Suddenly she descended, leaving her old shoes at the bottom of the steps.  “Without doubt,” thought I, “she is going to see if the door below is well fastened.”

I saw her remount hastily, springing up three or four steps at a time—­it was terrible.

She rushed into the neighboring chamber, and I heard something like the falling of the top of a great chest; then Fledermausse appeared in the gallery, dragging a manikin after her, and this manikin was clothed like the Heidelberg student.

With surprising dexterity the old woman suspended this hideous object to a beam of the shed, then descended rapidly to the courtyard to contemplate it.  A burst of sardonic laughter escaped from her lips; she remounted, then descended again like a maniac, and each time uttered new cries and new bursts of laughter.

A noise was heard near the door, and the old woman bounded forward, unhooked the manikin and carried it off; then, leaning over the balustrade with her throat elongated, her eyes flashing, she listened earnestly.  The noise was lost in the distance, the muscles of her face relaxed, and she drew long breaths.  It was only a carriage which had passed.

The old wretch had been frightened.

She now returned to the room, and I heard the chest close.  This strange scene confounded all my ideas.  What did this manikin signify?  I became more than ever attentive.

Fledermausse now left the house with her basket on her arm.  I followed her with my eyes till she turned the corner of the street.  She had reassumed the air of a trembling old woman, took short steps, and from time to time turned her head partly around, to peer behind from the corner of her eye.

Fledermausse was absent fully five hours.  For myself, I went, I came, I meditated.  The time seemed insupportable.  The sun heated the slate of the roof, and scorched my brain.

Now I saw, at the window, the good man who occupied the fatal Green Chamber; he was a brave peasant of Nassau, with a large three-cornered hat, a scarlet vest, and a laughing face; he smoked his pipe of Ulm tranquillity, and seemed to fear no evil.

I felt a strong desire to cry out to him:  “Good man, be on your guard!  Do not allow yourself to be entrapped by the old wretch; distrust yourself!” but he would not have comprehended me.  Toward two o’clock Fledermausse returned.  The noise of her door resounded through the vestibule.  Then alone, all alone, she entered the yard, and seated herself on the interior step of the stairway; she put down her basket before her, and drew out first some packets of herbs, then vegetables, then a red vest, then a three-cornered hat, a coat of brown velvet, pants of plush, and coarse woolen hose—­the complete costume of the peasant from Nassau.

For a moment I felt stunned; then flames passed before my eyes.