will see his wife, a Frenchwoman, Marie Lagoutte, who pretends that she
comes of a high family."

"And why should she not?"

"Of course she might; but, between ourselves, she was nothing but a
_cantinière_ in the Grande Armée. She brought in Tobias Offenloch upon
her cart, with one of his legs gone, and he has married her out of
gratitude. You understand?"

"That will do, but open, for I am numb with cold."

And I was about to push on; but Sperver, as obstinate as any other good
German, was not going to let me off without edifying me upon the history
of the people with whom my lot was going to be cast for awhile, and
holding me by the frogs of my fur coat he went on--

"There's, besides, Sébalt Kraft, the master of the hounds; he is rather
a dismal fellow, but he has not his equal at sounding the horn; and there
will be Karl Trumpf, the butler, and Christian Becker, and everybody,
unless they have all gone to bed."

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. On the right stood an old sideboard
in dark oak, and upon it a cask, glasses, and bottles; on the left a
Gothic chimney overhung with its heavy massive mantelpiece, empurpled by