set the glass on the table with his right. He had often done so far more
carelessly, but to-day the glass shattered into many fragments.

"That's nothing," cried the young nobleman. "Waiter, another glass for
Captain Allertssohn."

The fencing-master pushed his chair back from the table, and looking at
the broken pieces of greenish glass, said in an altered tone, as if
speaking to himself rather than his companions:

"Yes, yes, something serious will happen to-day. Shattered into a
thousand pieces. As God wills! I know where my place is."

Von Warmond filled a fresh glass, saying with a slight shade of reproof
in his tone: "Why, Captain, Captain, what whims are these? Before the
battle of Brill I fell in jumping out of the boat and broke my sword.
I soon found another, but the idea came into my head: 'you'll meet your
death to-day.' Yet here I sit, and hope to empty many a beaker with
you."

"It has passed already," said the fencing-master, raising his hat and
wiping the perspiration from his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Every one must meet his death-hour, and if mine is approaching to-day
--be it as God wills! My family won't starve. The house on the new
Rhine is free from mortgage, and though they don't inherit much else, I
shall leave my children an honest name and trustworthy friends. I know
you won't lose sight of my second boy, the musician, Wilhelm. Nobody is
indispensable, and if Heaven wishes to call me from this command, Junker
von Nordwyk, Jan Van der Does, can fill my place. You, Herr von Warmond,
are in just the right spot, and the good cause will reach a successful