s and light
torches, and set off through the pathless darkness with twelve heydukes,
taking with him everything necessary for eating and drinking, in order
to have a banquet in honour of the jest as soon as it was accomplished,
not forgetting to carry along with him the three personages who chiefly
ministered to his amusement, and whom he sent on before him in a
separate waggon, to wit, his favourite greyhound, his gipsy jester, and
his parasitical poet, all three of whom made a nice little group
together.

Now, worthy Mr. Peter Bus was famous far and wide for his peculiar
sensitiveness to insult; the merest trifle was sufficient to lash him
into a fury. A heyduke, therefore, was sent on in advance, who rattled
at his windows like a savage, and bellowed at the top of his voice--

"Get up there, you innkeeper fellow! Get up, get up! You are required to
wait upon your betters, and look sharp about it!"

At these words Peter Bus bounded to his feet as if he had been shot from
a gun, snatched up his _fokos_, looked out of the window, and perceiving
the brilliant array of serving-men, who lit up the whole house with
their torches, instantly guessed with whom he had to do. He now grasped
the fact that they wanted to make him fly into a rage for their especial
amusement, and resolved for that very reason not to fly into a rage at
all. So he hung his _fokos_ up nicely on its nail again, thrust his head
into his sheepskin cap, threw his _bunda_ over his shoulders, and
stepped out.

All the newly arrived guests were already inside the courtyard. In the
centre, surrounded by his bodyguard, was his lordship, in a large
_attila_ with gold buttons, reaching down to his knee; the circumference
of his body constrained him to hold his head a little thrown back, and
he supported himself with a gold-headed Spanish cane. It was now quite
evident how ill that scornful, mocking expression of his became his
face, and wholly distorted its naturally jovial character.

"Come nearer, sirrah!" he called to the innkeeper in a loud imperious
voice. "Throw open your apartments, and make ready for our
entertainment. Give us wine, tokay, and _menes_; give us also pheasants,
artichokes, and crab salad."

The innkeeper humbly took off his hat, held it in his hand, and replied
with the utmost calmness and _sangfroid_--

"God hath brought your lordship to us; I will serve you with everything
you command. I would only beg of you to pardon me for not