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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Count of Nideck, by Ralph Browning Fiske
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Count of Nideck
+       adapted from the French of Erckmann-Chartrian
+
+Author: Ralph Browning Fiske
+
+Illustrator: Victor A. Searles
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2011 [EBook #34999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF NIDECK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from
+scanned images of public domain material from the Google
+Print archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Cover]
+
+
+
+
+THE COUNT OF NIDECK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "AND THE COUNT WAS STANDING UPRIGHT ON THE
+WINDOW-SILL."]
+
+
+
+
+THE COUNT OF NIDECK
+
+ADAPTED FROM THE FRENCH
+OF
+ERCKMANN: CHARTRIAN
+
+BY
+RALPH BROWNING FISKE
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+BY
+VICTOR A. SEARLES
+
+
+BOSTON
+L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+INCORPORATED
+1897
+
+
+
+
+_Copyright, 1897_
+BY L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
+     I. THE SUMMONS TO THE CASTLE                                      9
+    II. I MEET THE COUNTESS                                           37
+   III. MY FIRST NIGHT IN HUGH'S TOWER                                69
+    IV. KNAPWURST ACQUAINTS ME WITH THE GENEALOGY OF THE NIDECKS      93
+     V. I BREAKFAST WITH ODILE                                       120
+    VI. THE COUNT UNSHEATHES HIS CLAWS                               135
+   VII. MARIE LAGOUTTE RELATES HER EXPERIENCE                        160
+  VIII. SEBALT TRACKS THE PLAGUE                                     180
+    IX. THE PLAGUE IN MY CHAMBER.--THE MIDNIGHT SCENE ON THE
+          ALTENBERG                                                  200
+     X. I LOSE MY WAY AND PASS THE NIGHT IN THE DWARF'S LODGE        219
+    XI. I AM SUMMONED TO THE COUNTESS'S CHAMBER, AND MAKE A
+          CONFESSION                                                 244
+   XII. WE CHASE THE PLAGUE.--HER DEATH                              269
+  XIII. THE BARON'S STORY.--HE DISAPPEARS                            305
+   XIV. THE BOAR HUNT                                                324
+    XV. THE BANQUET.--THE DWARF EXPLAINS THE MYSTERY OF THE
+          NIDECK HOUSE                                               351
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+  "AND THE COUNT WAS STANDING UPRIGHT ON THE WINDOW-SILL"   Frontispiece
+  "POINTING TO A DARK OBJECT CROUCHING IN THE SNOW"                   25
+  IN THE PORTRAIT GALLERY                                            115
+  "'STAY!' HE HOWLED, 'I HAVE NOT CURSED YOU YET'"                   145
+  "'YONDER YOU SEE THE PEAK OF THE ALTENBERG'"                       153
+  "THEN HE WOULD RESUME HIS FRIGHTFUL CRIES"                         195
+  "I RAISED MYSELF ON MY ELBOW AND STARED FEARFULLY IN
+      THE DIRECTION"                                                 203
+  "I STEPPED FORWARD, AND FOUND MYSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF ODILE"     248
+  "ODILE DROPPED HER EYES"                                           315
+  "I FELL UPON MY KNEE BEFORE THE BRUTE"                             345
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SUMMONS TO THE CASTLE.
+
+
+Towards Christmas time, in the year 1780, as I lay soundly sleeping in
+my room at the Swan Tavern, in Tübingen, old Gideon Sperver burst
+suddenly into my room, crying, "Gaston, my boy, I have come to take you
+back with me to the Castle! You know Nideck, twenty miles from
+here,--the estate of my master, the Count of Nideck!"
+
+My failure to respond was perhaps due to the fact that I had not seen my
+worthy foster-father for twenty years, that in this time he had grown a
+full beard, and that now, in my half-aroused condition, he appeared
+before me thus, with a huge fur cap pulled down over his ears, and
+holding an ill-smelling lantern just under my nose.
+
+"In the first place," I replied, "let's take up things in their proper
+order. Who are you?"
+
+"Who am I?" repeated the good fellow, with such genuine surprise and
+distress in his tones that I felt a somewhat embarrassing sense of
+ingratitude. "What! Don't you remember your foster-father, Gideon
+Sperver, the General's old ranger who saved your life as a child, in the
+swamp of the Losser?" And his voice became so husky that he stopped and
+cleared his throat.
+
+"Ah, my dear Gideon, I know you now, indeed! Give me your hand!" We
+gripped each other's hands, and Sperver, passing his sleeve across his
+eyes, continued, "You know Nideck?"
+
+"Of course, by reputation. What are you doing there?"
+
+"I am the Count's steward."
+
+"And how did you happen to come hither?"
+
+"The young Countess Odile sent me to fetch you."
+
+"Very good. When are we to start?"
+
+"At once. It is an urgent matter; the old Count is very ill, and his
+daughter begged me to lose no time. The horses are waiting for us
+below."
+
+"But, my dear Gideon, just look at the weather; it has been snowing for
+three days!"
+
+"Pshaw! We are not starting on a boar hunt. Put on your fur coat, fasten
+on your spurs, and we are off! Meanwhile, I will order a bite for you to
+eat."
+
+He disappeared, and, as I never could refuse the chosen companion of my
+childhood anything from my youngest days, I hurriedly dressed myself,
+and lost no time in following him into the dining-room.
+
+"Ah, I knew you would not let me go back alone!" he cried delightedly.
+"Swallow down this slice of ham and drink a stirrup-cup, for the horses
+are growing impatient. I have strapped your valise to the saddle."
+
+"What is that for?"
+
+"You will be needed for some days at Nideck; that is indispensable. I
+will explain everything to you on the way."
+
+We went down into the inn yard. At that moment two horsemen arrived.
+They seemed exhausted, and their horses were white with lather.
+
+Sperver, who was a great lover of horses, exclaimed in surprise, "What
+beautiful animals! They are Wallachians; fine and swift as deer. Come,
+make haste and throw a blanket over them, my lad," he continued,
+addressing the hostler, "or they may take cold!"
+
+The travellers, enveloped in white astrakhan greatcoats, passed close to
+us just as were putting foot in the stirrup. I could only distinguish
+the long brown moustache of one, and his dark eyes that were singularly
+bright. They entered the inn. The groom released our bridles and wished
+us a safe journey. We set off at a gallop.
+
+Sperver rode a pure Mecklenberg, and I was mounted on a spirited horse
+of Ardennes; we fairly flew over the snow. In ten minutes we had left
+the outskirts of Tübingen behind us. It was beginning to clear up. All
+trace of our road had become obliterated by the considerable fall of
+snow. Our only companions were the ravens of the Black Forest, spreading
+their great hollow wings above the drifts, lighting for an instant here
+and there, and crying in discordant notes, "Misery! Misery! Misery!"
+Gideon, buried in his coat of wild-cat skin and fur cap, galloped on
+ahead. Suddenly he turned in the saddle and called, "Hey, Gaston! This
+is what they call a fine winter's morning."
+
+"So it is; but a bit severe."
+
+"I like the clear cold weather; it makes you tingle. If old Parson Toby
+had the courage to start out in such weather, he would never feel his
+rheumatism again."
