“Gently, my lord,” returned Biberli, slapping his belt importantly.  “Here is what you need for the stake as your own property.  No miracles have been wrought for us, only I forgot But look!  There are the black clouds rolling northward over the castle.  That was a frightful storm!  But a spendthrift doesn’t keep house long-and the thunder has not yet followed that last flash of lightning.  There is plenty of uproar without it.  It’s hard work to hear one’s self speak amid all the ringing, trumpeting, yelling, and shrieking.  It seems as if they expected to put out the fire with noise.  The fathers of the city can attend to that.  It doesn’t appear to disturb the duke and his guests at their dice; and here, my lord, are fifty florins which, I think, will do for the beginning.”

Biberli handed the knight a little bag containing this sum, and when Heinz asked in perplexity where he obtained it, the ex-schoolmaster answered gaily:  “They came just in the nick of time.  I received them from Suss, the jockey, while you were out riding this afternoon.”

“For the black?” Heinz enquired.

“Certainly, my lord.  It’s a pity about the splendid stallion.  But, as you know, he has the staggers, and when I struck him on the coronet he stood as if rooted to the earth, and the equerry, who was there, said that the disease was proved.  So the Jew silently submitted, let the horse be led away, and paid back what we gave him.  Fifty heavy florins!  More than enough for a beginning.  If I may advise you, count on the two and the five when fixed numbers are to be thrown or hit.  Why?  Because you must turn your ill luck in love to advantage:  and those from whom it comes are the two beautiful Ortlieb Es, as Nuremberg folk call the ladies Els and Eva.  That makes the two.  But E is the fifth letter in the alphabet, so I should choose the five.  If Biberli did not put things together shrewdly—­”

“He would be as oversharp as he has often been already,” Heinz interrupted, but he patted Biberli’s wet arm as he spoke, and added kindly “Yet every day proves that my Biberli is a true and steadfast fellow; but where in the wide world did you, a schoolmaster, gain instruction in the art of throwing the dice?”

“While we were studying in Paris, with my dead foster brother,” replied the servant with evident emotion.  “But now go up, my lord, before the fire alarm, and I know not what else, makes the people upstairs separate.  The iron must be forged during this wild night.  Only a few drops of rain are falling.  You can cross the street dry even without my long garment.”

While speaking he divested the knight of his robe, and continued eagerly:  “Now, my lord, from the coffin, or let us say rather the leaden weight, which oppresses your soul, let a bolt be melted that will strike misfortune to the heart.  Glittering gold has a cheering colour.”

“Stop! stop!” Heinz interrupted positively.  “No good wishes on the eve of hunting or gaming.