"Now, unload the boat, but do not injure any of the sailors! I hope to
see them often again. You cannot tell how we have missed you, captain.
What are you loaded with this time? Sound Frankfort cloth?"
"Yes, your Majesty--I mean, my lord."
"No, you mean my Holiness, for I expect to be an Archbishop yet, if all
goes well," and his laughter echoed across the Rhine. "Uplift your
hatches, Blumenfels, and tell your men to help fling the goods ashore."
Delicately paced the fearful horse over the prone men, snorting, perhaps
in sympathy, from his red nostrils, his jet-black coat a-quiver with the
excitement of the scene. The captain obeyed the Margrave with promptness
and celerity. The hatches were lifted, and his sailors, two and two,
flung on the ledge of rock the merchant's bales. The men-at-arms, who
proved to be men-of-all-work, had piled their weapons in a heap, and
were carrying the bales a few yards inland. Through it all the Baron
roared with laughter, and rode his horse along its living pavement,
turning now at this end and now at the other.
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