+
+I smiled as well as my stiff cheeks would let me. After an hour of this
+furious pace Sperver slowed down and let me catch up with him. "Gaston,"
+he said in a serious tone, "you ought to know the circumstances of the
+master's illness."
+
+"I was just thinking of that."
+
+"The more so, as a great number of doctors have already visited the
+Count."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes; they have come from Paris, Berlin, and even Switzerland, and have
+made a most careful study of their patient and employed all their
+skill, but to no purpose."
+
+As no answer seemed called for, I remained silent, waiting for him to
+continue.
+
+"The Count's disease is a terrible affliction somewhat akin to madness.
+It returns every year on the same day and at the same hour; his eyes
+grow red as fire, he shudders from head to foot, and he mutters
+incoherently."
+
+"The man has undoubtedly become unbalanced through trouble and
+adversity."
+
+"No! Not so! He possesses power and wealth and untold
+honors,--everything, in short, that other people most desire; but the
+most singular part of it is that he fancies if his daughter would only
+consent to marry, it would effect his cure; and she as strangely
+refuses even to entertain the idea, maintaining that she has consecrated
+her life to God. The Count cannot bear to think that the ancient race of
+Nideck must perish with her."
+
+"How did his illness first declare itself?"
+
+"Suddenly, twelve years ago."
+
+As he spoke my companion seemed to be trying to recall something. "One
+evening," he began, after a moment, "I was alone with the Count in the
+armory of the Castle. It was about Christmas time. We had been hunting
+wild boar all day in the gorges of the Rhethal, and had returned at
+nightfall bringing with us two poor hounds ripped open the length of
+their bellies. It was just such weather as this, cold and snowy. The
+Count was striding up and down the room, his head upon his breast and
+his hands clasped behind his back, like a man who is deep in thought.
+From time to time he paused, and looked at the high windows that were
+fast becoming veiled in snow, while I sat in the chimney-corner warming
+myself, thinking of my dogs, and silently cursing all the wild boar of
+the Black Forest. For fully two hours everybody in the Castle had been
+asleep, and there was no sound to break the silence, save the noise of
+the Count's heavy spurred boots on the flagstones. I distinctly recall
+how a raven, doubtless borne along by a gust of wind, came flapping
+against the panes with a discordant cry, and how the sheets of snow fell
+from the windows. The casements on that side of the house were suddenly
+changed from white to black."
+
+"Have these details any bearing on your master's illness?"
+
+"Let me finish. You shall see for yourself. At the raven's cry, the
+Count suddenly halted; his eyes became fixed, his cheeks ashy pale, and
+he bent his head forward like a hunter who hears the game approaching. I
+went on warming myself, thinking meanwhile, 'Won't he go to bed soon?'
+For, to tell the truth, I was dropping with fatigue. I can see it all,
+Gaston; I am sitting there now! Scarcely had the raven uttered its harsh
+croak above the abyss, when the old clock struck eleven. At the same
+moment the Count turned on his heel; he listened; his lips moved; I saw
+him totter like a drunken man. He stretched out his hands, his teeth
+tightly clenched, and his eyeballs shining like fire. 'My lord,' I
+cried, 'what is the matter?' But he burst into mad laughter, stumbled,
+and fell upon the floor, face downwards. I called for help immediately;
+the servants hurried to the room. Sebalt and I raised the Count and
+moved him to the bed near the window; but just as I was about to cut my
+master's cravat with my hunting-knife,--for I believed it was a stroke
+of apoplexy,--the Countess Odile entered, and threw herself upon the
+body of her father, uttering such piteous cries that I tremble yet when
+I think of it. From that hour, Gaston, a pall has hung over the Castle,
+and Heaven only knows when it will be lifted. Every year, at the same
+day and hour, the Count is seized with these strange convulsions. The
+attacks last from a week to a fortnight, during which he howls and cries
+in a most terrifying manner. Then he slowly recovers. He is pale and
+weak, and moves about steadying himself on the chairs of his chamber,
+and turning fearfully to look, at the slightest sound, seemingly afraid
+of his own shadow. The young Countess, the sweetest creature in the
+world, never leaves him; but he cannot bear the sight of her at these
+times. 'Go! Go!' he cries, stretching out his arms before him. 'Leave
+me! Haven't I suffering enough as it is, without your hated presence?'
+It is abominable to hear him, and I, who am always at his side in the
+chase, and would readily risk my life to serve him,--I could throttle
+him at these moments, when I witness his monstrous treatment of his own
+daughter!"
+
+Sperver, whose swarthy face had assumed a gloomy look, set spurs to his
+horse, and we continued at a gallop. I had become thoughtful. The cure
+of such a malady seemed to me exceedingly doubtful, if not indeed
+impossible. It was evidently some moral disease. In order successfully
+to combat it, it would be necessary to trace it back to its origin, and
+this origin was doubtless lost in the vagueness of the past. These
+reflections tended to increase my apprehension. The old steward's story,
+far from inspiring me with confidence, had depressed me,--a doubtful
+state of affairs to insure success.
+
+It was about three o'clock when we descried the ancient Castle of
+Nideck on the furthest horizon. In spite of the vast intervening
+distance, we could distinguish the high turrets suspended like baskets
+from the angles of the edifice. It was as yet but a mere outline, hardly
+distinguishable from the blue sky; almost imperceptibly the red granite
+peaks of the Vosges appeared. At that moment Sperver slowed up and
+cried, "Gaston, we must get there before night shuts in. Forward!"
+
+But it was in vain that he plunged his spurs into his horse. The animal
+remained motionless, with his fore legs planted firmly before him, his
+mane bristling up with fear, and emitting two streams of bluish vapor
+from his nostrils.
+
+[Illustration: "POINTING TO A DARK OBJECT CROUCHING IN THE SNOW."]
+
+"What does this mean?" cried Gideon, astonished. "Do you see anything,
+Gaston? Can there--" He did not finish his sentence; pointing to a dark
+object crouching in the snow at a distance of some fifty paces on the
+hillside, he exclaimed, in a tone of such distress that I was a good
+deal startled, "The Black Plague!" Following with my glance the
+direction of his extended arm, I was astonished to perceive an aged
+woman, her legs bent up between her clasped arms, and so ragged that her
+red elbows protruded from the sleeves of her dress, seated in the snow.
+A few locks of gray hair fell in disorder about her thin, red,
+vulture-like neck. Singularly enough, a bundle of some sort rested on
+her knees, and her haggard eyes wandered over the snowy plain. Sperver
+had gone far to the right and kept as far as possible out of the old
+creature's way. I had some trouble in overtaking him.
+
+"What the deuce is the meaning of all this? Are you joking?" I cried.
+
+"Joking! God forbid that I should jest about such matters. I am not
+superstitious, but this meeting with the old witch frightens me." Then,
+turning his head and seeing that the old creature had not stirred, and
+that her eyes were still fixed on the plain before her, he seemed
+somewhat reassured.
+
+"Gaston," he said solemnly, "you are a man of learning, and are
+acquainted with many subjects of which I know nothing, but believe me, a
+man is wrong to laugh at things he cannot understand. It is not without
+reason that I call this woman the Black Plague. Throughout the Black
+Forest she is known by that name, but here at Nideck she has won a
+special right to it."
