors, Martinitz and Stawata were hurled down head 75
over heels. 'Tis even so! there stands Count Thur who
commands it.
[Runner takes the service-cup and goes off with it.
Master of the Cellar. O let me never more hear of that day.
It was the three and twentieth of May, in the year of our
Lord one thousand, six hundred, and eighteen. It seems to me [80]
as it were but yesterday—from that unlucky day it all began,
all the heart-aches of the country. Since that day it is now
sixteen years, and there has never once been peace on the earth.
[Health drunk aloud at the second table.
The Prince of Weimar! Hurra!
[At the third and fourth table.
Long live Prince William! Long live Duke Bernard! [85]
Hurra! [Music strikes up.
First Servant. Hear 'em! Hear 'em! What an uproar!