"Who's there?" he asked.
"Silence!" someone answered outside. "Open; it is a friend."
"Friend or foe, tell me who you are, that I may know with whom I have to deal."
"I am," the voice made answer, "the man you met on the road."
"Hem! What do you want with me? Why are you not asleep at this hour, instead of coming to rouse me?"
"Open, in Heaven's name! I have important news to tell you."
The colonel hesitated for a moment, but soon reflecting that this man, to whom he had done no harm, could have no motive, for being his enemy, he decided on getting up. Still, through prudence, he cocked one of his pistols, which he had placed by his side on retiring to bed, and went to open the door. The stranger walked in quickly, and closed it after him.
"Speak low," he said hurriedly. "Listen to me: the host is forming some scheme against you."
"I suspect it," the colonel said, who, while speaking, had lit a candle; "but whatever he may do, I am out of his reach, and the scoundrel will be crushed if he attack me."
"Who knows?" the stranger said.