'Excuse me, sir--we expect his Excellency the Count Sulkowski; I have no room either for you or your horse; but at the 'Palm Branch,' an inn kept by my brother-in-law, the accommodation is not bad.'
The stranger hardly listened to Jonas. He threw the reins on the horse's neck and looked towards the inn. He was a middle-aged man, as one could judge by the wrinkles round his eyes, for the rest of his face--it must have been done on account of the cold--was wrapped in a shawl and his cap was drawn over his eyes.
'Exactly,' he muttered, 'because his Excellency is going to stay here, I must find a room, because I am sent to him.'
The innkeeper bowed and took hold of the horse.
'That alters the case,' he said, 'pray come in and warm yourself. Hot wine with spices is ready, and there is nothing better than glükwein for the cold. The horse shall be taken to the stable.'
A groom took the tired grey horse. The innkeeper conducted the stranger to a room; he looked at him in order to guess who he was, but he failed to do so either by his dress, or his mien. The dress was an ordinary one, the speech pure but not Saxon; his manner full of assurance betrayed a courtier, but not one of great importance, since he came on horseback without a servant and he wore jack-boots.
For such a great lord as Sulkowski, every room was engaged, as his retinue was large; there remained only the innkeeper's room, into which the stranger was shown.
The room was clean and bright and a good fire was burning in the fireplace. Hender helped the stranger to take off his large mantle and the shawl, from under which there appeared the thin, bony face of an official. His eyes were piercing and his mouth twitched.
Hender looked at him, and as he was very shrewd at reading character, he said to himself:
'He is a dangerous man.'