'_Gruesset Gott_,' and those of the citizens that had painfully attained
to so much of that tongue answered him with--
'_Lobet den Herr im Himmels Reich!_'
He had with him one older man that wore a half-mask, and was trembling
and clean-shaven, and one younger, that was English, to act as
interpreter when it was needed. He was clean-shaven, too, and in the
English habit he appeared thin and tenuous. They said he was a gentleman
of the Archbishop's, and that his name was Lascelles.
He opened the meeting with saying that these great strangers were come
from beyond the seas, and would hear answers to certain questions. He
took a paper from his pouch and said that, in order that he might stick
to the points that these strangers would know of, he had written down
those questions on that paper.
'How say ye, masters?' he finished. 'Will ye give answers to these
questions truly, and of your knowledge?'
'Aye will we,' the printer said, 'for to that end we are gathered here.
Is it not so, my masters?'