I have never seen anything more lovely and more charming than this old painting on wood, which was stiff enough indeed in its outline, but delightfully refreshing and ingenuous.

I had examined this picture attentively for some minutes when another female portrait, hanging at its side, drew my attention reluctantly away.  Here was a woman of the true Visigoth type, with a wide low forehead, yellowish eyes, prominent cheek-bones, red hair, and a nose hooked like an eagle’s beak.

That woman must have been an excellent match for Hugh, thought I, and I began to consider the costume, which answered perfectly to the energy displayed in the head, for the right hand rested upon a sword, and an iron breastplate inclosed the figure.

I should have some difficulty in expressing the thoughts which passed through my mind in the examination of these three portraits.  My eye passed from the one to the other with singular curiosity.

Sperver, standing at the library door, had aroused the attention of Knapwurst with a sharp whistle, which made that worthy send a glance in his direction, though it did not succeed in fetching him down from his elevation.

“Is it me that you are whistling to like a dog?” said the dwarf.

“I am, you vermin!  It is an honour you don’t deserve.”

“Just listen to me, Sperver,” replied the little man with sublime scorn; “you cannot spit so high as my shoe!” which he contemptuously held out.

“Suppose I were to come up?”

“If you come up a single step I’ll squash you flat with this volume!”

Gideon laughed, and replied—­

“Don’t get angry, friend; I don’t mean to do you any harm; on the contrary, I greatly respect you for your learning; but what I want to know is what you are doing here so early in the morning, by lamplight?  You look as if you had spent the night here.”

“So I have; I have been reading all night.”

“Are not the days long enough for you to read in?”

“No; I am following out an important inquiry, and I don’t mean to sleep until I am satisfied.”

“Indeed; and what may this very important question be?”

“I have to ascertain under what circumstances Ludwig of Nideck discovered my ancestor, Otto the Dwarf, in the forests of Thuringia.  You know, Sperver, that my ancestor Otto was only a cubit high—­that is, a foot and a-half.  He delighted the world with his wisdom, and made an honourable figure at the coronation of Duke Rudolphe.  Count Ludwig had him inclosed in a cold roast peacock, served up in all his plumage.  It was at that time one of the greatest delicacies, served up garnished all round with sucking pigs, gilded and silvered.  During the banquet Otto kept spreading the peacock’s tail, and all the lords, courtiers, and ladies of high birth were astonished and delighted at this wonderful piece of mechanism.  At last he came out, sword in hand, and shouted with a loud voice—­“Long live Duke Rudolphe!” and the cry was repeated with acclamations by the whole table.  Bernard Herzog makes mention of this event, but he has neglected to inform us where this dwarf came from, whether he was of lofty lineage or of base extraction, which latter, however, is very improbable, for the lower sort of people have not so much sense as that.”