Roland gazed at the approaching craft, and instantly remembered that he was responsible for its appearance on the Rhine.  He recognized Herr Goebel’s great barge, with its thick mast in the prow, on which no sail was hoisted because the wind blew upstream.  On recollecting his deserted men, he wondered whether or not Greusel had brought them across the hills to Assmannshausen.  Had they yet discovered that Joseph carried the bag of gold?  He laughed aloud as he thought of the scrimmage that would ensue when this knowledge came to them.  But little as he cared for the eighteen, he experienced a pang of regret as he estimated the predicament in which both Greusel and Ebearhard had stood on learning he had left them without a word.  Still, even now he could not see how any explanation on his part was possible without revealing his identity, and that he was determined not to do.

Turning round, he said abruptly to the custodian: 

“Were the seven hundred thalers paid to you each month?”

“Of a surety,” was the reply.

“That will be two thousand one hundred thalers altogether.  Did you spend the money?”

“I have not touched a single coin.  That amount is yours, and yours alone, Prince Roland.  If I have been of service I am quite content to wait for my reward, or should I not be here, I know you will remember my family.”

“May the Lord forget me if I don’t.  Still, the twenty-one hundred thalers are all yours, remember, but I beg of you to lend me a thousand, for I possess not a single gold piece in my bag.  Indeed, if it comes to that, I do not possess even a bag.  I had two yesterday, but one I gave away and the other I threw away.”

The old man hurried down, and presently returned with the bag of money that Roland had asked of him.  Before this happened, however, Roland, watching the barge, saw it round to, and tie up at the shore some distance above Assmannshausen.  He took the gold, and passed down the stone stair to the courtyard.

“I shall return,” he said, “before the sun sets,” and without more ado, this extraordinary captive left his prison, and descended the hill in the direction of the barge.

After greeting Captain Blumenfels, he learned that the boat had been delayed by running on a sandbank in the Main during the night, but they had got it off at daybreak, and here they were.  As, standing on the shore, Roland talked with the captain on the barge, he saw approaching from Assmannshausen two men whom he recognized.  Telling the captain he might not be ready for several days, he walked along the shore to meet his astonished friends, who, as was usual with them, jumped at an erroneous conclusion, and supposed that he arrived on the barge which they had seen rounding to for the purpose of taking up her berth by the river-bank.

Greusel and Ebearhard stood still until he came up to them.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen.  Are you here alone, or have you brought the mob with you?”