The outrageous conduct of those Americans in discrediting her word and incarcerating her person, though overshadowed at the time by the yet greater atrocity of the Baron's behavior, now loomed up in formidable proportions.

And the gravity of their offence was emphasized by an unpleasant sensation she now began to experience with considerable acuteness.
"Do they mean to starve us as well as insult us ?" she wondered.
The Baron's thoughts also seemed to have drifted into a different channel.

He no longer sang; he fidgeted in his chair; he even softly groaned; and at last he actually changed his attitude so far as to survey the dim form of his mother-in-law over one shoulder.
"Oh, ze devil!" he exclaimed aloud.

"I am so hongry!" "That is no reason why you should also be profane," said the Countess severely.
"I did not speak to you," retorted the Baron, and again a constrained silence fell on the room.
The Baron was the first to break it.
"Ha!" he cried.

"I hear a step." "Thank God!" exclaimed the Countess devoutly.
In the blaze of a stable lantern there entered to them Dugald M'Culloch, jailor.
"Will you be for any supper ?" he inquired, with a politeness he felt due to prisoners with purses.
"I do starve!" replied the Baron.
"And I am nearly fainting!" cried the Countess.
Both rose with an alacrity astonishing in people so nearly exhausted, and made as though they would pass out.