Now listen to me. I drew my sword once upon you in jest.
Should I draw it a second time it will be to penetrate your lazy carcass
by running you through. If within two hours there is not a paymaster at
every gate in Frankfort to buy and pay for each cartload of produce as
it comes, and also a number of guides to tell that farmer where to
deliver his goods, I'll give your town over to the military, and order
the sacking of every merchant's house within its walls."
"It shall be done; it shall be done; it shall be done!" breathed the
merchant, trembling as he rose, and he kept repeating the phrase with
the iteration of a parrot.
"You owe me thirty thalers," said the Prince calming down; "the first
payment out of the relief fund. Give me the money."
With quivering hands Herr Goebel, seeing no humor in the application,
handed over the money, which the Prince slipped into his wallet.
Dusk had fallen when at last he reached his room in Sachsenhausen, and
there he found awaiting him Joseph Greusel, in semi-darkness and in
total gloom.
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