The Man-Wolf and Other Tales | Page 7

a lantern flickered in the deep
archway, showing us in its semicircular frame of ruddy light the figure
of a humpbacked dwarf, yellow-bearded, broad-shouldered, and
wrapped in furs from head to foot.
You might have thought him, in the deep shadow, some gnome or evil
spirit of earth realised out of the dreams of the Niebelungen Lieder.
He came towards us at a very leisurely pace, and laid his great flat
features close against the massive grating, straining his eyes, and trying
to make us out in the darkness in which we were standing.

"Is that you, Sperver?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
"Open at once, Knapwurst," was the quick reply. "Don't you know how
cold it is?"
"Oh! I know you now," cried the little man; "there's no mistaking you.
You always speak as if you were going to gobble people up."
The door opened, and the dwarf, examining me with his lantern, with
an odd expression in his face, received me with "Willkommen, herr
doctor," but which seemed to say besides, "Here is another who will
have to go away again as others have done." Then he quietly closed the
door, whilst we alighted, and came to take our horses by the bridle.

CHAPTER II.
Following Sperver, who ascended the staircase with rapid steps, I was
still able to convince myself that the Castle of Nideck had not an
undeserved reputation.
It was a true stronghold, partly cut out of the rock, such as used
formerly to be called a _château d'ambuscade_. Its lofty vaulted arches
re-echoed afar with our steps, and the outside air blowing with sharp
gusts through the loopholes--narrow slits made for the archers of
former days--caused our torches to flare and flicker from space to space
over the faintly-illuminated protruding lines of the arches as they
caught the uncertain light.
Sperver knew every nook and corner of this vast place. He turned now
to the right and now to the left, and I followed him breathless. At last
he stopped on a spacious landing, and said to me--
"Now, Fritz, I will leave you for a minute with the people of the castle
to inform the young Countess Odile of your arrival."
"Do just what you think right."

"Then you will find the head butler, Tobias Offenloch, an old soldier of
the regiment of Nideck. He campaigned in France under the count; and
you 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
the brilliant roaring fire underneath, and ornamented on both front and
sides with wood-carvings representing scenes from boar-hunts in the
Middle Ages, and along the centre of the apartment a long table, upon
which stood a huge lamp throwing its light upon a dozen pewter
tankards.

At one glance I saw all this; but the human portion of the scene
interested me most.
I recognised the major-domo, or head butler, by his wooden leg, of
which I had already heard; he was of low stature, round, fat, and rosy,
and his knees seldom coming within an easy range of his eyesight; a
nose red and bulbous like a ripe raspberry; on his head he wore a huge
hemp-coloured wig, bulging out over his fat poll; a coat of light green
plush, with steel buttons as large as a five-franc piece; velvet breeches,
silk stockings, and