ecting, from the
pressing manner in which she had recommended a particular hotel to his
preference, that, if he went there, he might possibly see or hear from
her in the morning, he proceeded to the Henri Quatre, which proved to be
an hotel of third-rate importance, but well suited to his limited means,
and recommending itself by an air of cleanliness and comfort. The
evenings at this season were cool; and as it would have required some
time to heat the parlour, the landlord proposed to him to sit down and
take some refreshment in his well-warmed kitchen. Florian complied with
this invitation, but not without some apprehension of the presence of
strangers; and, stepping into the kitchen, was relieved by the discovery
that it was occupied only by servants, who were too busily engaged in
preparing supper to take notice of him.

Sitting down in a corner near the fire, the combined effects of a genial
warmth and excessive fatigue threw him into a sound sleep, which lasted
several hours, and would have continued much longer, had he not been
roused by the landlord, who told him that his supper had been ready some
time, but that he had been unwilling to disturb a slumber so profound.
In fact, the repose of the unfortunate fugitive had not, during the five
preceding nights, been so continuous and refreshing, so free from
painful and menacing visions. Rising drowsily from his chair, he
followed the landlord to a table where a roasted capon and a glass jug
of bright wine waited his arrival. The servants had all retired for the
night,--the landlord quitted the kitchen, and Florian, busily engaged in
dissecting the fowl, thought himself the sole tenant of the spacious
apartment, when, looking accidentally towards the fire, he saw with
surprise that the chair he had just quitted was occupied. Looking more
intently, he distinguished a short man of more than middle age, whose
square and sturdy figure was partially concealed by a capacious mantle.
His hair was grey, his forehead seamed with broad wrinkles, and his
bushy brows beetled over a set of features stern and massive as if cast
in iron. His eyes were small and deep-set, but of a lustrous black; and
Florian observed with dismay that they were fixed upon his countenance
with a look of searching scrutiny. It was near midnight, and in the
deep silence which reigned through the house, this motionless attitude,
and marble fixedness of look, gave to the stranger's appearance a
characte