+
+My companion rode on for a few minutes without speaking. "Come, Sperver,
+explain yourself more clearly! I confess I don't understand you in the
+least."
+
+"The hag that you saw down there is the cause of all our misfortunes. It
+is she who is slowly killing the Count."
+
+"How is that possible? How can she exercise such an influence?"
+
+"I cannot tell you. But one thing is certain: on the first day of the
+Count's attack, at the very moment even, you have only to climb up to
+the signal-tower and you will see the Black Plague crouching like a dark
+speck in the long stretch of snow between the Tübingen Forest and the
+Castle of Nideck. Every day she comes a little nearer, and at her
+approach, the Count's attacks grow worse; sometimes when the trembling
+fits come upon him, he says to me, 'Gideon, she is coming.' I hold his
+arms and try to quiet him, but he keeps muttering with staring eyes,
+'She is coming! Oh, oh! She is coming!' Then I climb the tower and
+survey the landscape. You know I have a keen eye, Gideon. At last, amid
+the distant mists, between sky and earth, I distinguish a black speck.
+The next morning the speck has grown larger; the Count starts up in his
+bed with chattering teeth. On the second day we can see the old creature
+distinctly, almost within rifle-shot on the plain; and then it is that
+the Count's jaws become set like a vice, his eyes roll in his head, and
+he utters terrible cries. Ah, the cursed witch! A score of times I have
+brought my carbine to bear on her, but the poor Count has prevented me
+from drawing the trigger, crying, 'No, Sperver; shed no blood!' Poor
+man! He is sparing the creature who is killing him by inches; he is
+nothing but skin and bones."
+
+My good friend Gideon was too much taken up with the vision of the hag
+to be brought back to calm reason. Moreover, who can define the exact
+limits of the possible? Do we not each day see the realm of reality
+extend itself more widely? These hidden influences, these unseen bonds,
+this world of magnetism that some proclaim with all the ardor of the
+fanatic, and others deny with scorn and ridicule,--who can say that all
+these forces will not some day revolutionize our universe? It is easy to
+arrogate to yourself a claim to superior knowledge in the face of such
+general ignorance. I confined myself, therefore, to begging Sperver to
+moderate his anger, and beyond all things not to fire upon the Black
+Plague, warning him that it would very probably bring grave misfortune
+upon himself.
+
+"Bah! I will risk all that!" he exclaimed; "the worst they could do
+would be to hang me."
+
+"But that would be a good deal for an honest man to suffer."
+
+"As well die one way as another. In this case, you are suffocated,
+that's all. I would as lief die that way as to receive a blow on my
+head, or a stroke of apoplexy, or give up smoking, drinking, and a good
+digestion."
+
+"My dear Gideon, that sounds odd, coming from a graybeard."
+
+"Graybeard or not, that is the way I look at it. I always keep a bullet
+in my rifle at the service of the witch; from time to time, I renew the
+priming, and if ever the occasion offers--" He finished his sentence by
+an expressive gesture.
+
+"You are wrong, Sperver! I am of the same opinion as the Count: 'no
+bloodshed.' Reconsider, and discharge your piece against the first wild
+boar you happen upon."
+
+These words seemed to have some effect upon the old huntsman; he dropped
+his chin on his breast, and his face assumed a thoughtful expression.
+
+By this time, we were climbing the wooded slopes which separate the
+squalid hamlet of Tiefenbach from the Castle of Nideck. Night had
+overtaken us, and as it often happens after a clear, cold day in winter,
+the snow was beginning to fall again, and large flakes fell and melted
+on our horses' manes. The animals whinnied and increased their pace,
+cheered doubtless by the prospect of a warm shelter. Every now and then,
+Sperver turned and looked behind him with evident anxiety, and I was not
+free from a certain indefinable apprehension as I reflected upon the
+strange account of his master's malady which the steward had given me.
+Besides, man's spirit harmonizes itself with its surroundings, and, for
+my part, I know of nothing more melancholy than a forest covered with
+snow and hoar frost, and stirred by a moaning wind; the trees have a
+sombre, icy look that chills you to the heart.
+
+As we climbed the slope, the oak-trees became fewer, and the birches,
+straight and white as marble columns, stretched one beyond another, far
+out to the horizon line intersecting the dark arches of the larch-trees.
+Suddenly, as we emerged from a thicket, the ancient fortress reared up
+before us, its dark extent sprinkled with points of light. Sperver had
+pulled up before a funnel-shaped gateway, cut deep in the rock between
+two towers, and barred by an iron grating.
+
+"Here we are!" he cried, leaning over the horse's head and seizing the
+deer's-foot bell-handle. The clear tinkle of a bell sounded in the
+interior.
+
+After a few minutes of waiting, a lantern appeared at the end of the
+archway, dispersing the gloom, and showing us within its circle of light
+a little dwarf with a yellow beard and broad shoulders, enveloped in
+furs from head to foot. He came slowly towards us and pressed his great
+flat face against the grating, straining his eyes to make us out in the
+darkness.
+
+"Is that you, Sperver?" he asked in a harsh voice.
+
+"Yes. Open the door, Knapwurst!" cried the huntsman. "Don't you know how
+devilish cold it is?"
+
+"Ah, I know you now," replied the little fellow; "it is you indeed! You
+always speak as though you would swallow people whole."
+
+The door opened, and the gnome, raising his lantern towards me with an
+odd grimace, greeted me with, "Welcome, Monsieur Doctor," but in a tone
+as much as to say, "Here is another one who will go the way of the
+rest." Then he quietly closed the door, while we dismounted, and this
+done, he came to take our horses by the bridle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+I MEET THE COUNTESS.
+
+
+Following Sperver, who climbed the staircase at a rapid pace, I was able
+to convince myself that the Castle of Nideck merited its reputation. It
+was a true stronghold, cut out of the rock; a relic of feudal times. Its
+high, deep archways reëchoed the sound of our steps, and the wind
+blowing through the loopholes caused the flame of the torches which were
+fastened at intervals along the wall to flare and flicker and send our
+giant shadows dancing along the corridor. Sperver knew every nook and
+cranny of this vast place; he turned many times to right and left, and
+I followed him, out of breath. At last he stopped on a large landing,
+and said to me:
+
+"I will leave you with the people of the Castle for a moment, Gaston,
+while I go to inform the young Countess Odile of your arrival."
+
+"Very good; do whatever you think suitable."
+
+"You will find among the domestics, our majordomo, Tobias Offenloch, an
+old soldier of the regiment of Nideck. In former days he made a campaign
+in Germany under the Count."
+
+"A good fellow, no doubt."
+
+"You will also see his wife, a Frenchwoman, named Marie Lagoutte, who
+pretends to come of good family."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"To be sure; only, between ourselves, she was nothing but a
+canteen-woman of Soubise's army. One day she brought us in Tobias
+Offenloch on her cart, minus one leg, and the poor fellow married her
+out of gratitude; you understand."
