11 a.m.
I ca n't afford to exceed my seven quarts a day ; but if your majesty would stand treat I would undertake to finish twelve at least . But my squire who is called Balthasar the Bottomless , is a much harder drinker than I am . '' Balthasar was called , a thin , ashy-pale little fellow with lank straight hair , and the king sent them into a tent by themselves , with some fine old casks of Hochheimer and Nierstein , and told them to get drunk . They began at 11 a.m. , and by 4 p.m. they had finished eight gallons of Hochheimer and twelve of Nierstein . When the king went to see them they were quite sober , but Captain Tosspot said he thought he should soon have to loosen his sword-belt , and Balthasar had undone three buttons of his collar . Then said the king , `` What better ambassadors can I find to talk the fair city of Bremen into its senses ? '' So Tosspot was made ambassador and Balthasar the Bottomless his secretary , and they were properly rigged out , and their instructions were made out ; and the first of these was that they were to drink nothing but water on the way to Bremen , that the battle in the cellar might be more glorious afterwards ; another was that Tosspot was to rub his nose with a white ointment , that no one might see what a practised mouth he was .