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There was a great hole in the rear wall of the cellar, and among the ruins lay shining heaps of gold not bezants or zecchins, but wedges and bars of a strange reddish hue. They touched it warily; it was not red-hot. They filled their pouches, and others came and did likewise.
"And how much didst thou pay to Isaac? Methinks, to judge by weight, there is still two hundred zecchins in this pouch." "I paid to Isaac," said the Saxon, "eighty zecchins, and he restored me a hundred in lieu thereof." "How! what!" exclaimed all the robbers at once; "darest thou trifle with us, that thou tellest such improbable lies?"
Further, two gold zecchins were not often come by so easily as this; and if the dear Lord Jesus saw fit, in his infinite wisdom, to take this means of rewarding his poor servant, it ill became such a worm as he to ignore the divine favor.
Meantime render up thy trust for a time." So saying, he took from Gurth's breast the large leathern pouch, in which the purse given him by Rebecca was enclosed, as well as the rest of the zecchins, and then continued his interrogation. "Who is thy master?" "The Disinherited Knight," said Gurth. "Whose good lance," replied the robber, "won the prize in to-day's tourney?
"Nay," cried Katterle, nudging him angrily with her elbow, "we never had a day begin more happily for us. The gold with which we can set up housekeeping " "Oh, yes," interrupted Biberli, "the zecchins and gold florins are certainly no trifle. Much can be bought with them.
"We stand commissioned, each of us," answered the squire of Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, "to offer a hundred zecchins in ransom of these horses and suits of armour." "It is sufficient," said the Disinherited Knight.
Then the oldest of the judges read the sentence imposing the price of blood, from 50 to 140 zecchins of gold. Part of the money went to the Church, a third to the expenses of the judgment, and the rest to the family, who generally applied it to some pious use. Marriage customs vary slightly.
Else what was the meaning of this unexampled good luck at the gaming table? The torture of this thought had kept him awake a long time. Then he had sunk into a deep, dreamless sleep. In the morning Biberli, full of delight, roused him, and displayed three large bags filled with florins and zecchins, the gains of the night before.
A tall, broad-shouldered sergeant belonging to the escort had just purchased for the larger part of the zecchins won as his share of the booty in the Italian war the indulgence which he thought would secure him from the tortures of the fire of purgatory. Before opening the door, he struck his broad breast as though relieved of a heavy burden. The ropedancer looked after him thoughtfully.
The key had been given to her the evening before by the regent herself, and when Barbara opened it she discovered so many shining zecchins and ducats that a long time was occupied when she obeyed Fran Lerch's request to count them. The dressmaker from the Grieb was already in her service, and had been a witness of her sincere delight and grateful pleasure.
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