"I know him well," he answered; "he is a worthless, idle fellow, a travelling doctor, who sells pills to cure the plague; extracts the worm from dogs, and crops their ears; eases young women of thick necks; and gives the old ones eyewater, which, instead of healing, makes them blind. His proper name is Kahlmaüser, or baldmouse; pretending to be a learned man, he calls himself doctor Calmus. He fastens himself upon the great, and should one of them call him ass, he fawns upon him as his best friend." "But he cannot be upon good terms with the Duke," remarked the cunning-looking man; "for he abused him in no measured terms." "Yes, he certainly is not happy with him; and for this reason--the Duke had a beautiful Danish sporting dog, which had run a thorn deep into its foot. It was a great favourite of the Duke, who inquired after an experienced man to cure it; and it so happened that this Kahlmaüser was on the spot, and tendered his services, with a look full of consequence. The wretch was fed every day with the best of food in the castle of Stuttgardt, and the fare was so palatable that he remained more than a quarter of a-year, doctoring the dog's foot. The Duke one day called for both doctor and dog, to know and see what had been done. The quack, it appears, talked a great deal of learned stuff, to which the Duke paid no attention; but, upon examining the wound himself, he found the dog's foot worse than ever. He laid hold of the doctor, tall as he was, led him to the top of the long flight of steps, so contrived that a horse can mount up to the second story, and threw him headlong down. He was half dead when he arrived at the bottom, so you may imagine that since that time, Doctor Calmus does not speak well of the Duke. He is also said to have been a spy between Hutten and Frau Sabina, and only undertook the care of the dog for the purpose of remaining in the castle to carry on intrigues." "Really! was he in correspondence with Hutten?" said one of the burghers; "if we had but known that, he should not have come off so cheaply, the vagabond doctor; for Hutten's amorous intrigue is the cause of this unhappy war; and it appears that this Kahlmaüser assisted him in it!" "_De mortuis nil nisi bonum_,--we ought to spare the dead, say the Latins," replied the fat man; "the poor devil has paid his crime dear enough with his life." "It served him right," cried the other burgher, angrily; "had I been in the Duke's place I would have done the same; every one must protect his domestic rights." "Do not you ride sometimes hunting with the bailiff?" asked the fat man, with a peculiar crafty smile: "you surely have the best opportunity to assert your rights; you possess a sword, and could easily find an oak tree to hang a corpse upon."