"Oui, sans doute; but believe me, that man has other projects. And already, madame, our time is beginning to look dark. The Enemy is fast becoming very strong. His plans are far from ripe, I believe; but they are ripening. That is why I wanted to see you, why I asked to speak to you; because I wished to warn you against the entire world, but especially against him. And now, I see clearly what I must do."
"Eh bien?"
"Within a week, I shall know who this Count of Monte Fato is, whence he comes, whither he goes, and why he speaks in our presence of infants unearthed in the garden."
M. de Villefaramir was as good as his word, or at least he tried his utmost. Unfortunately, his only informants were an Elvish priest, who informed him that the Count was the son of a wealthy Harondoric ring-maker named Annataro, who had bought the island of Monte Fato for its comital title, and a Snowman who described his actions in the siege of Forochel, where his ring and his calèche filled the Snowmen with amaze, for no such calèche had they seen since the regency, but they felt an evil fate overhang him, and cried out, "Do not mount on this wheel-monster, what!" and in after years told tales of the Mad Count, who vanished with a bang and a flash and returned with bags of jewels and gold. The Snowman also revealed that the Count wanted to turn the house at Barroue-Don into what the dwargues call a bad-haus. The Snowman loathed the Count, whom he had fought three times in an affair of honour over the Count's seduction of the wife of his best friend, Frosty.
