‘Possess thyself of the truncheon,’ said Guy: ‘You see it can damage. More work before breakfast, and a fine account I must give of myself to my hostess of the Three Holy Kings!’
Farina recovered the destructive little instrument.
‘I am ready,’ said he. ‘But hark! there’s little work for us there, I fancy. Those be lads of Cologne, no grunters of the wild. ‘Tis the White Rose Club. Always too late for service.’
Voices singing a hunting glee, popular in that age, swelled up the clear morning air; and gradually the words became distinct.
The Kaiser went a-hunting, A-hunting, tra-ra: With his bugle-horn at springing morn, The Kaiser trampled bud and thorn: Tra-ra!
And the dew shakes green as the horsemen rear, And a thousand feathers they flutter with fear; And a pang drives quick to the heart of the deer; For the Kaiser’s out a-hunting, Tra-ra! Ta, ta, ta, ta, Tra-ra, tra-ra, Ta-ta, tra-ra, tra-ra!
the owner of the truncheon awoke to these reviving tones, and uttered a faint responsive ‘Tra-ra!’
‘Hark again!’ said Farina, in reply to the commendation of the Goshawk, whose face was dimpled over with the harmony.
The wild boar lay a-grunting, A-grunting, tra-ra! And, boom! comes the Kaiser to hunt up me? Or, queak! the small birdie that hops on the tree? Tra-ra! O birdie, and boar, and deer, lie tame! For a maiden in bloom, or a full-blown dame, Are the daintiest prey, and the windingest game, When Kaisers go a-hunting, Tra-ra! Ha, ha, ha, ha, Tra-ra, tra-ra, Ha-ha, tra-ra, tra-ra!
The voices held long on the last note, and let it die in a forest cadence.
‘‘Fore Gad! well done. Hurrah! Tra-ra, ha-ha, tra-ra! That’s a trick we’re not half alive to at home,’ said Guy. ‘I feel friendly with these German lads.’
The Goshawk’s disposition toward German lads was that moment harshly tested by a smart rap on the shoulder from an end of German oak, and a proclamation that he was prisoner of the hand that gave the greeting, in the name of the White Rose Club. Following that, his staff was wrested from him by a dozen stout young fellows, who gave him no time to get his famous distance for defence against numbers; and he and Farina were marched forthwith to the chorusing body in front of Gottlieb Groschen’s house.