"Another thousand? That will make it five!" "Devil take it, yes!" A breathless silence followed, in which Gotthold heard nothing but the noise of the cards Redebas dealt, and then another outcry and tumult, such as had previously roused him from his revery, only this time it was so loud that even the drunken Pastor staggered out of his corner. Gotthold approached the table. His first glance rested upon Brandow's face, which was deadly pale; but his thin lips were firmly compressed, and a disagreeable smile even sparkled in his stern, cold eyes, as he now cried, turning to the new-comer: "They have plucked me finely, Gotthold; but night never lasts forever." "But this," cried Redebas throwing the cards on the table, and making a memorandum in his pocket-book, "I decline!" "What does that mean?" asked Brandow. "That I will play no more," answered Redebas with a loud laugh, closing his pocket-book and rising heavily. "I always thought the loser could break up the game, not the winner." "If the winner is not sure of his point--oh! yes." "I demand an explanation!" cried Brandow, pushing the table aside. "Why, Brandow, do be reasonable!" exclaimed Otto and Gustav von Plueggen, in the same breath. "Are you in partnership again?" answered Brandow with a sneering laugh, and then stepped before Redebas: "I demand an explanation at once!" The giant had drawn back a step: "Oho," he cried; "if that's what you want, come on!" "My dear Brandow," said the Assessor soothingly, putting himself between them. "I know what I am doing, Herr Assessor," answered Brandow, pushing him aside. "And I know too," cried Redebas, throwing up the window, and shouting across the quiet court-yard in a voice like the roar of a lion. "Harness the horses, August! harness the horses!" A scene of wild confusion followed, in which all shouted together, so that Gotthold could only distinguish a word here and there. Hans Redebas raved loudest of all, but apparently quite as much from fear as anger, while Brandow remained comparatively calm, and was evidently intent upon separating the Assessor, who was constantly intermeddling, from the three others whom the Pastor now joined, and by all possible signs announced his intention of making a speech, in which he actually several times got as far as the beginning: "My beloved friends!" The three carriages, to which the impatient coachmen had harnessed the horses long before, drove up. The quarrel had been continued from the room to the hall, from the hall to the door, and even to the carriage steps. "We shall see, we shall see," cried Hans Redebas; "are you in, Pastor? Then, in the devil's name, drive on--we shall see," he shouted again from the carriage window, as the powerful Danish horses trotted away at a rapid pace towards the northern gate, from whence the shorter road, which, however, was scarcely visible in the darkness, led through the forest to Dahlitz.