the little humpbacked wretch would never have done dressing; for of
course I supposed he would be in bed and asleep.

I rang again.

This time his grotesque figure appeared abruptly, and he cried to me from
the door in a fury--

"Who are you?"

"I?--Doctor Fritz."

"Oh, that alters the case," and he went back into his lodge for a
lantern, crossed the outer court where the snow came up to his middle,
and staring at me through the grating, he exclaimed--

"I beg your pardon, Doctor Fritz; I thought you would be asleep up there
in Hugh Lupus's tower. Were _you_ ringing? Now that explains why Sperver
came to me about midnight to ask if anybody had gone out. I said no,
which was quite true, for I never saw you going out."

"But pray, Monsieur Knapwurst, do for pity's sake let me in, and I will
tell you all about that by-and-by."

"Come, come, sir, a little patience."

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.