tuted some straw for my comfortable bed, and gracefully draped a
few chains upon the walls and some stray torture implements out of the
Armory; but the envoy came like a "thief in the night," and was already
on the stairs when he was announced.

"Oh! this is his den, is it?" cried he from without, as he slowly
ascended the stairs. "Egad! he hasn't much to complain of in the matter
of a lodging. I only wish our fellows were as well off at Vienna." And
with these words there entered into my room a tall young fellow, with a
light brown moustache, dressed in a loose travelling suit, and with the
lounging air of a man sauntering into a _cafe_. He did not remove
his hat as he came in, or take the cigar from his mouth; the latter
circumstance imparting a certain confusion to his speech that made him
occasionally scarce intelligible. Only deigning to bestow a passing look
on me, he moved towards the window, and looked out on the grand panorama
of the Tyrol Alps, as they enclose the valley of Innspruck.

"Well," said he to himself, "all this ain't so bad for a dungeon."

The tone startled me. I looked again at him, I rallied myself to an
effort of memory, and at once recalled the young fellow I had met on
the South-Western line and from whom I had accidentally carried away the
despatch-bag. To my beard, and my long imprisonment, I trusted for not
being recognized, and I sat patiently awaiting my examination.

"An Englishman, I suppose?" asked he, turning hastily round. "And of
English parents?"

"Yes," was my reply, for I determined on brevity wherever possible.

"What brought you into this scrape?--I mean, why did you come here at
all?"

"I was travelling."

"Travelling? Stuff and nonsense! Why should fellows like you travel?
What's your rank in life?"

"A gentleman."

"Ah! but whose gentleman, my worthy friend? Ain't you a flunkey? There,
it's out! I say, have you got a match to light my cigar? Thanks,--all
right. Look here, now,--don't let us be beating about the bush all the
day,--I believe this government is just as sick of you as you are of
them. You 've been here two months, ain't it so?"

"Ten months and upwards."

"Well, ten months. And you want to get away?"

I made no answer; indeed, his free-and-easy manner so disconcerted me
that I could not speak, and he went on,--

"I suspect they have n't got much against you, or that they don't care
about it; and, besides, they are civil to us just now. At all e