"Monsieur Wahlenfer, haven't you also your 'hoc erat in votis'?" asked
Wilhelm.

"Yes, monsieur, but it came to pass, and now--"

The good man was silent, and did not finish his sentence.

"As for me," said the landlord, whose face was rather flushed, "I
bought a field last spring, which I had been wanting for ten years."

They talked thus like men whose tongues are loosened by wine, and they
each took that friendly liking to the others of which we are never
stingy on a journey; so that when the time came to separate for the
night, Wilhelm offered his bed to the merchant.

"You can accept it without hesitation," he said, "for I can sleep with
Prosper. It won't be the first, nor the last time either. You are our
elder, and we ought to honor age!"

"Bah!" said the landlord, "my wife's bed has several mattresses; take
one off and put it on the floor."

So saying, he went and shut the window, making all the noise that
prudent operation demanded.

"I accept," said the merchant; "in fact I will admit," he added,
lowering his voice and looking at the two Frenchmen, "that I desired
it. My boatmen seem to me suspicious. I am not sorry to spend the
night with two brave young men, two French soldiers, for, between