Two bolts grated in their rusty staples, and the door opened.
"Enter, signor," said the woman, "and follow me."
"I do not see you; it is as black as Erebus; where is the staircase?"
cried out the other.
"Follow me, signor. Give me your hand; I will precede you."
She seized the hand of the visitor, and whilst guiding him to the
staircase, she said: "Your hand trembles, signor. Are you afraid?"
"I afraid!" said the other, in a faltering voice. "Afraid of what? The
darkness makes me totter."
"It may be, signor; but I thought your hand was cold and trembling. Here
is the staircase; now follow me."
The man ascended the staircase behind her, stumbling up the well-worn
steps, striking his head and elbows against invisible objects, and
grumbling and swearing as if to show that he was not agitated by fear.
Having reached the first story, the woman opened a door and introduced her
companion into a room lighted by the smoking flame of an iron lamp. She
showed him a miserable chair, and said: "Sit down, signor, if you please, and wait a while. I will go call
Bufferio, he is engaged at play in the neighborhood. Should any one knock
at the door during my absence, pay no attention to it; I will lock the
door on the outside and take the key with me."
The man looked at her surprised and troubled. Her bony limbs, the gray
locks which fell upon her cheeks, her large mouth and long teeth, made her
appear to his eyes a hideous being, a worthy companion for Bufferio.
He listened to the sound of her receding steps, until he heard the key
grate in the lock of the door.
Then he looked around him and examined with mistrust and surprise the
apartment of Bufferio and the objects it contained.
The room was neither well furnished nor clean: a table, three rickety
chairs, an oaken bench, a few earthenware vessels near the fireplace, and
a bed, constituted all the furniture. It was not, however, these common
objects which fixed the gaze of the visitor. What he could not see without
shuddering, was the number of strange arms suspended all around the walls
of the room. In the midst of rusty swords, sharp daggers and knives of
every size and shape, he saw short clubs with iron heads, steel chains
like the bit of a horse, ropes with running knots, and various other
articles whose use was inexplicable to him, although he was convinced that
these singular instruments were intended for no good purpose.