So naturally does the fugitive suspect pursuit, that my immediate impression was, that I was followed.

In this notion I was strengthened by the tones of a cracked, discordant voice, asking in very peculiar French if the "diligence had passed ?" Being answered in the negative he walked into the room where I was, and speedily by his appearance, removed any apprehensions I had felt as to my safety.

Nothing could less resemble the tall port and sturdy bearing of a gendarme, than the diminutive and dwarfish individual before me.

His height could scarcely have reached five feet, of which the head formed fully a fourth part; and even this was rendered in appearance still greater by a mass of loosely floating black hair that fell upon his neck and shoulders, and gave him much the air of a "black lion" on a sign board.

His black frock, fur-collared and braided--his ill-made boots, his meerschaum projecting from his breast-pocket, above all, his unwashed hands, and a heavy gold ring upon his thumb--all made up an ensemble of evidences that showed he could be nothing but a German.