thoroughly had the gibbet, with its sickening load, seized
and held their eyes, that it was but now they perceived a fire right
underneath, and a living figure sitting huddled over it. His axe lay
beside him, the bright blade shining red in the glow. He was asleep.

Gerard started, but Denys only whispered, "courage, comrade, here is a
fire."

"Ay! but there is a man at it."

"There will soon be three;" and he began to heap some wood on it that
the watcher had prepared; during which the prudent Gerard seized the
man's axe, and sat down tight on it, grasping his own, and examining the
sleeper. There was nothing outwardly distinctive in the man. He wore the
dress of the country folk, and the hat of the district, a three-cornered
hat called a Brunswicker, stiff enough to turn a sword cut, and with a
thick brass hat-band. The weight of the whole thing had turned his ears
entirely down, like a fancy rabbit's in our century; but even this,
though it spoiled him as a man, was nothing remarkable. They had of late
met scores of these dog's-eared rustics. The peculiarity was, this clown
watching under a laden gallows. What for?

Denys, if he felt curious, would not show it; he took out two bears'
ears from his bundle, and running sticks through them, began to toast
them. "'Twill be eating coined money," said he; "for the burgomaster
of Dusseldorf had given us a rix-dollar for these ears, as proving the
death of their owners; but better a lean purse than a lere stomach."

"Unhappy man!" cried Gerard, "could you eat food here?"

"Where the fire is lighted there must the meat roast, and where it
roasts there must it be eaten; for nought travels worse than your
roasted meat."

"Well, eat thou, Denys, an thou canst! but I am cold and sick; there is
no room for hunger in my heart after what mine eyes have seen," and he
shuddered over the fire. "Oh! how they creak! and who is this man, I
wonder? what an ill-favoured churl!"

Denys examined him like a connoisseur looking at a picture, and in
due course delivered judgment. "I take him to be of the refuse of that
company, whereof these (pointing carelessly upward) were the cream, and
so ran their heads into danger.

"At that rate, why not stun him before he wakes?" and Gerard fidgeted
where he sat.

Denys opened his eyes with humorous surprise. "For one who sets up for
a milksop you have the readiest hand. Why should two stun one? tush! he
wakes: note now what he says at waking