+
+"Precisely; but open the door,--I am freezing!" I tried to push past
+him, but Sperver, obstinate, like all good Germans, was bound to
+enlighten me as to the people into whose presence I was about to enter,
+and seizing me by the frogs of my greatcoat, he continued:
+
+"Then there is Sebalt Kraft, the master of the hounds, a sad sort of
+chap, but without an equal in sounding the horn; Karl Trumpf, the
+butler; Christian Becker, and all our people, if they haven't all gone
+to bed."
+
+Thereupon Sperver pushed open the door, and I stood surprised on the
+threshold of a high, dark hall, the former guardroom of Nideck. I took
+in at a glance the three windows at the further end of the room, that
+dominated the precipice; on the right a sort of sideboard of old oak,
+browned by age, and on it a small cask, glasses, and bottles; on the
+left a Gothic chimney with a broad mantel-shelf empurpled by the blazing
+fire underneath, and ornamented in front and on the sides by carvings
+representing the various scenes of a boar hunt in the Middle Ages; and
+finally, in the centre of the room, a long table upon which stood a huge
+lamp, its light reflected by a dozen mugs with pewter lids.
+
+All this I saw at a glance, but it was the people that interested me
+most. I recognized at once the majordomo with his wooden leg; a small,
+square, thick-set man, with a ruddy face, and prominent waistband, and a
+nose of marvellous brilliancy. He wore an enormous hemp-colored wig,
+with a long pigtail, a coat of apple-green plush with steel buttons as
+large as a five-franc piece, velvet breeches, blue silk stockings, and
+shoes with silver buckles. He was about to turn the spigot of the cask;
+an air of inexpressible satisfaction beamed upon his rubicund face, and
+his eyes, starting slightly from his head, glowed in profile like a pair
+of watch glasses. His wife, the worthy Marie Lagoutte, dressed in a gown
+of woolen stuff with a large flowered pattern, and her thin face the
+color of a withered apple, was playing cards with two servants, all
+three seated in straight-backed armchairs. Some small split pegs pinched
+the olfactory organ of the old woman and that of another player, while
+the third was winking slyly and seemed to enjoy seeing his opponents
+subjugated beneath this new variety of Caudine Forks.
+
+"How many cards?" he was asking them.
+
+"Two," replied the old woman.
+
+"And you, Christian?"
+
+"Two."
+
+"Ah, ha! I've got you! Cut the king; now the ace. Ha, ha, ha! Another
+peg, mother; this will teach you once more to boast to us of your French
+games!"
+
+"Master Christian, you don't treat the fair sex with due respect."
+
+"When we play cards, we respect nobody."
+
+"But you see, I have no room for any more."
+
+"Pshaw! with a nose like yours, there's always room enough."
+
+At this moment Sperver cried, "Here I am, comrades!"
+
+"Ha, Gideon! back so soon?"
+
+Marie Lagoutte made haste to shake off her numerous pegs with a motion
+of her head; the big majordomo emptied his glass, and everybody turned
+to look at us.
+
+"Is the Count better?"
+
+"Hum!" exclaimed the majordomo, drawing down his under-lip.
+
+"Is his condition unchanged?"
+
+"Just about," answered Marie Lagoutte, who never took her eyes off me.
+Sperver noticed this.
+
+"Let me present to you my foster-son, Monsieur de la Roche, from
+Tübingen," he said proudly. "Things will change now in the Castle,
+Master Tobie; now that Gaston has come, this cursed malady will be put
+to flight. If we could only have found him out sooner! However, better
+late than never."
+
+Marie Lagoutte was still watching me, and the examination seemed to
+satisfy her, for, turning to the majordomo, "Come, come, Monsieur
+Offenloch! Stir yourself," she said; "offer monsieur the doctor a chair!
+You sit there with your mouth open like a great carp!"
+
+With these words, the good woman sprang up as though moved by a spring,
+and came to help me off with my greatcoat.
+
+"Permit me, monsieur."
+
+"You are very good, my dear woman."
+
+"Hand it to me, monsieur. Such weather! Ah, monsieur, what a country
+this is!"
+
+"So our master is neither better nor worse," continued Sperver, shaking
+the snow from his cap. "We are here in time. Ho! Kasper! Kasper!"
+
+A little man with a drooping shoulder, indicating a partial paralysis of
+his frame, and a face liberally sprinkled with freckles, came out of the
+chimney-corner.
+
+"Here I am."
+
+"Good! You must prepare for the doctor the chamber at the end of the
+long gallery,--Hugh's chamber. You know which one."
+
+"Yes, Sperver. I will see to it at once."
+
+"One moment! You will take the doctor's valise with you as you go.
+Knapwurst will give it to you. As to supper--"
+
+"Never fear; I will take care of all that."
+
+"Very good."
+
+The little man went out, and Gideon, after throwing off his cape, left
+us to go and inform the young Countess of my arrival. I was somewhat
+embarrassed by the attentions of Marie Lagoutte.
+
+"Come, up with you, Sebalt!" she said to the master of the hounds; "you
+ought to be sufficiently roasted by this time, sprawling there since
+morning. Sit down by the fire, Monsieur Doctor; your feet must be cold.
+Stretch out your legs; that's the way." Then, after a minute: "You have
+come just in time; our master had his second attack yesterday, and it
+was a terrible one; hey, Master Offenloch?"
+
+"Terrible is just the word," replied the majordomo gravely.
+
+"Nor is it to be wondered at, when a man takes no nourishment; and he
+eats nothing, monsieur. Fancy, it is two days since he has taken so much
+as a bowl of broth."
+
+"Or a glass of wine," added Tobie, crossing his fat hands on his
+comfortable waistband.
+
+I felt it incumbent upon me to express some surprise, so I shook my
+head; whereupon the majordomo came over and sat down on my right,
+saying, "Take my advice, doctor, and prescribe a bottle of Marcobrunner
+every day."
+
+"And a chicken wing at each meal," added Marie Lagoutte; "the poor man
+is as thin as a ghost."
+
+"We have some Marcobrunner sixty years old, and Johannisberg of the year
+'14; for Villars's fellows didn't drink it all, as Madame Offenloch
+would have it. You might prescribe now and then a glass of Johannisberg;
+there is nothing like it to set a man on his feet."
+
+"There was a time," said the master of the hounds in a melancholy tone,
+"there was a time when our master went on the hunt twice a week, and he
+was well; now that he has stopped, he is ill."
+
+"That is reasonable enough," observed Marie Lagoutte; "the fresh air
+gave him an appetite. The doctor should order him three hunts a week to
+make up for lost time."
+
+"Two would do," replied the master of the hounds dismally; "two would
+do. The dogs must have some time to rest. They must be considered as
+well as we."
+
+A few moments of silence succeeded, during which I could hear the wind
+rattling the windows and whistling boisterously through the loopholes
+and along the empty halls. Sebalt had crossed his legs, and with his
+elbow on his knee supporting his chin, he gazed into the fire with
+unspeakable gloominess. Marie Lagoutte refreshed herself with a pinch of
+snuff, and I was reflecting on that strange infirmity that leads us to
+press our advice on others, whether they desire it or not, when the
+majordomo rose, and leaning over the back of my chair, said:
+
+"Will you have a glass of wine, doctor?"
