Transcriber's Note:
1. Page scan source:
http://www.archive.org/details/kingericandoutl01chapgoog
As soon as they reached the quay, Sir Helmer put his head out of thehatchway, and beheld a man jump on shore in great haste from theforecastle. Helmer had only seen his back; he was clad like a Germangrocer's apprentice; but he felt pretty certain it was the outlawedKaggé. The mantle of the order of the Holy Ghost lay under theforemost rowing bench. With his drawn sword in his hand. Sir Helmernow sprang upon deck, together with the Drost's squire, whose lefthand was wrapped in his mantle. Their attire was somewhat rent andblood-stained, yet they appeared to have found time to bind up eachother's wounds, and even to arrange their dress. Without saying a word,they passed the armed crew of the vessel, with a salutation of defianceto Henrik Gullandsfar, and a jeering smile at the heavy and wrathfulRostocker, whose broad visage glowed with anger. Helmer and the squiresheathed their swords on the quay, and those who saw them come up fromthence, without noticing the spots of blood upon their clothes, tookthem for fellow-travellers, who, in all peacefulness, had arrived inthe Rostock vessel.
"The 'prentice! mark him, Canute!" whispered Sir Helmer to the squireas they both left the quay with hasty steps, and looked around them onall sides. "What hath become of him? There!--no--that is another--ha,there!--no, another again!"
At every turn they fancied they saw the disguised outlaw, but werefrequently deceived by a similar dress and figure. The German grocer'sapprentices thronged in busy crowds on the quay, and near the vesselsin the haven, where they were in constant occupation, and had a numberof porters at work.
These foreign mercantile agents were usually elderly single men, mostfrequently with sour, unpleasant countenances, and maintaining muchspruce neatness in their dress, and preciseness in their deportment. Aspepper was the chief article sold in their grocers' booths, they wereusually called pepper 'prentices[1], not without a design to jeer attheir peevishness and irritability. They made themselves conspicuous bylarge silver buttons on their long-skirted coats of German cloth; awoollen cap from Garderige[2], and a long Spanish gold-headed cane,which served them at the same time for an ell measure,