Again the knocking came, quicker and more impatient; with uncertain steps the Baron went to the window, and, as he looked through the curtains, uttered an involuntary exclamation of horror, "Count Repuin!" and in an instant the curtains were drawn aside and the window opened. "Are you mad, Count? Do you not know that the castle swarms with Germans?" he whispered, in dismay. "Then give me your hand and help me to get in at this cursed window," whispered Repuin, who stood without in the disguise of a peasant. "Quick! Am I to stay here until the guard discovers me?" "I implore you to fly, Count. You will ruin both yourself and me; we shall be shot if you are found in the castle." "I will not be found. Do as I tell you, and give me your hand!" The Baron had no choice but to obey. He extended his hand to the Count, who seized it, and with but little difficulty clambered in at the window, which was but a few feet from the ground. Scarcely had he closed it and drawn the curtains behind him when he turned with a look of scorn to the Baron, "What a coward you are, Sorr!" he said; "your hand trembles like a woman's. Shame on you! Why, I do believe the fellow is drunk again. There stands the empty brandy-bottle. I wonder whether there is enough sense left in your drugged brain to make it worth while to talk reason to you." Repuin's insulting words made no impression on Sorr; he was too well used to such from the Russian. But the fright that the Count's visit caused him, and the sense of the danger with which it threatened him, helped to sober him. He drank several glasses of cold water, and then bathed his head and face, after which he was sufficiently himself to turn to the Count and say, "What evil star brought you to Assais? Are you resolved upon my ruin?" "Bah! what is your ruin to me!" the Count rejoined, contemptuously. "You run no greater danger than I do. Are you sufficiently collected now to understand me?" "Yes; what do you want?" "I wish to convince myself by personal information how matters stand here in Assais; there is no confidence to be placed in the reports circulating everywhere; these French make mountains out of mole-hills. You must give me exact intelligence with regard to the enemy." "How am I to do that? Do you suppose that Count Schlichting makes me his confidant?" "Ah, Colonel Schlichting is here, then?" "Yes; with his whole regiment, and a squadron of Prussian Uhlans." "Hm! They are too many for us as yet, then,--we must wait a few days. Is Count Styrum here? I suppose so from your disguise; you look like a scarecrow." "Yes, he is here, and also Arno von Hohenwald." "Baron Arno, my rival with your lovely wife. Let him look to himself!" "What can you do? The Germans are too strong for you."