+
+"Thank you, but I never drink before visiting a patient."
+
+"What, not even one small glass?"
+
+"Not even a tiny glass."
+
+He opened his eyes very wide, and looked with astonishment at his wife.
+
+"Monsieur the doctor is right," she said; "I am of his opinion; I prefer
+to drink with my meals and take a glass of cognac afterwards. In my
+country, the women drink cognac; it is more genteel than kirschwasser."
+
+Marie Lagoutte had hardly finished this explanation, when Sperver opened
+the door part way, and motioned me to follow him. I nodded a farewell to
+the worthy company, and as I stepped into the passage, I heard Tobie's
+wife saying to him, "He is a nice-looking young man. He would have made
+a fine soldier!" Sperver looked uneasy; he said nothing. I too was
+thoughtful.
+
+A few steps beneath the shadowy arches of the Castle served completely
+to efface from my mind the grotesque figures of Tobie and Marie
+Lagoutte,--poor, inoffensive creatures, living like bats under the
+vulture's powerful wing. Soon Gideon threw open the door of a sumptuous
+apartment, hung with violet-colored velvet worked in gold. A bronze
+lamp, resting on a corner of the mantelpiece, and covered with a globe
+of ground crystal, vaguely lighted up the room. Thick rugs deadened the
+sound of our footsteps. It seemed like a refuge consecrated to silence
+and meditation.
+
+On entering, Sperver lifted the heavy draperies that concealed a turret
+window. I saw him gaze earnestly into the plain beneath, and I divined
+his thoughts; he was looking to see if the witch were still there,
+crouching in the snow,--but he could see nothing, for the night was
+dark. As I moved forward into the room, I made out, by the pale rays of
+the lamp, a young woman of girlish figure seated in an armchair, her
+forehead resting in her hand, and her whole attitude one of patient but
+despairing sorrow. Her back was slightly turned towards us, and for this
+reason I could not at first see her face.
+
+But at the rustle of our entrance she rose quickly, and exhibited to my
+gaze the most beautiful presence I had ever beheld. The tall, stately
+figure, the ideal formation of the features, the glory of golden hair
+that fell about the fair, white neck, the deep, lustrous eyes that
+bespoke a soul as pure and beautiful as the scenes among which it
+flourished,--everything about the young mistress of the Castle
+proclaimed her to be of that noble type which we meet with but once, if
+at all, in a lifetime. Just what my feelings were at sight of this
+beautiful young woman I know not, but certain it is that they were of a
+nature hitherto unknown to me, and I felt a strange sense of harmony and
+contentment within me as my glance continued to rest upon her.
+
+After a moment the Countess advanced, and said simply, "You are welcome,
+monsieur;" then, motioning towards the alcove where the Count lay, she
+added, "There is my father."
+
+I bowed low, and without reply,--such was my agitation,--I approached
+the couch of the sick man. Sperver, standing at the head of the bed,
+held the lamp in his raised hand, and the light, softened by the crystal
+globe, fell palely upon the face of the Count. Odile remained near me,
+waiting anxiously for my first word.
+
+At the first glance I was struck with the strange physiognomy of the
+Lord of Nideck, and in contrast to the admiration that his daughter had
+inspired within me, my first thought was, "He is an old wolf!" And in
+truth, his head bristling with gray hair and swelling behind the ears;
+his long, pointed face and receding forehead; his narrow eyes and shaggy
+eyebrows that met in a point over the bridge of his nose, imperfectly
+shading the dull, cold eye beneath; his short, stiff beard, spreading
+unevenly over his bony jaws,--in short, everything about the man made me
+shudder, and brought involuntarily to my mind the oft-alleged affinities
+between man and the brute creation.
+
+I mastered my repugnance, and raised the arm of the sick man. It was
+wasted and tremulous, the hand small and wiry. The pulse was rapid,
+fluttering and feverish, indicating intense nervous excitement. What was
+I to do? I considered. On one side stood the young Countess, anxiously
+awaiting an expression of my opinion; on the other, Sperver, trying to
+read my thoughts and following attentively my slightest movement. A
+painful restraint was thus imposed upon me.
+
+However, I saw that no decided step could be undertaken as yet. I
+dropped the arm, and listened to the breathing. From time to time,
+something like a sob escaped the sick man's breast; then the respiration
+became normal again; then faster, and finally, labored. Some sort of
+nightmare oppressed him. But the cause!--this I must determine first,
+and I must confess it seemed hopeless enough. I turned round, sorely
+perplexed.
+
+"Is there any hope, monsieur?" asked the young woman.
+
+"Yesterday's crisis is drawing to a close, mademoiselle. We must seek to
+ward off the next attack."
+
+"Is that a possible thing?"
+
+I was about to reply in some scientific generalities, not daring to
+commit myself, when the distant sound of the Castle bell fell upon our
+ears.
+
+"Strangers," said Sperver.
+
+There was a moment of silence.
+
+"Go and see who it is," said Odile, whose brow was shadowed with
+anxiety. "How can we be hospitable at such times? It is impossible."
+
+Just then the door opened, and a yellow head and rosy cheeks appeared in
+the shadow, whispering, "The Baron Zimmer, accompanied by his servant,
+asks for shelter in the Castle. He has lost his way in the mountains."
+
+"Very well, Gretchen," replied the Countess quietly; "go and tell
+Offenloch to attend to the wants of the strangers. Tell him to inform
+the Baron Zimmer that the Count is very ill, and that this alone
+prevents him from doing the honors of the house in person. Wake up our
+people, and see that he is properly waited on and that everything is
+suitably done."
+
+It would be difficult to describe the well-born simplicity with which
+the young mistress of the Castle gave her orders, and I reflected that
+if an air of nobility seems inherent in some families, it is certainly
+because the discharge of hospitable and charitable duties tends to
+elevate the character and ennoble the soul.
+
+All this passed through my mind while I was admiring the gentle glance,
+the distinguished carriage, and the exquisitely cut features of Odile of
+Nideck,--that purity of outline only to be met with in the realms of
+aristocracy,--and I tried in vain to recall anything comparable to her
+in my recollection.
+
+"Make haste, Gretchen! Don't keep the travellers waiting," said the
+young Countess.
+
+"Yes, madame."
+
+The servant departed, and I stood for a few moments unable to dispel the
+charm of my meditations. Odile turned and addressed me.
+
+"You see, monsieur," she said with a sad smile, "we are not allowed to
+indulge our grief; we must ever divide ourselves between our feelings
+and the claims that others have upon us."
+
+"That is too true, mademoiselle," I replied; "souls of the higher sort
+seem purposed to serve as a guide and promise to us weaker ones: the
+traveller who has lost his path, the sick man, and the starving
+pauper,--each has a claim upon them, for God has created them like the
+stars above us, for the happiness of all."
+
+Odile lowered her deep-fringed eyelids, while Sperver pressed my hand.
+
+After a moment, the Countess continued:
+
+"Ah, monsieur, if you could only save my father!"
+
+"As I have had the pleasure of telling you before, mademoiselle,
+yesterday's crisis is past; we must now endeavor to prevent its
+recurrence."
+
+"Do you believe that this can be done?"
