old man disturb you, dear Mr. Tussmann. You believe in the old times;
you're fond of old Thomasius. I go a good deal further back. What I
care about is the time to which, as you see, my dress partly belongs.
Aye! my good friend, those were the days! It is to them that that
little spell belongs which you saw me putting into practice to-night at
the Town-house Tower."

"I don't quite understand you, Herr Professor,'' Tussmann said.

"Well," said the goldsmith, "there used to be splendid weddings in
those old days in the Town-hall--very different affairs from the
weddings nowadays. Plenty of happy brides used to look out of those
Tower-windows in those days, so that it's a piece of pleasant glamour
when an aerial form comes and tells us what is going to happen now,
from knowledge of olden times. Let me tell you, this Berlin was a very
different place in those old days; nowadays everything is marked with
the same stamp of tediousness and _ennui_, and people _ennuyer_ one
another just because they are so _ennuyees_ and weary in themselves. In
those days there were entertainments, feastings, rejoicings worthy the
name, very different from the affairs that are so called now. I shall
only speak of what was done at Oculi, in the year 1581, when the
Elector Augustus of Saxony, with his Consort, and Don Christian, his
son, were escorted to Cologne by all the nobles and gentry. There were
over a hundred horse, and the citizens of both the cities--Berlin and
Cologne--and those of Spandau lined both sides of the road from the
gate to the palace in complete armour. Next day there was a splendid
running at the ring, at which the Elector of Saxony and Count Jost of
Barby appeared, with many nobles--in fine suits of gold embroidery, and
tall golden helms, golden lions' heads on their shoulders, knees, and
elbows, with flesh-coloured silk on the other parts of their arms and
legs, just as if they had been naked---exactly as you see the heathen
warriors painted in pictures. There were singers and musicians hidden
inside a gilt Noah's Ark, and on the top of it sat a little boy in
flesh-coloured silk tights, with his eyes bandaged, as Cupid is
represented. Two other boys, dressed as doves, with white ostrich
feathers, golden eyes and beaks, drew +-he ark along; and when the
prince had run at the ring and been successful, the music in the ark
played, and a number of pigeons were let fly from it. One of them
flapped its wings and sang a mos