" and
Roland held open the mouth of the bag which contained his treasure.

"Ah!" cried the inn-keeper, his face aglow. "No such meal is spread
to-night in Frankfort as will be set before you."

There was a great shout as Roland entered the Kaiser cellar, and a
hurrah of welcome.

"Ha, renegade!" cried one. "Have you shirked your task so soon?"

"Coward, coward, poltroon!" was the cry. "I see by his face he has
failed. Never mind them, Roland. Your chair at the head of the table
always awaits you. There is a piece of black bread left, and though the
wine is thin, it quenches thirst."

Roland flung off his cloak, hung it and the sword on a peg, and took his
seat at the head of the table. Pushing away the flagons that stood near
him, he drew the leathern bag from his belt, and poured the shining
yellow coins on the table, at the sight of which there arose such a yell
that the stout beams above them seemed to quake.

"Apologize!" demanded Roland, when the clamor quieted down. "The man who
refuses to apologize, and that abjectly, must take down his sword from
the peg and settle with me!"

A shout of apology was the response.

"We grovel at your feet, High Mightiness!" cried the man who had called
him poltroon.

"I have taken the liberty of ordering a fish and meat supper, with a
double quantity of Rudesheimer wine. Again I offer to fight any man who
resents this encroachment on my part."

"I could spit you with a hand tied behind my back," cried one, "but I am
of a forgiving nature, and will wait instead for the spitted fowl."

"Most of this money," continued Roland quietly, "goes, I suspect, to the
landlord, as a slight recognition of past kindness, but I am promised a
further supply this evening, which will be divided equally among
ourselves. I ask you, therefore, to be sparing of the wine." Here he was
compelled to pause for some moments, and listen to groans, hoots, howls,
and the rapping of empty flagons on the stout table.

The commotion was interrupted by the entrance of the landlord, who
brought with him the promised Rhine wine; for, hearing the noise, he
supposed it represented impatience of the company at the delay, a
mistake which no one thought it worth while to rectify. He promised that
the fish would follow in a very few minutes, and went out to see that
his word was kept.

"Why should we be sparing of the wine?" asked a capable drinker, who had
drained his flagon before asking the question. "Wi