"Ay, truly, if they were given to him; not else."
"Take, then, as many as you can break," said the Duke. So he broke them all as easily as altar wafers, and thrust them, laughing, into his pocket.
Item, there had been large quantities of preserved cherries at supper, and the lacqueys had piled up the stones on a dish like a high mountain. From this mountain Dinnies took handful after handful, and squeezed them together, so that not a single stone remained whole in his hand. We shall hear a great deal more of this Dinnies Kleist, and his strength, as we proceed; therefore shall let him rest for the present.
CHAPTER VI.
How Sidonia is again discovered with the groom, Johann Appelmann.
It was a good day for Johann Appelmann, when his father went to the Diet at Wollin. For as the old burgomaster held strictly by his word, and sent him each day to the writing-office, and locked him up each night in his little room, the poor young man had found life growing very dull. Now he was his mother's pet, and all his sins and wickedness were owing to her as much as Sidonia's to her father. She had petted and spoiled him from his youth up, and stiffened his back against his father. For whenever worthy Jacob laid the stick upon the boy's shoulders, she cried and roared, and called him nothing but an old tyrant. Then how she was always stuffing him up with tit-bits and dainties, whenever his father's back was turned; and if there were a glass of wine left in the bottle, the boy must have it. Then she let him and his brother beat and abuse all the street-boys and send them away bleeding like dogs; and some were afraid to complain of them, as they were sons of the burgomaster; and if others came to the house to do so, she took good care to send them away with a stout blow or bloody nose.
And as the lads grew up, how she praised their beauty, and curled their hair and beards herself, telling them they were not to think of citizen wives, but to look after the richest and highest, for the proudest in the land might be glad to get them as husbands. So she prated away during her husband's absence, for he was in his office all day and most part of the evening. And God knows, bad fruit she brought forth with such rearing—not alone in Johann, but also in his brother Wittich, who, as I afterwards heard, got on no better in Pudgla, where he held the office of magistrate. So true it is what the Scripture says, "A wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands" (Prov. xiv.) Then, another Scripture, "As moths from a garment, so from a woman wickedness" (Sirach xlii.)
For what did this fool do now? As soon as her upright and worthy husband had left the house, forgetting and despising all his admonitions respecting this son Johann, she called together all her acquaintance, and kept up a gormandising and drinking day after day, all to comfort her heart's dear pet Johann, who had been used so harshly by his cross father. Think of her fine, handsome son being stuck down all day to a clerk's desk. Ah! was there ever such a tyrant as her husband to any one, but especially to his own born children?
And so she went on complaining how she had thrown herself away upon such a hard-hearted monster, and had refused so many fine young carls, all to wed Satan himself at least. She could not make out why God had sent such a curse upon her.
When the brave Johann heard all this, he begged money from his mother, that he might seek another situation. Now that there was a new duke in Stettin, he would assuredly get employment there, but then he must treat all the young fellows and pages about the court, otherwise they would not put in a good word for him. Therefore he would give them a great carouse at the White Horse in the Monk's Close, and then assuredly he would be appointed chief equerry. So she believed every word he uttered; but as old Jacob had carried away all the money that was in the house with him, she sold the spices that had just come in, for a miserable sum, also her own pearl earrings and fur mantle, that her dear heart's son might have a gay carouse, to console him for all his father's hard treatment.