The problem seems to be this change from yesterday:

   2002-08-27  Kenichi Handa  <handa@etl.go.jp>

           * xdisp.c (get_next_display_element): In unibyte case, don't use
           octal form for such eight-bit characters that can be converted to
           multibyte char.

I reverted the attached patch in my local tree, and the problem is gone.

-Miles