I take thee to Remiremont, my native place, and there I marry thee to my young sister, she is blooming as a peach.

Thou shakest thy head?
ah! I forgot; thou lovest elsewhere, and art a one woman man, a creature to me scarce conceivable.

Well then I shall find thee, not a wife, nor a leman, but a friend; some honest Burgundian who shall go with thee as far as Lyons; and much I doubt that honest fellow will be myself, into whose liquor thou has dropped sundry powders to make me love thee; for erst I endured not doves in doublet and hose.

From Lyons, I say, I can trust thee by ship to Italy, which being by all accounts the very stronghold of milksops, thou wilt there be safe: they will hear thy words, and make thee their duke in a twinkling." Gerard sighed.

"In sooth I love not to think of this Dusseldorf, where we are to part company, good friend." They walked silently, each thinking of the separation at hand; the thought checked trifling conversation, and at these moments it is a relief to do something, however insignificant.