diff --git a/textual.cc b/textual.cc
index 39a5ae9f..94beb000 100644
--- a/textual.cc
+++ b/textual.cc
@@ -308,10 +308,7 @@ bool textual_parser_t::test(std::istream& in) const
 {
   char buf[5];
 
-  assert(in.good());
   in.read(buf, 5);
-  std::cerr << "buf (" << buf[0] << ")" << std::endl;
-  assert(in.good());
   if (std::strncmp(buf, "<?xml", 5) == 0) {
 #ifdef HAVE_XMLPARSE
     throw parse_error(path, linenum, "Ledger file contains XML data, but no XML support present");