"Nay, it is impossible; he cannot move!"

"So I thought too; but that is just how I saw him. He was standing with
a torch in his hand; the night was so dark and the air so still that the
flame stood up quite straight."

I gazed upon Marie Anne with astonishment.

"First of all," she said, after a moment's silence, "to see that long,
thin man standing there with his bare legs, I can assure you it had such
an effect upon me! I wanted to scream; but then I thought, 'Perhaps he is
walking in his sleep; if I shout he will wake up, he will jump down, and
then--' So I did not say a word, but I stared and stared till I saw him
lift up his torch in the air over his head, then he lowered it, then up
again and down again, and he did this three times, just like a man making
signals; then he threw it down upon the ramparts, shut the window, drew
the curtains, passed before me without speaking, and got into bed
muttering some words I could not make out."

"Are you sure you saw all that, ma'am?"

"Quite sure."

"Well, it is strange."

"I know it is; but it is true. Ah! it did astonish me at first, and then
when I saw him get into bed again and cross his hands over his breast
just as if nothing had happened, I said to myself, 'Marie Anne, you have
had a bad dream; it cannot be true;' and so I went to the window, and
there I saw the torch still burning; it had fallen into a bush near the