ten horses shall not drag me from my seat. And if the Emperor of Japan came, dressed like the one in the East India House, and said, 'Take me that gold chest two houses farther and you shall earn a thousand stivers,' I should say, 'Emperor, take a glass; to-day I cannot serve you; sit down with us here; we are all emperors as good as you;' and if the Grand Pensioner himself sent for you, you should not move from this spot, Flyns. No beard shall come to harm to-day; even the beards shall have peace."
"You all rejoice over the peace," said Flyns, "and you don't know what name the child has."
"Well, what is it called?"
"The everlasting peace."
"Vivat! Hurrah for the everlasting peace!" they all cried, and emptied their glasses to the dregs. Flyns prophesied the return of the jolly times of Jacob van Artevelde in Ghent, and told them that in those old times, by wise management and extensive trade connection, men need only work two days a week, and might sit in the ale-house all the rest. It was a tempting bait, and each one had his own ideal of how to enjoy it. Maessen Blutzaufer alone would hear nothing of it, and asserted that it would be less godless to have no Sunday at all than five a week. The jolly company revelled far into the night, and then stumbled singing and cheering home.
