no Emperor need be ashamed of our Venice glasses. And herewith I sent
her down stairs; but I then frankly confessed to our friends how matters
stood; and when they had heard me, now laughing heartily, and now in
amazement and shaking their heads, I enquired of Doctor Holzschuher, as a
man of law, how I might deal with the wine, inasmuch as it had already
found a purchaser? Hereupon arose much jocose argument and discussion,
and at last the learned notary and doctor of laws declared that he held
it to be his duty, as adviser to the Council and administrator of the
Schopper estates, to taste and prove with all due caution whether the
price promised by Tucher, and not yet paid down, were not all too little
for the liquor, inasmuch as his clients, being but women-folk, had no
skill in the good gifts of Bacchus, and could not know their value. To
abstain from such testing he held would be a breach of duty, and whereas
he did not trust his own skill alone, he must call upon Master Christian
Pfinzing as a man of ripe experience, and Master Councillor Pernhart,
who, as brother to a great prelate, had doubtless drunk much good liquor,
in due form to proceed with him to the Schoppers' cellar, and there to
mark those vessels or jars out of which the wine should be drawn for the
testing. Moreover, to satisfy all the requirements of the case, a
serving-man should be sent to call upon Master Tucher, as the purchaser,
to be present in his own person at the ceremony. Inasmuch as it yet
lacked two hours of midnight, he would, without doubt, be found in the
gentlemen's tavern; and it might be enjoined on the messenger to add,
that if Master Tucher were fain to bring with him one skilled in such
matters to bear him witness on his part, such an one would be made right
welcome at the Schopperhof.

Thus within a quarter of an hour the three worthy gentlemen, and Ann and
I, were seated with the winejars before us, they having chosen for
themselves of the best our cellar could afford; and when the meats which