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Page 31
"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
S�balt.
"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.
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