Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 9, 1895 - Romances Volume II

PLAYS HAROUN-AL-RASCHID
worked for, that he has got; and may God have
pity on his soul, for a great and a silly sinner's ! '
' He has broke his oath ; then he is a perjurer.
He takes the money and leaves the work; why,
then plainly he 's a thief. A cuckold he was before,
and a fool by birth. Better me that ! ' cried Fritz,
and snapped his fingers.
' And now, sir, you will see a little,' continued the
farmer, ' why we think so poorly of this Prince Otto.
There's such a thing as a man being pious and
honest in the private way ; and there is such a
thing, sir, as a public virtue ; but when a man has
neither, the Lord lighten him ! Even this Gondre-
mark, that Fritz here thinks so much of '
'Ay,' interrupted Fritz, ' Gondremark 's the man
for me. I would we had his like in Gerolstein.'
' He is a bad man,' said the old farmer, shaking
his head ; ' and there was never good begun by the
breach of God's commandments. But so far I will
go with you : he is a man that works for what he
has.'
' I tell you he 's the hope of Griinewald,' cried
Fritz. ' He doesn't suit some of your high-and-dry,
old, ancient ideas ; but he 's a downright modern
man — a man of the new lights and the progress of
the age. He does some things wrong ; so they all
do ; but he has the people's interests next his heart ;
and you mark me — you, sir, who are a Liberal, and
the enemy of all their governments, you please to
mark my words — the day will come in Griinewald,
when they take out that yellow-headed skulk of a
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