It lasted a good while before we could entirely recover the proper use of our benumbed senses. My comrades were chilled with horror, and every one seemed to ask his neighbour, by his inquisitive looks, whether what our senses had witnessed had been a deluding dream or reality.
The landlord was standing behind me, trembling like my companions, with crossed arms and downcast looks, buried in profound meditation, and exhibiting a woful picture of pallid fright; at length he begged us to follow him down stairs, and we went into the parlour with dejected spirits, he offered us a dish of tea, but we refused staying any longer, gave him two louis d'ors, and left his house.
The next morning I awoke, wearied and dispirited, having had only a few moments of restless sleep. I expected Volkert would come to fetch his stipulated reward, but I was disappointed, and esteemed him higher for his seeming disinterestedness. At noonmy
