“You appear to think, Greusel, that it is the duty of a commander to curry favor with his following.”

“No; but I regard tact as a useful quality.  You see, you are not in the position of a general with an army.  The members of the guild can depose you whenever they like and elect a successor, or they may desert you in a body, and you have no redress.  Your methods should not be drastic, but rather those of a man who seeks election to some high office.”

“I fear I am not constituted for such a role, Greusel.”

“If you are to succeed in the task you have undertaken, Roland, you must adapt yourself to your situation as it actually is, and not as you would wish to have it.  I stood by you yesterday evening, and succeeded in influencing the others to do the same, yet there is no denying that you spoke to those men in a most overbearing manner.  Why, you could not have been more downright had you been an officer of the Emperor himself.  What passed through my mind as I listened was, ’Where did this youth get his swagger?’ You ordered Kurzbold out of the ranks, you know.”

“Then why favor my action?”

“Because I was reluctant to see a promising marauding adventure wrecked at the very outset for lack of a few soothing words.”

Roland laughed heartily.  The morning was inspiring, and he was in good fettle.

“Your words to Kurzbold were anything but soothing.”

“Oh, I was compelled to crush him.  He was the cause of the disturbance, and therefore I had no mercy so far as the affair impinged upon him.  But the others, with the exception of Gensbein perhaps, are good, honest, sweet-tempered fellows, whom I did not wish to see misled.  I think you must put out of your mind all thought of punishment, no matter what the offense against your authority may be.”

“Then how would you deal with insubordination when it arises?”

“I should trust to the good sense of the remaining members of your company to make it uncomfortable for the offender.”

“But suppose they don’t?”

Greusel shrugged his shoulders.

“In that case you are helpless, I fear.  At any rate, talking of hanging, or the infliction of any other punishment, is quite futile so long as you do not possess the power to carry out your sentence.  To return to my simile of the general:  a general can order any private in his army to be hanged, and the man is taken out and hanged accordingly, but if one of the guild is to be executed, he must be condemned by an overwhelming vote of his fellows, because even if a bare majority sentenced one belonging to the minority it would mean civil war among us.  Suppose, for example, it was proposed to hang you, and eleven voted for the execution and nine against it.  Do you think we nine would submit to the verdict of the eleven?  Not so.  I am myself the most peaceful of men, but the moment it came to that point, I should run my sword through the proposer of the execution before he had time to draw his weapon.  In other words, I’d murder him to lessen the odds, and then we’d fight it out like men.”