Heavens! what an uproar followed. My mother trembled from head to foot, the Herr Amtshauptmann forgot his age and position, and seized Luth by the collar and shook him with all his might. "Luth, man, recollect yourself! We are not in a mood for jesting here." The Frau Amtshauptmann went up anxiously to my mother. Mamsell Westphalen sat upright and stiffly in her chair and said--"If you will let me say so, Herr Amtshauptmann, he is a clown." "Herr Amtshauptmann, Herr Amtshauptmann," said Luth letting himself be shaken; "you may believe me; Fritz Sahlmann saw it all and told me about it." "Fritz Sahlmann? My Fritz Sahlmann?" asked the old Herr, and let Luth go. "It looks like our Fritz Sahlmann, Herr Amtshauptmann," said Mamsell Westphalen, quietly; "Fritz Sahlmann and truth are as far asunder as the cuckoo and the Seven Stars." "Where is the boy?" asked the Amtshauptmann. "He is standing outside in the Hall," said Luth. The old Herr strode with long steps to the door and called out,--"Fritz, Fritz Sahlmann, come in here." Fritz Sahlmann came. Two forces were struggling in his breast, the desire to recount his valorous deeds and the fear of a sound rating on account of his appearance; the one drew him forward and the other held him back; and, at the same time perhaps, one pulled him to the left, and the other to the right, for he came in at the door askew, with his good side first. But he had reckoned without his host, for he had not taken into account that coming in, in this way, his natural centre of gravity, on which he had sat down in the mud, would at once catch the eyes of the Frau Amtshauptmann and Mamsell Westphalen. "Fritz Sahlmann," asked the old Herr, "what is the meaning of all this?" Fritz Sahlmann who had marched in with a sort of pride, now let his head drop and looked down at his clothes: "Oh, nothing, Herr Amtshauptmann. It's only a little mud." "Heaven preserve us," cried the Frau Amtshauptmann; "what does the boy look like? Who is ever to get him clean again?" "Hanchen and Corlin must go all over him with the kitchen brooms," said Mamsell Westphalen. "Boy!" cried the Herr Amtshauptmann; "now tell me at once the pure truth. Has the Burmeister escaped or not?" "Yes, Herr Amtshauptmann," said Fritz, and looked up again; "he's scuttled." "That's a lie," burst out Mamsell Westphalen; "how can pure truth come from an unclean vessel?" "Proceed, Fritz," said the old Herr. And Fritz proceeded.