+
+"With God's help, mademoiselle, it is not impossible. I must give the
+matter the most careful thought."
+
+Odile, much agitated, moved with me to the door, and as I bowed myself
+out of the chamber, I fancied that I detected in her lovely face an
+expression of increased hope. Sperver and I crossed the antechamber,
+where a few servants were standing awaiting the orders of their
+mistress. We had just entered the corridor, when Gideon, who led the
+way, turned abruptly round, and resting his hands on my shoulders, said:
+
+"Gaston, I am a man to be trusted; what is your opinion of the case?"
+
+"There is nothing to be feared to-night."
+
+"I know that; you said as much to the Countess. But to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow?"
+
+"Yes. Don't turn your head. I suppose you can't prevent a recurrence of
+the attack, but, frankly, do you think he will die of it?"
+
+"He may, but I don't anticipate it."
+
+"Ah," cried the good fellow joyfully; "that means you are sure he
+won't!"
+
+Thrusting his arm through mine, he pulled me into the gallery. We had
+hardly set foot in it when the Baron Zimmer and his groom appeared,
+preceded by Sebalt, who carried a flaming torch in his hand. They were
+on their way to their chambers, and these two figures, with their cloaks
+flung over their shoulders, their knee-boots of soft Hungarian leather,
+their waists tightly buttoned in, their long green tunics ornamented
+with frogs and twisted fringes of silk and gold, their bearskin caps
+drawn down over their ears, and their long hunting-knives stuck in their
+belts, looked strangely picturesque in the white light of the dripping
+pine torch.
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Sperver, "if I am not greatly mistaken, those are
+our Tübingen friends. They were close at our heels, you see."
+
+"You are right; they are the same people! I remember the younger one by
+his slim figure; he has the profile of an eagle, and wears his mustache
+like the astrologer-general Wallenstein."
+
+They disappeared beneath a side triforium.
+
+Gideon took a torch from the wall, and guided me through a labyrinth of
+corridors, passageways, and high, low, turret-shaped, and winding
+entries. I thought he would never have done.
+
+"Here is the hall of the Margraves," he said; "and this is the portrait
+gallery. There is the chapel, where no mass has been said since Louis
+the Bald became a Protestant. Next comes the armory."
+
+These facts possessed but little interest for me. After having reached
+the end of the gallery, we had to descend a staircase that seemed
+interminable; at last, thank Heaven! we halted before a low, massive
+door. Sperver drew an enormous key from his pocket, and handing me the
+torch, said, "Mind the light; be careful!"
+
+At the same time, he pushed open the door, and the cold outside air
+rushed into the passageway. The flame leaped back and sent a shower of
+sparks in all directions. I fancied myself standing on the edge of an
+abyss, and I recoiled instinctively.
+
+"Ha, Ha!" laughed the steward, his mouth parted in a broad grin, "any
+one would think you were afraid, Gaston. Come on! We are now in the
+little court that leads from the Castle to the old tower."
+
+The good fellow moved on by way of example. The snow lay deep in this
+courtyard, and the wind swept it with terrific gusts. Had any one seen
+our flaring torch upon the plain, he would have asked himself, "What are
+they doing up there in the clouds? Why are they prowling about at this
+time of night?"
+
+"Perhaps the old witch is looking up at us," I thought, and the idea
+made me shudder. I drew closer the folds of my cloak, and holding my hat
+on with the other hand, I ran after Sperver, who held his light above
+his head to show me the path, and moved along with rapid strides.
+
+We rushed into the tower, and then into Hugh's Chamber, where a bright
+fire greeted us with cheerful cracklings. How grateful it was to be
+sheltered by the thick walls! I had stopped while Sperver closed the
+door, and contemplating this ancient abode, I cried, "Thank God, we
+shall have a moment to rest now!"
+
+"And before an excellent table," added Gideon. "Just look at that,--the
+leg of a kid, two roasted pheasants, a blue-backed pike, his mouth
+stuffed with parsley; cold meats and hot wines is what I like. I have no
+fault to find with Kasper; he has carried out my orders to the letter!"
+
+Gideon spoke truly,--"cold meats and hot wines;" for before the fire
+stood a generous array of bottles, being submitted to the gentle
+influence of the heat. The sight of this repast served to whet my
+already considerable appetite; but Sperver, who understood the art of
+being comfortable, said to me:
+
+"Don't be in too great a hurry, Gaston! Let's take things easily! We
+have time enough; the pheasants won't fly away, and as for the pike,
+I'll warrant he cares no more about swimming. In the first place, having
+been eight hours in the saddle, your boots must hurt you, so off with
+them. Sit down there and put your boot between my knees. I've got that
+one; let's have the other. There you are. Now put your feet in these
+slippers, take off your cloak, and throw this dressing-gown over you.
+Now you'll do!"
+
+Having gone through a similar course of preparation, he cried in a
+hearty tone:
+
+"Now, Gaston, fall to! You do your share and I'll do mine, and remember
+well the German proverb: 'If Beelzebub created thirst, surely the Lord
+made wine to quench it.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MY FIRST NIGHT IN HUGH'S TOWER.
+
+
+We ate with the ravenous appetite which a ten hours' ride through the
+snows of the Black Forest would be likely to impart. Sperver attacked,
+in turn, the kid, the pheasants, and the pike, murmuring, with his mouth
+full, "Thank God for the woods, the heather, and the ponds." Then,
+leaning over the back of his chair and seizing the first bottle that
+came under his hand, he added, "And for the hillsides, green in spring
+and purple in autumn. Your health, Gaston!"
+
+"Yours, Gideon!"
+
+The fire crackled, the forks jingled, the bottles gurgled, and the
+glasses clinked, while outside the wind of the winter night, the blast
+from the snow-bound mountains, sang its unearthly hymn,--the hymn that
+it sings when storm-driven, fantastic cloud-shapes rush across the sky
+and obscure from moment to moment the pale face of the moon.
+
+We continued our grateful meal. Sperver filled the "wieder komm" with
+old Brumberg wine, whose sparkling froth bordered its generous edges,
+and, handing it to me, he cried, "Here's to the recovery of Hermann of
+Nideck, my noble master! Drink to the last drop, Gaston, that your
+prayer may be heard."
+
+This was done; then, refilling the bowl, he drained it in his turn.
+
+A sense of satisfaction took possession of us. We felt at peace with all
+the world. I sprawled out in my chair with my head thrown back and my
+arms hanging down, and began to study my apartment. It was a low, arched
+chamber cut out of the live rock, shaped like an oval, and measuring in
+the highest part not more than twelve feet. At the further end I
+perceived a sort of alcove, and in it a bed resting on the floor, and
+covered, as nearly as I could make out, with a bearskin robe. Still
+further back was another and smaller niche, with a statue of the Virgin
+cut out of the same piece of granite and crowned with a bunch of
+withered grass.
+
+"You are studying your chamber," said Sperver; "it is not as large nor
+as luxurious as the rooms of the Castle. We are now in Hugh's Tower,
+and it is as old as the mountain itself. It dates back to the time of
+Charlemagne. In those days the people didn't understand the art of
+building lofty, spacious dwellings; they cut right into the solid rock."
