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Soon Gideon brought me into a sumptuous apartment hung with violet-coloured velvet, relieved with gold. A bronze lamp stood in a corner, its brightness toned down by a globe of ground crystal; thick carpets, soft as the turf on the hills, made our steps noiseless. It seemed a fit abode for silence and meditation. On entering Sperver lifted the heavy draperies which fell around an ogee window.
It is an honour you don't deserve." "Just listen to me, Sperver," replied the little man with sublime scorn; "you cannot spit so high as my shoe!" which he contemptuously held out. "Suppose I were to come up?" "If you come up a single step I'll squash you flat with this volume!" Gideon laughed, and replied
I could only discern the long brown moustache of one, and his singularly bright and sparkling eyes. They entered the hotel. The groom was holding our horses by the bridle. He wished us bon voyage, removed his hand, and we were off. Sperver rode a pure Mecklemburg. I was mounted on a stout cob bred in the Ardennes, full of fire; we flew over the snowy ground.
'No, Sperver, no; let us have no bloodshed. Poor man, he is sparing the life of the wretch who is draining his life from him, for she is killing him, Fritz; he is reduced to skin and bone." My good friend Gideon was in too great a rage with the unhappy woman to make it possible to bring him back to calm reason. Besides, who can draw the limits around the region of possibility?
Thereupon Sperver pushed open the door, and I stood in some surprise on the threshold of a high, dark hall, the guard room of the old lords of Nideck. My eyes fell at first upon the three windows at the farther end, looking out upon the sheer rocky precipice.
I can see her at the bottom of the cave. What right have you to meddle with our affairs? Don't you know that we are here in the domains of Nideck, and that we administer justice and execute our own decrees?" The young man changed colour, and said coldly "I have no account to render to you." "Beware," replied Sperver. "I am come with proposals of peace and conciliation.
The description which Sperver had given of invisible objects became visible for a few moments; then the air again was veiled in ghostly clouds of flying snow. "Thank you," said the baron. "Now I have seen the point I am to make for; and, thanks to your explanations, I hope to reach it." Sperver bowed without answering. The young man and his servant, having saluted us, retired slowly and gravely.
And the hunchback, with the slowest deliberation, undid the padlock and slipped the bars, whilst my teeth were chattering, and I stood shivering from head to foot. "You are very cold, doctor," said the diminutive man, "and you cannot get into the castle. Sperver has fastened the inside door, I don't know why; he does not usually do so; the outer gate is enough. Come in here and get warm.
I drew closer together the folds of my horseman's cloak, and with my hand upon my hat, I set off after Sperver at a run; he was raising the light above his head to show me the road, and was moving forward rapidly. We rushed into the tower and then into Hugh Lupus's chamber. A bright fire saluted us here with its cheerful rays; how delightful to be once more sheltered by thick walls!
I raised to my lips the hand which she tremblingly placed in mine, and went out full of admiration for this frail and feeble woman, who was, nevertheless, so strong in the time of trial. Is anything grander than duty nobly accomplished? An hour after the conversation with Odile, Sperver and I were riding hard, and leaving Nideck rapidly behind us.