this functionary offered no alternative to his guests but rabbits killed in his demesne or the ever-prevailing and monotonous ham. Among the waiters—whom I suspected, from the dignity of their chief, to be wood-choppers and charcoal-burners on ordinary days—I succeeded in making one excited individual listen to me. I ordered rabbit and Affenthaler wine: he reappeared after a long time with ham and beer. But I took care, after the first mouthful, not to complain, for the beer was Bavarian and the ham Westphalian.
As I tasted the one and the other with the gusto of an epicure, suddenly my table, with the plates and bottles, resounded to a tinkling hail—a hail of money. Whence came this Danaë shower? No one knew, but its effects, satisfactory to some, were for others, and
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AURI SACERA FAMES.
especially myself, most deplorable. The peasantry from the heights around us, hearing the metallic ring, plunged upon our tables, our benches, our feet and our dishes, to collect the small change falling from the skies. It continued to rain, not kreutzers only, but little coins of silver. The instinct of avarice spread through all the throng; the crowds poured down the hill like a landslide; men and women, young girls, lads and children, all eager for the quarry, fought hardily for this uncelestial manna. Woe to the girl who received a kreutzer in her bodice! she was not to remain the possessor. The waiters, sent up to pacify the fray, yielded to the game with avidity, and seemed to find themselves in a new California. The dogs, even, plunged into the loot, disdaining indeed the silver, but not the ham-bones and little saddles of rabbit. In the confusion the benches turned over on their sides, the tables on their backs, followed by some of the diners. My own lot was cast among these latter.
I got up bareheaded and shamefaced, but no one had noticed my reverse. The rain of silver had taken another direction, and the world, as of old, had run
