I remembered the girl, the balcony, and my flight ending in my giddiness and my fall.

Had they brought me into that same chateau, or--Or what?
No other possibility came to suggest itself, and, seeing scant need to tax my brains with speculation, since there was one there of whom I might ask the question-- "Hola, my master!" I called to him, and as I did so I essayed to move.
The act wrung a sharp cry of pain from me.

My left shoulder was numb and sore, but in my right foot that sudden movement had roused a sharper pang.
At my cry that little wizened old man swung suddenly round.

He had the face of a bird of prey, yellow as a louis d'or with a great hooked nose, and a pair of beady black eyes that observed me solemnly.

The mouth alone was the redeeming feature in a countenance that had otherwise been evil; it was instinct with good-humour.