"Nay, it is absolutely certain. Civil war means ruin, to innocent and
guilty alike."
"You are in the right. Now, will you tell me how you escaped from
Ehrenfels?"
"Yes; if you agree to my terms without further haggling."
"I shall agree to your terms if I believe your story."
"It seems impossible, sir, to pin you down to any definite bargain. Is
this the way you conduct your business?"
"Yes; unless I am well assured of the good faith of my customer. I
offered you ordinary business terms when I asked for security, or for
the signature of three responsible merchants to your bond. It is because
I am a merchant, and not a speculator, that I haggle, as you term it."
"Very well, then, I will tell you how I got away, but I begin my recital
rather hopelessly, for you always leave yourself a loophole of escape.
If you believe my story, you say! Yes: could I weave a romance about
tearing my sheets into ropes; of lowering myself in the dark from the
battlements to the ground; of an alarm given; of torches flashing; of
diving into the Rhine, and swimming under the water until I nearly
strangled; of floating down over the rapids, with arrows whizzing round
me in the night; of climbing dripping to the farther shore, far from
sight of Ehrenfels, then, doubtless, you would believe.
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