"
"Can _he_ eat Salamanders without singeing his whiskers, and dying
like a candle-snuff?" cried Registrator Heerbrand.
"No! no!" shouted the student Anselmus, "that he never can in this
world; and the green Snake loves me, for I have a childlike mien, and
I have looked into Serpentina's eyes."
"The Cat will scratch them out," cried Veronica.
"Salamander, Salamander masters them all, all!" hallooed Conrector
Paulmann, in the highest fury. "But am I in a madhouse? Am I mad
myself? What crazy stuff am I chattering? Yes, I am mad too! mad too!"
And with this, Conrector Paulmann started up, tore the peruke from his
head and dashed it against the ceiling of the room, till the battered
locks whizzed, and, tangled into utter disorder, rained down the
powder far and wide. Then the student Anselmus and Registrator
Heerbrand seized the punch-bowl and the glasses, and, hallooing and
huzzaing, pitched them against the ceiling also, and the sherds fell
jingling and tingling about their ears.
"_Vivat_ the Salamander!--_Pereat, pereat_ the crone!--Break the
metal mirror!--Dig the cat's eyes out!--Bird, little Bird, from the
air--_Eheu--Eheu--Evoe--Evoe_, Salamander!" So shrieked and shouted
and bellowed the three, like utter maniacs. With loud weeping,
Fraenzchen ran out; but Veronica lay whimpering for pain and sorrow on
the sofa.
At this moment the door opened; all was instantly still; and a little
man, in a small gray cloak, came stepping in.
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