cried, as has been told, that "there was stuff" in my brother, it was by
reason of his having perceived that Herdegen had already filled his cup
for the fourteenth time, and when the youth had drunk it off the old man
sang out in high glee:

"Der Eppela Gaila von Dramaus
Reit' allezeit zu vierzeht aus!"

[An old popular rhyme in Nuremberg. "Eppela (Apollonius) Gaila of
Dramaus--or Drameysr--could always go as far as fourteen cups."
Apollonius von Gailingen was a brigand chief who brought much damage
and vexation on the town. Drameysel, in popular form Dramaus, was
his stronghold near Muggendorf in Swiss Franconia.]

"Now, if the boy can drink three times the mystic seven, he will do what
I could do at his age."

And presently Herdegen did indeed drink his one and twenty cups, and when
at last he paced the whole length of the great dining hall on one seam of
the flooring the old man was greatly pleased, and rewarded him with the
gift of a noble tankard which he himself had won of yore at a drinking
bout. All this made good sport for us, save only for Jost Tetzel, who
was himself a right moderate man; indeed, in aftertimes, when at Venice
I saw how that wealthy and noble gentlemen drank but sparingly of the
juice of the grape, I marvelled wherefor we Germans are ever proud of a
man who is able to drink deep, and apt to look askance at such as fear to
see the bottom of the cup. And if I had an answer ready, that likewise I
owed to my uncle Christian; inasmuch as that very eve, when I would fain
have warned Herdegen against the good liquor, my uncle put in his word
and said it was every man's duty to follow in the ways of Saint George