Bertrand was very much surprised; but resolving to see the adventure to an end, followed his strange conductor in perfect silence through many narrow and crooked streets, to another hostelry, meaner than the one they had just left. The room was quite deserted, but the soldier drew him into the darkest corner and called for liquor. For some moments he did not speak, and Bertrand’s curiosity had been raised to its highest pitch before it was satisfied. "It is all along of my wife Joan," began the Captain at last, with the air of a man forced by some dreaded power to do something much against his will. "You know who I am--everybody knows me, I think, and calls me coward. He saved me, and I sold them, and the demons are on my track. My wife Joan says it is all the wind; but can I not hear? am I not all ears for their horrible mockings? One of them will creep around my bed at night when all is still, and come up close to me, and then shriek, ’Judas! we have found our Judas again!’ and then shake great bags of gold before me, and laugh so devilishly. ’Ay, Dick,’ they say, ’thou art one of us now; thou makest a famous Judas! He sold the One who died for him, for only thirty pieces, but thou hast an hundred.’ Then they yell, and dance, and shout again and again: ’Hail, Judas! King of the Ingrates!’" The soldier paused to wipe his damp brow, then continued, his voice lower and hoarser than before: "Yestermorn I was wandering by the shore--the demons make me wander far and wide; as I was thinking, I picked up something at my feet--_it was an oak branch_! I tossed it into the sea, for it burnt my hand. But, look you, comrade! the waves mocked me, and threw it back at my feet, and then they laughed and shrieked: ’We know thee, Judas!’ Even as I went back, I met two innocent-faced boys, but they kept the other side of the way, and methinks they shouted ’Judas!’ also, but I ran on. "So then I told Joan, for I could no longer contain, and she bade me seek you out, and without delay try to free the lads, and then, mayhap, the fiends will leave me." "In truth, man, I marvel not at the demons," said Bertrand; "but now, if thou really wishest to undo thy devil’s work, we are well met. I am fully purposed to bring my master’s sons out of their dungeon, or be put in one myself." "Come on then, for the love of heaven," said Dick, rising, and pulling his companion by the mantle. "Come on to my wife Joan; she is as quick with her mind as with her body; she will tell us what to do, and we will cheat the devils yet."