"He may, but I don't anticipate it."
"Ah," cried the good fellow joyfully; "that means you are sure he won't!"
Thrusting his arm through mine, he pulled me into the gallery. We had hardly set foot in it when the Baron Zimmer and his groom appeared, preceded by Sebalt, who carried a flaming torch in his hand. They were on their way to their chambers, and these two figures, with their cloaks flung over their shoulders, their knee-boots of soft Hungarian leather, their waists tightly buttoned in, their long green tunics ornamented with frogs and twisted fringes of silk and gold, their bearskin caps drawn down over their ears, and their long hunting-knives stuck in their belts, looked strangely picturesque in the white light of the dripping pine torch.
"By Jove!" exclaimed Sperver, "if I am not greatly mistaken, those are our Tübingen friends. They were close at our heels, you see."
"You are right; they are the same people! I remember the younger one by his slim figure; he has the profile of an eagle, and wears his mustache like the astrologer-general Wallenstein."
They disappeared beneath a side triforium.
Gideon took a torch from the wall, and guided me through a labyrinth of corridors, passageways, and high, low, turret-shaped, and winding entries. I thought he would never have done.
"Here is the hall of the Margraves," he said; "and this is the portrait gallery. There is the chapel, where no mass has been said since Louis the Bald became a Protestant. Next comes the armory."
These facts possessed but little interest for me. After having reached the end of the gallery, we had to descend a staircase that seemed interminable; at last, thank Heaven! we halted before a low, massive door. Sperver drew an enormous key from his pocket, and handing me the torch, said, "Mind the light; be careful!"
At the same time, he pushed open the door, and the cold outside air rushed into the passageway. The flame leaped back and sent a shower of sparks in all directions. I fancied myself standing on the edge of an abyss, and I recoiled instinctively.