William Lilly, the Astrologer, says, in his Autobiography, that, when
he was committed to the guard-room in White Hall, he thought himself in
hell; for "some were sleeping, others swearing, others smoking tobacco;
and in the chimney of the room there were two bushels of broken
tobacco-pipes, and almost half a load of ashes." What he would have
thought if he had peeped into this Heidelberg Studenten-Kneipe, I know
not. He certainly would not have thought himself in heaven; unless it
were a Scandinavian heaven. The windows were open; and yet so dense was
the atmosphere with the smoke of tobacco, and the fumes of beer, that
the tallow candles burnt but dimly. A crowd of students were sitting at
three long tables, in the large hall; a medley of fellows, known at
German Universities under the cant names of Old-Ones, Mossy-Heads,
Princes of Twilight, and Pomatum-Stallions. They were smoking,
drinking, singing, screaming, and discussing the great Laws of the
Broad-Stone and the Gutter. They had a great deal to say, likewise,
about Besens, and Zobels, and Poussades; and, if they had been charged
for the noise they made, as travellers used to be, in the old Dutch
taverns, they would have had a longer bill to pay for that, than for
their beer.
In a large arm-chair, upon the middle table, sat one of those
distinguished individuals, known among German students as a Senior, or
Leader of a Landsmannschaft. He was booted and spurred, and wore a very
small crimson cap, and a very tight blue jacket, and very long hair,
and a very dirty shirt. He was President of the night; and, as Flemming
entered the hall with the Baron and his friend, striking upon the table
with a mighty broadsword, he cried in a loud voice;
"Silentium!"
At the same moment a door at the end of the hall was thrown open, and a
procession of newcomers, or Nasty-Foxes, as they are called in the
college dialect, entered two by two, looking wild, and green, and
foolish. As they came forward, they were obliged to pass under a pair
of naked swords, held cross-wise by two Old-Ones, who, with pieces of
burnt cork, made an enormous pair of mustaches, on the smooth, rosy
cheeks of each, as he passed beneath this arch of triumph. While the
procession was entering the hall, the President lifted up his voice
again, and began to sing the well-known Fox-song, in the chorus of
which all present joined lustily.
What comes there from the hill?
What comes there from the hill?
What comes there from the leathery hill?
Ha! Ha!
Leathery hill!
What comes there from the hill?
It is a postilion!
It is a postilion!
It is a leathery postilion!
Ha! Ha!
Postilion!
It is a postilion!
What brings the postilion?
What brings the postilion?
What brings the leathery postilion?
Ha! Ha!
Postilion!
What brings the postilion?
He bringeth us a Fox!
He bringeth us a Fox!
He bringeth us a leathery Fox!
Ha! Ha!
Leathery Fox!
He bringeth us a Fox!
Your servant, Masters mine!
Your servant, Masters mine!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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