LANDOLPH. Kings against antikings! ORDULPH. War on the Saxons! HAROLD. And all the rebels Princes! LANDOLPH. Against the Emperor's own sons! BERTHOLD (_covering his head with his hands to protect himself against this avalanche of information_). I understand! I understand! Naturally, I didn't get the idea at first. I'm right then: these aren't costumes of the XVIth century? HAROLD. XVIth century be hanged! ORDULPH. We're somewhere between a thousand and eleven hundred. LANDOLPH. Work it out for yourself: if we are before Canossa on the 25th of January, 1071.... BERTHOLD (_more confused than ever_). Oh my God! What a mess I've made of it! ORDULPH. Well, just slightly, if you supposed you were at the French court. BERTHOLD. All that historical stuff I've swatted up! LANDOLPH. My dear boy, it's four hundred years earlier. BERTHOLD (_getting angry_). Good Heavens! You ought to have told me it was Germany and not France. I can't tell you how many books I've read in the last fifteen days. HAROLD. But I say, surely you knew that poor Tito was Adalbert of Bremen, here? BERTHOLD. Not a damned bit! LANDOLPH. Well, don't you see how it is? When Tito died, the Marquis Di Nolli.... BERTHOLD. Oh, it was he, was it? He might have told me. HAROLD. Perhaps he thought you knew. LANDOLPH. He didn't want to engage anyone else in substitution. He thought the remaining three of us would do. But _he_ began to cry out: "With Adalbert driven away....": because, you see, he didn't imagine poor Tito was dead; but that, as Bishop Adalbert, the rival bishops of Cologne and Mayence had driven him off.... BERTHOLD (_taking his head in his hand_). But I don't know a word of what you're talking about. ORDULPH. So much the worse for you, my boy! HAROLD. But the trouble is that not even we know who you are. BERTHOLD. What? Not even you? You don't know who I'm supposed to be? ORDULPH. Hum! "Berthold." BERTHOLD. But which Berthold? And why Berthold? LANDOLPH (_solemnly imitating Henry IV._). "They've driven Adalbert away from me. Well then, I want Berthold! I want Berthold!" That's what he said. HAROLD. We three looked one another in the eyes: who's got to be Berthold? ORDULPH. And so here you are, "Berthold," my dear fellow! LANDOLPH. I'm afraid you will make a bit of a mess of it. BERTHOLD (_indignant, getting ready to go_). Ah, no! Thanks very much, but I'm off! I'm out of this! HAROLD (_restraining him with the other two, amid laughter_). Steady now! Don't get excited!