heroic introduction to La Belle Stamboulane. He examined a pair of
pistols which the host had generously presented him with, when, after
the restless night, he rose with the dawn, and he determined to use them
if assailed. It is the inoffensive, quiet man who works most mischief
when roused--nothing so terrible even to the wolves as the sheep gone
mad. The student, having dipped his hand in blood, was now eager to be
attacked on the highway by a company of unrepentant Von Sendlingens.

This was no mood, however, in which to start on a journey of possible
peril. Rebecca did not appear at the breakfast table. She, too, had
passed a wakeful night, but it was in prayer for the safety of the first
real friend she had so far met among the Gentiles. The host looked in at
the conclusion of the meal. Nothing could wear a fairer aspect. Even the
hovering figures which he, for good reason, set down as spies, had
become tired of their useless quest, and disappeared with the fog that
floated amid the smoke of the numerous brewery chimneys.

CHAPTER VIII.

A SECOND DEFEAT.

The sun was well up, showing a jolly red face, which indicated that he
had been passing the night in the tropics, when Claudius, having said
his farewell within the hospitable house where his bill had been
obstinately withheld from him, took the reins in the chaise. The
grinning ostler held the unbarred door of the yard ready to open it
quickly and slam it behind him. At least, he had not the host's delicacy
and he had accepted his gratuity.

"Good speed, master!" he had hastily cried out as the equipage rolled
out into the street.

It was deserted. The horse and vehicle aroused no curiosity where odder
animals and more curiously antiquated rattletraps were also out. He
traversed the town as unimpeded as a Czar environed by secret guards.
The officer at the gate, yawning behind the passport which he did not
trouble to read, wished him a good dinner at the rural friend's, where
it was hinted he would put up, and returned into the guardroom to resume
telling a dream which he wished interpreted. Since Joseph, these
functionaries at the gate and in prison seem to be tormented with
puzzling visions.

All had gone well but for one serious omission: Hedwig had not appeared
to be taken up; yet he had not mistaken the streets laid down in the
itinerary. But once outside the walls, he was forced to go slowly and
foresaw the moment when he must stop. It was h