goad,
The Duke's eye rolls with fury wode;
Away, whilst there is yet time to fly,
The scabbard is voided, his sword is on high."

The fat man put on a serious face, and said, "I would not advise you to
go on; such songs in public houses, in these times, are dangerous; they
cannot serve the Duke's cause at present. The confederates being round
about us, some one of them might easily overhear it," he added, as he
cast a scrutinizing glance at Albert, "and then Pfullingen might have
to pay another hundred ducats contribution."

"God knows, you are in the right," said the pedlar; "it is no longer
the case, as it used to be, when one could freely speak his mind, and
sing a song over his glass; but now a man must always be on the look
out, to see that a partizan of the Duke's does not sit on one side, or
a Leaguist on the other; but, in spite of Bavarian or Swabian, I'll
sing the last verse:

"There stands an oak in Schoenbuch wood,
It shoots aloft and it spreads abroad;
And centuries hence recorded shall be,
That the Duke hang'd Hutten on that very tree."

When he had finished, the conversation among the burghers sunk into a
whisper, which made Albert suspect they were making comments upon him.
The good-natured hostess also appeared curious to know who she
entertained in the balcony. When she had spread a clean table-cloth
over the round-table, and placed the repast she had prepared before
him, she took her seat on the opposite side, and questioned him, but
with respect and deference, whence he came, and whither he was going?

The young man was not inclined to give her positive information as to
the real object of his journey. The conversation to which he had
listened at the long table, made him cautious in giving an answer to
her leading question, for he felt that in times of civil strife, it was
not less indiscreet than dangerous to declare, in a place like a public
inn, to what party he belonged. Albert's peculiar circumstances at this
moment required him to exercise more than ordinary prudence, and he
merely said, "that he came from Franconia, and was going further into
the country, in the neighbourhood of Zollern." With this general answer
to the question, he cut short any other upon the same subject. But
being now in the neighbourhood of Lichtenstein, he thought he might be
able to learn something of the family from the loquacious