to him. "I will run and open
the gate!"

But the Lubber Fiend only shook his head till his ears flapped like
burdocks in the wind by the wood edges.

"Jan will come none within that gate to tell where he has been," he said.
"Jan may be a fool, but he knows better than that."

"And where have you been?" I asked, eagerly.

Jan the Lubber Fiend stood on his tiptoes and whispered up to me with his
elbows on the sill.

"You are sure the Duke is not behind you?"

"There is none here--except my wife," I said, smiling. And I liked
speaking the word.

"I have seen the great Prince," said Jan, nodding backward, and smiling
mysteriously, "and he is coming, but not by himself. There are such a
peck of mad fellows out there. There will not be much to eat in Thorn
when they all come in. Better make a good dinner to-day, that is my
advice to you. And I was bid to tell you that when all was ready for
their coming a fire is to be lighted on a high place, and then the Prince
will come to the gates."

I longed much to hear more of his adventures, but neither love nor money
would induce the thrice cautious Jan to set a foot within the precincts
of the Red Tower.

"I will light a bonfire when it is dark at the White Gate," he said, as
he retracted himself into the dusk. "I know what will make a rare blaze.
And the Prince cannot come too soon."

So indeed I thought also, as I looked out and saw the swarms of Duke
Otho's men in the court-yard and about the square, and reflected on our
helplessness here in the Red Tower within the defenced precincts of the
Wolfsberg.

CHAPTER LIV

THE CROWNING OF DUKE OTHO

But at long and last the most tardy-footed day comes to an end. And so,
just as fast as on any common day, the sun at last dropped to the edge
of the horizon and slowly sank, leaving a shallowing lake of orange
color behind.

The red roofs of Thorn grew gray, with purple veins of shadow in the
interstices where the streets ran, or rather burrowed. The nightly hum of
the city began. For, under the cruel rule of the wolves of the castle,
Thorn was ever busiest in the right. Indeed, the cheating of the guard
had become a business well understood of all the citizens, who had a
regular code of signals to warn each other of its approach.

Lights winked and kindled in the Wolfsberg over against me. I could see
the long array of lighted windows where the Duke would presently be
dining with Michael Texel, High Councillo