Suddenly he struck his thigh with his clenched fist, calling out in a whisper: "Of course, I now remember where I heard of Gracedieu. What a stupid fool I have been not to recall it at once! It's the place that beautiful girl the dwarf introduced me to comes from! My head must be dull not to remember that! His Pallas-Athena, and I----"
He turned out the lights, and began undressing in the dim twilight; there were already faint blue premonitions of dawn upon the blind.
"I wonder," he muttered in the twilight, "will his figures of time include Cophetua and the Beggar Maid! Ha--ha--ha. I am half asleep.
"That old story I read this night was not unlike Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, only--I must not think of it now, I am too dazed and stunned and stupid."
He was in bed, and in a few minutes was asleep. On a sudden he woke up at the sound of his own voice, crying out loud in the profound peace of the early dawn:--
"Thieves! Thieves! Kosciusko to the rescue. The king is on your side!"
He found himself standing up in the bed gesticulating wildly. The sweat was pouring down from his forehead and he was trembling violently in all his limbs.
He stood listening awhile to ascertain if his shout had wakened the household, but unbroken silence followed his cry. Then he lay down and soon fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.