+
+"That served the purpose as well; but it is an odd corner that you have
+stuck me in, Gideon."
+
+"Don't be deceived on that point, Gaston; it is the place of honor.
+Whenever the Count's particular friends come to visit him, they are put
+in here. Hugh's Tower is the most honorable accommodation of all."
+
+"By the way, who was this Hugh?"
+
+"Why, Hugh the Wolf!"
+
+"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment.
+
+"Certainly; the founder of the family of Nideck; a rough customer, they
+say. He came and settled down here with a score of horsemen and archers.
+They scaled the highest rock on the mountain,--you will see it
+to-morrow,--and built this tower. 'We are the masters,' they declared,
+'and woe be to those who try to pass without paying toll. We will fall
+on them like wolves, tear the clothes from their backs, and the hides,
+too, if they are obstinate. From here we can command the landscape, the
+passes of the Rhethal, the Steinbach, and the Roche Plate, and the
+entire line of the Black Forest. Let the merchants beware.' And the bold
+fellows carried out their threats under the leadership of Hugh the Wolf.
+Knapwurst told me all about it when we were sitting up the other
+night."
+
+"Knapwurst?"
+
+"You know; the little dwarf who opened the gate to us; a droll chap,
+Gaston, who is always to be found in the library bent over a book."
+
+"So you have a scholar at Nideck."
+
+"Yes, the rascal! Instead of staying in his lodge, where he belongs, he
+spends the whole blessed day shaking the dust from old family
+parchments. He moves about among the shelves like a cat, and he knows
+our history better than we do ourselves. He would like nothing better
+than to tell you his stories; he calls them chronicles. Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+Hereupon, Sperver, exalted by the old wine, laughed for some moments,
+without knowing exactly why.
+
+"So that is why you call this the Tower of Hugh the Wolf?" I resumed.
+
+"Didn't I just tell you so? What are you so surprised at?"
+
+"Oh, nothing."
+
+"Yes, you are. I see it in your face. What are you thinking of?"
+
+"It isn't so much the name of the tower that surprises me, as that you,
+an old ranger, who from a baby had never known any home but the
+fir-trees and crests of the Wald Horn and the gorges of the Rhethal, who
+would never sleep with a roof over your head in spite of all my father's
+urging, and who amused yourself roaming the paths of the Black Forest
+and revelling in the fresh air, the sunlight, and the freedom of a
+hunter's life, should be found here, after sixteen years, in this
+red-granite hole. Come, Sperver, light your pipe and tell me how it
+happened."
+
+The old ranger drew a short, black pipe from his leather jacket, filled
+it leisurely, and snatching up a coal from the hearth, placed it on the
+bowl of his pipe; then, with his head thrown back and his eyes wandering
+over the ceiling, he replied thoughtfully:
+
+"After I left your father's service twenty years ago, it was long before
+I could bring my mind to work for any other master, for I loved the
+General, and you, and your pretty mother, as I could never come to love
+others, not even the Count and my mistress Odile. So I took to poaching
+for a term of years, and found a living by any means I could, until one
+night the Count came upon me in the moonlight.
+
+"He did not despise Sperver, the old hawk, the true man of the woods;
+and he said to me, 'Comrade, you have hunted long enough by yourself;
+now come and hunt with me. You have a good beak and strong claws, and
+you might as well hunt my game with my permission as without it.'"
+
+Sperver was silent for some minutes; then he continued:
+
+"I was getting old,--and the old falcons and hawks, having long swept
+the plains, end by settling down in the cleft of a rock to die. So it
+was with me. I loved the open air, and I love it yet; but now, instead
+of lying on a high branch at night and being rocked to sleep by the
+wind, I prefer to come back to my cover, quietly pick a woodcock, and
+dry my plumage before the fire."
+
+Sperver was silent for some moments; then he continued:
+
+"I still hunt as before, and afterwards I drink a quiet glass of
+Rudesheimer with my friends, or--" At this moment a shock made the door
+tremble.
+
+"It is a gust of wind," I said.
+
+"No; it is something else. Don't you hear a claw scratching on the
+panel? I think one of the dogs must have got loose. Open, Walden! open,
+Lieverlé!"
+
+He got up, but he had not gone two steps when a formidable Danish hound
+leaped into the room and raised his fore-paws on his master's shoulders,
+licking his cheeks and beard with his long, red tongue, and whining with
+joy. Sperver put his arm around the dog's neck, and turning to me:
+
+"Gaston," he said, "what man could love me as this dog does? Look at
+this head, these eyes, and teeth!"
+
+He drew back the animal's lips and showed me a set of fangs that could
+have torn a buffalo to pieces. Then pushing him off with difficulty, for
+the dog redoubled his caresses, he cried, "Down with you, Lieverlé; I
+know you love me! Who would, if you did not?" He went and closed the
+door.
+
+I never had seen a dog of such formidable proportions before; he
+measured nearly four feet in height, with a broad, low forehead and fine
+coat, a bright eye, long paws, broad across the chest and shoulders and
+tapering down to the haunches,--a mass of nerves and muscles
+interwoven,--but he had no scent. If such animals possessed the scent
+of the terrier, the game would soon be exterminated.
+
+Sperver had returned to his seat and was passing his hand proudly over
+Lieverlé's head, while he enumerated the dog's fine points. Lieverlé
+seemed to understand him.
+
+"Look, Gaston, that dog would strangle a wolf with a snap of his jaws.
+He is what you might well call perfection in the matter of courage and
+strength; not yet five, and in his prime. I need not tell you that he is
+trained to hunt wild boar. Every time we meet them, I fear for Lieverlé;
+he attacks them too boldly; he flies at them like an arrow. Beware of
+the brutes' tusks, Lieverlé, you rascal! It makes me tremble. Down on
+your back!" cried the huntsman; "down on your back!"
+
+The dog obeyed, presenting to us his flesh-colored thighs.
+
+"Do you see that long, white line, without any hair on it, which extends
+from his thigh clear up to his chest? A boar did that. The noble chap
+did not let go of the brute's ear, in spite of the wound, and we tracked
+them by the blood. I came up with them first. Seeing my Lieverlé, I
+cried out, jumped to the ground, and lifting him in my arms, I wrapped
+him in my mantle and brought him home. I was beside myself with grief.
+Luckily, the vital parts were not injured, and I sewed up the wound.
+God! how he howled and suffered; but at the end of the third day he
+began to lick the place, and a dog who licks a wound is already saved.
+Ha, Lieverlé! you remember it! And now we love each other, don't we?"
+
+I was much moved by the affection of the man for the dog, and the animal
+for his master. Lieverlé watched him and wagged his tail, while a tear
+stood in Sperver's eye. Soon he began again:
+
+"What strength! Do you see, Gaston, he has broken his cord to come to
+me,--a cord of six strands? He found my tracks, and that was enough.
+Here, Lieverlé! Catch!"
+
+He threw him the remains of the kid's leg. The dog went over and
+stretched himself in front of the fire with the bone between his
+fore-paws, and he slowly tore it into shreds. Sperver watched him from
+the corner of his eye with evident satisfaction.
