The men were silent, and laughed no more, for the dwarf looked almost inspired as he spoke.
"'Twas in St. Etienne. Surely he saw a vision last night," whispered one man to his companions.
"Wouldn't you have rushed from half a dozen miserable soldiers when such a love was awaiting your coming?" asked the dwarf, turning sharply to them. "It was not that I minded visiting the Count. He is hardly out of bed yet, eh, comrades, and I scent the perfume of coffee through the doorway there. Will you welcome me? The chill of the morning is in my bones."
"Come you in. I'll risk it," said the soldier who had opened the postern. "I ought to lock you up lest you escape again. Look you, Jean, the Count's in the mood to hang me if you run away."
"You shall not hang, comrade; my hand on it."
"They lost you last night, but they captured a bigger prize," said one man.
"That may easily be," the dwarf returned. "There are men of more inches than I am in plenty. Who was it they captured?"
"Ah! a truculent man, but a brave soldier," said Jean. "What's his crime, and what will they do with him?"
"I know not the crime, but he's like to end there," was the answer as the man pointed to the top of the gate.
"That will be waste of good material," said Jean. "I must speak to the Count about it. Meanwhile the smell of that coffee haunts me." And he moved toward the door.
The man who told Count Felix that the dwarf had come to the castle, told him also that Jean was strange and talked of visions he had seen.
"Bring him to me here, at once. I will see him alone."
It was in a superstitious frame of mind that Felix had had the dwarf searched for. Deep in his schemes, with enemies constantly about him, and living in hourly uncertainty of what might happen, he was in the mood to augur good or ill from dreams and visions.
"I have sought for you everywhere," he said when Jean entered and the man who had brought him had gone.
"You were unfortunate in not finding me," said the dwarf, with a grotesque bow. "I am always at the Duke's service."
"Tell me, Jean, why do you call me Duke? You are in advance of time. The crown has not yet touched this head of mine."
"We speak of to-morrow ere the sun has risen upon it," the dwarf answered.