"All very well," answered Blasius, more inflatedly, "but your own changes of ground must show you the necessity for a proper legal investigation." This was more than Siebenkæs could endure, he squeezed his friend by the hand, as much as to say, "Pray be patient," and inquired in a voice which an unwonted feeling of hatred rendered faint, "Did you never write to me when I was in Leipzig?"--"If you are my ward, I certainly did, many times; if you are not, you have got hold of my letters in some other way." Then Siebenkæs asked, more faintly still, "Have you no recollection at all of a letter in which you assured me there was not the slightest risk involved in my proposed change of name, none whatever?" "This is really quite ludicrous," answered Blaise, "in that case there could be no question about the matter!" Here Leibgeber clasped the father of the city with his two fingers as if they had been iron rivets, grasped his shoulders as one does the pommel of a saddle at mounting, clamped him firmly into his chair, and thundered out, "You never wrote anything of the kind, did you? you smooth-tongued, grey-headed old scoundrel! Stop your grunting, or I'll throttle you! never wrote the letter, eh? keep quiet--if you lift a finger, my dog will tear your windpipe out. Answer me quietly you say you never received any letter on the subject, do you?" "I had rather say nothing," whispered Blasius, "evidence given under coercion is valueless." Here Siebenkæs drew his friend away from the Heimlicher, but Leibgeber said to the dog, "Mordax! hooy, Sau.," took the glass periwig from the head of the servant of the state, broke off the principal curls of it, and said to Siebenkæs (Saufinder lay ready to spring), "Screw him down yourself, if the dog is not to do it, that he may listen to me. I want to say one or two pretty things to him--don't let him say 'Pap!'--Herr Heimlicher von Blasius, I have not the slightest intention of making use of libellous or abusive language to you, or of spouting an improvised pasquinade; I merely tell you, that you are an old rascal, a robber of orphans, a varnished villain, and everything else of the kind--for instance, a Polish bear, whose footmarks are just like a human being's.[16] The epithets which I here make use of, such as scoundrel--Judas--gallows-bird" (at each word he struck the glass turban like a cymbal against his other hand), "skunk, leech, horse-leech--nominal definitions such as these are not abuse, and do not constitute libel, firstly because, according to 'L. § de injur.,' the grossest abuse may be uttered in jest, and I am in jest here--and we may always make use of abusive language in maintaining our own rights--see 'Leyser.'[17] Indeed, according to Quistorp's 'Penal Code,' we may accuse a person of the gravest crimes without _animus injurandi_, provided that he has not been already tried and punished for them. And has your honesty ever been put on its trial and punished,