half-past ten,” she went on, “I was sitting near the bed, and from time to time drew the curtain to see what the count was doing; he made no movement; he was sleeping as quietly as a child. It was all right until eleven o’clock, then I began to feel tired. An old woman, sir, cannot help herself—she must drop off to sleep in spite of everything. I did not think anything was going to happen, and I said to myself, ‘He is sure to sleep till daylight.’ About twelve the wind went down; the big windows had been rattling, but now they were quiet. I got up to see if anything was stirring outside. It was all as black as ink; so I came back to my arm-chair. I took another look at the patient; I saw that he had not stirred an inch, and I took up my knitting; but in a few minutes more I began nodding, nodding, and I dropped right off to sleep. I could not help it, the arm-chair was so soft and the room was so warm, who could have helped it? I had been asleep an hour, I suppose, when a sharp current of wind woke me up. I opened my eyes, and what do you think I saw? The tall middle window was wide open, the curtains were drawn, and there in the opening stood the count in his white night-dress, right on the window-sill.”
“The count?”
“Yes.”
“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 third gate, and there it was shining just like a spark of fire. There was no denying it.”
Marie Lagoutte looked at me a few moments without speaking.
“You may be sure, doctor, that after that I had no more sleep; I sat watching and ready for anything. Every moment I fancied I could hear something behind the arm-chair. I was not afraid—it was not that—but I was uneasy and restless. When morning came, very early I ran and woke Offenloch and sent him to the count. Passing down the corridor I noticed that there was no torch in the first ring, and I came down and found it near the narrow path to the Schwartzwald; there it is!”
And the good woman took from under her apron the end of a torch, which she threw upon the table.
I was confounded.
How had that man, whom I had seen the night before feeble and exhausted, been able to rise, walk, lift up and close down that heavy window? What was the meaning of that signal by night? I seemed to myself to witness this strange, mysterious scene, and my thoughts went off at once to the Black Plague. When I aroused myself from this contemplation of my own thoughts, I saw Marie Lagoutte rising and preparing to go.
“You have done quite right,” I said as I took her to the door, “to tell me of these things, and I am much obliged to you. Have you told any one else of this adventure?”
“No one, sir; such things are only to be told to the priest and the doctor.”
“Come, I see you are a very wise, sensible woman.”
These words were exchanged at the door of my tower. At this moment Sperver appeared at the end of the gallery, followed by his friend Sébalt.
“Fritz!” he shouted, “I have got news to tell you.”
“Oh, come!” thought I, “more news! This is a strange condition of things.”
Marie Lagoutte had disappeared, and the huntsman and his friend entered the tower.
CHAPTER VIII
On the countenance of Sperver was an expression of suppressed wrath, on that of his companion bitter irony. This worthy sportsman, whose woeful physiognomy had struck me on my first arrival at Nideck, was as thin and dry as a lath. His hunting-jacket was girded tightly about him by his belt, from which hung a hunting-knife with a horn handle; long leathern gaiters came above his knees; the horn went over his shoulder from right to left, the wide-expanded opening under his arm; on his head a wide-brimmed hat, with a heron’s plume in the buckle. His profile, coming to a point in a reddish tuft, looked not unlike a goat’s.
“Yes,” cried Sperver, “I have got strange things to tell you.”
He threw himself in a chair, seizing his head between his clenched hands, while dismal Sébalt calmly drew his horn over his head and laid it on the table.
“Now, Sébalt,” cried Gideon, “speak out.”
“The witch is hanging about the castle.”
This piece of intelligence would have failed to interest me before seeing Marie Lagoutte, but now it struck more forcibly. There certainly was some mysterious connection between the lord of Nideck and that old woman. I knew nothing of the nature of this connection, and I felt that, at whatever cost, I must know it.
“Just wait a moment, friends,” said I to Sperver and his comrade. “I want to know, first of all, where does this Black Pest come from?”
Sperver stared at me with astonishment.
“Come from? Who can tell that?”
“Very well, you can’t. But when does she come within sight of Nideck?”
“As I told you, ten days before Christmas, at the same time every year.”
“And how long does she stay?”
“A fortnight or three weeks.”
“Is she ever seen before? Not even on her way? Nor after?”
“No.”
“Then we shall have to catch her, seize upon her,” I cried. “This is contrary to nature. We must find out where she comes from, what she wants here, what she is.”
“Lay hold of her!” exclaimed Sperver; “seize her! Do you mean it?” and he shook his head. “Fritz, your advice is good enough in its way, but it is easier said than done. I could very easily send a bullet after her, almost at any time; but the count won’t consent to that measure; and as for catching in any other way than by powder and shot, why, you had better go first and catch a squirrel by the tail!
