I wandered around the castle of Nideck unable to find the exit from
which I had commenced my melancholy journey.

So much anxiety and uneasiness were beginning to tell upon my mind; I
staggered on, wondering if I was not mad, unable to believe in what I had
seen, and yet alarmed at the clearness of my own perceptions.

My mind in confusion passed in review that strange man waving his torch
overhead in the darkness, howling like a wolf, coldly and accurately
going through all the details of an imaginary murder without the omission
of one ghastly detail or circumstance, then escaping and committing to
the furious torrent the secret of his crime; these things all harassed my
mind, hurried confusedly past my eyes, and made me feel as if I were
labouring under a nightmare.

Lost in the snow, I ran to and fro panting and alarmed, and unable to
judge which way to direct my steps.

As day drew near the cold became sharper; I shivered, I execrated Sperver
for having brought me from Fribourg to bear a part in this hideous
adventure.

At last, exhausted, my beard a mass of ice, my ears nearly frostbitten, I
discovered the gate and rang the bell with all my might.

It was then about four in the morning. Knapwurst made me wait a terribly
long time. His little lodge, cut in the rock, remained silent; I thought
the little humpbacked wretch would never have done dressing; for of
course I supposed he would be in bed and asleep.

I rang again.

This time his grotesque figure appeared abruptly, and he cried to me from
the door in a fury--

"Who are you?"

"I?--Doctor Fritz."

"Oh, that alters the case," and he went back into his lodge for a
lantern, crossed the outer court where the snow came up to his middle,
and staring at me through the grating, he exclaimed--

"I beg your pardon, Doctor Fritz; I thought you would be asleep up there
in Hugh Lupus's tower. Were _you_ ringing? Now that explains why Sperver
came to me about midnight to ask if anybody had gone out. I said no,
which was quite true, for I never saw you going out."

"But pray, Monsieur Knapwurst, do for pity's sake let me in, and I will
tell you all about that by-and-by."

"Come, come, sir, a little patience."

And the hunchback, with the slowest deliberation, undid the padlock and
slipped the bars, whilst my teeth were chattering, and I stood shivering
from head to foot.

"You are very cold, doctor," said the diminutive man, "and you cannot get
into the