At this moment the clerk opened the door.

"Fetch our luggage, Audiat; we are going to leave this damned lunatic
asylum. The Herr Count may see to it then how he renews his lease."
Hereupon he kicked off the socks with such vigor that the very castle
shook. Then, grasping his sword in his hand, he marched out of his room,
and down the staircase, to prove that he was not fleeing like a coward,
but was clearing his way by force.

When the clerk, who went to fetch the luggage, was about to enter the
groom's apartment, the count came toward him and said:

"You are the vice-palatine's clerk?"

"That 's what they call me."

"When do you expect to become a lawyer?"

"When I have passed my examination."

"When will that be?"

"When I have served a year as jurat, and have paid a ducat for my
diploma."

"I will give you the ducat, and when you have become a lawyer I will
employ you as my attorney at six hundred guilders a year. I know that a
Hungarian gentleman will not accept a gift without making some return; I
ask you, therefore, to give me for this ducat some information."