d with catch-penny interrogatories.

"How am I to get within, an't please you?"

At this the head popped in, as if the last question had shot it; and a
hand popped out, pointed round the corner of the building, and slammed
the window.

Gerard followed the indication, and after some research discovered
that the fortification had one vulnerable part, a small low door on its
flank. As for the main entrance, that was used to keep out thieves and
customers, except once or twice in a year, when they entered together,
i.e., when some duke or count arrived in pomp with his train of gaudy
ruffians.

Gerard, having penetrated the outer fort, soon found his way to the
stove (as the public room was called from the principal article in it),
and sat down near the oven, in which were only a few live embers that
diffused a mild and grateful heat.

After waiting patiently a long time, he asked a grim old fellow with a
long white beard, who stalked solemnly in, and turned the hour-glass,
and then was stalking out, when supper would be. The grisly Ganymede
counted the guests on his fingers--"When I see thrice as many here as
now." Gerard groaned.

The grisly tyrant resented the rebellious sound. "Inns are not built
for one," said he; "if you can't wait for the rest, look out for another
lodging."

Gerard sighed.

At this the greybeard frowned.

After a while company trickled steadily in, till full eighty persons of
various conditions were congregated, and to our novice the place became
a chamber of horrors; for here the mothers got together and compared
ringworms, and the men scraped the mud off their shoes with their
knives, and left it on the floor, and combed their long hair out,
inmates included, and made their toilet, consisting generally of a dry
rub. Water, however, was brought in ewers. Gerard pounced on one of
these, but at sight of the liquid contents lost his temper and said
to the waiter, "Wash you first your water, and then a man may wash his
hands withal."

"An' it likes you not, seek another inn!"

Gerard said nothing, but went quietly and courteously besought an old
traveller to tell him how far it was to the next inn.

"About four leagues."

Then Gerard appreciated the grim pleasantry of the unbending sire.

That worthy now returned with an armful of wood, and counting the
travellers, put on a log for every six, by which act of raw justice the
hotter the room the more heat he added. Poor Gerard noticed