+
+"Hey, Gaston," said the old steward, "if any one should order you to go
+and take that bone away, what would you say?"
+
+"That it was a matter which required delicate manipulation."
+
+We laughed heartily, and Sperver, who was stretched out in his
+red-leather armchair, with his left arm thrown over the back, one leg
+resting on a stool, and the other on a log that was dripping with sap
+and singing in the fierce flame, puffed blue rings of smoke to the
+ceiling with an air of supreme contentment. As for me, I was lazily
+watching the dog, when suddenly remembering our interrupted
+conversation, I began:
+
+"Listen, Sperver! You haven't told me everything. Was it not because of
+the death of your worthy wife, my old nurse Gertrude, that you left the
+mountains to come here?"
+
+Gideon looked grave, and a tear dimmed his eye; he straightened up, and
+knocking the ashes from his pipe upon his thumb nail, he replied:
+
+"Yes, my wife is dead, and that is what drove me from the woods. I could
+not see the valley of the Roche Creuse without sorrow, and so I have
+come hither. I hunt but little in the underbrush, and if the pack happen
+to go in that direction, I leave them to themselves and turn back again,
+trying to think of other things."
+
+Sperver had become melancholy. His head had fallen on his breast, and he
+remained silent. I regretted having recalled these sad images to his
+mind. Then, reflecting once more on the Black Plague crouching in the
+snow, I shivered. How singular that a single word had thrown us into a
+train of dismal recollections! A whole world of retrospection had been
+invoked by the merest accident.
+
+I know not how long our silence had lasted, when a deep, terrible
+growl, like the sound of distant thunder, made us tremble. We looked
+at the dog. He still held his half-eaten bone between his fore-paws,
+but with raised head, ears pricked up, and shining eyes, he was
+listening,--listening in the dead silence, and a tremor of rage ran
+along his back.
+
+Sperver and I looked at each other anxiously; not a sound, not a murmur,
+for the wind outside had fallen, and we could have heard the least
+noise; nothing, save the deep, continued growl, which seemed to come
+from deep down in the dog's chest. Suddenly the animal sprang up and
+leaped against the wall, with a short, harsh, ominous bark that made the
+arches resound as if thunder were rolling away along the empty passages.
+Lieverlé, with his head low down, seemed to see through the granite, and
+his teeth, bared to their roots, glistened like snow. He still growled,
+pausing now and then for a moment to sniff along the bottom of the wall;
+then he sprang up again angrily, and seemed trying to tear away the
+stone with his fore-paws.
+
+We were watching him, unable to understand the cause of his excitement,
+when a second howl, more fearful than the first, brought us to our
+feet.
+
+"Lieverlé," cried Sperver, springing towards him, "for heaven's sake,
+what ails you? Are you going mad?"
+
+He seized a log, and began to sound the wall, which, however, gave forth
+only a dull, dense sound. There was apparently no hollow in it, but
+still the dog maintained the same posture.
+
+"Decidedly, Lieverlé," said the huntsman, "you have had a nightmare.
+Come, lie down, and don't set our nerves on edge any more."
+
+At the same moment we heard a sound outside. The door opened, and the
+big, fat face of honest Tobias Offenloch, with his round lantern in one
+hand and his stick in the other, and his three-cornered hat on one side
+of his head, appeared smiling and genial in the doorway.
+
+"Greeting, worthy company!" he exclaimed; "what the devil are you doing
+here?"
+
+"It was this foolish Lieverlé who made all the racket," said Sperver;
+"he sprang against the wall and wouldn't be quieted. Can you tell us the
+reason of it?"
+
+"He probably heard the stumping of my wooden leg as I came up the tower
+stairs," replied the good-natured fellow with a laugh. Then setting his
+lantern on the table: "That will teach you, Master Gideon, to tie up
+your dogs. You have a weakness for dogs,--an absurd weakness. They will
+end by putting us all out of doors. Only a moment ago, as I was coming
+along the gallery, I met your Blitz; he snapped at my leg,--see, there
+are the marks of his teeth. A new leg, too, confound the cur!"
+
+"Tie up my dogs? What an idea!" replied Sperver. "Dogs that are tied up
+are good for nothing; it makes them savage. Moreover, Lieverlé was
+fastened, and he has what was left of the cord around his neck still."
+
+"It is not on my account that I am speaking, for whenever I see them
+coming, I always raise my stick and put my wooden leg first. It is only
+for discipline. The dogs ought to be in the kennels, the cats on the
+gutters, and the people in the Castle, according to my way of thinking."
+
+Tobie sat down as he finished his sentence, and with his elbows resting
+on the table and his eyes beaming with satisfaction, he said in a
+confidential tone:
+
+"You should know, gentlemen, that I am a bachelor this evening."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"Marie Anne is sitting up with Gertrude in the Count's antechamber."
+
+"Then you are in no hurry."
+
+"Not the least bit."
+
+"How unlucky you should have come so late," observed Sperver; "all the
+bottles are empty."
+
+The discomfited expression of the good fellow made me feel positively
+sorry. He would gladly have profited by his widowhood. In spite of my
+efforts to repress it, however, my mouth parted in a wide yawn.
+
+"We will put it over till another day," he said, getting up; "what is
+postponed is not lost."
+
+He took up his lantern.
+
+"Good night, gentlemen."
+
+"Wait a minute," said Gideon; "I see the doctor is sleepy; we will go
+down together."
+
+"Gladly, Sperver! We will have a word with Trumpf as we pass. He is
+down-stairs with the others, and Knapwurst is telling them stories."
+
+"Well, good night, Gaston."
+
+"Good night, Sperver. Don't forget to call me if the Count grows worse."
+
+"Never fear. Lieverlé, come here."
+
+They went out, and as they were crossing the platform, I could hear the
+old Nideck clock striking eleven.
+
+I was completely exhausted with the day's experiences. Soon I threw
+myself on the bed, and straightway fell into a deep slumber, where all
+night long I was wandering beside a radiant creature with a halo of
+golden hair about her face, amid flower-strewn paths, and the song of
+birds, and above our heads the fairest of summer skies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+KNAPWURST ACQUAINTS ME WITH THE GENEALOGY OF THE NIDECKS.
+
+
+The dawn was beginning to turn gray the only window of the donjon-tower,
+when I was awakened in my granite bed by the distant notes of a
+hunting-horn. I know of no sound more sad and melancholy than the
+vibrations of its tones, just at morning twilight, when all is still,
+and no breath, no whisper comes to disturb the perfect quiet of
+solitude; it is the final note, especially, that, spreading over the
+immense plain and awaking the far-off echoes of the mountain, stirs us
+to the heart with its pure, poetic quality.
+
+Leaning with my elbow on the bearskin, I listened to this plaintive cry,
+that seemed to be invoking memories of the Feudal Ages. The aspect of my
+chamber, with its low, ragged arch, and, further on, the little window
+with its panes set in lead, midway between the alcove and the corridor,
+the ceiling more wide than high, and deeply hollowed in the wall,--in
+short, every detail of this ancient den of the Wolf of Nideck served to
+realize my fancy.
+
+I rose quickly and threw the window wide open. There before me lay a
+spectacle that no mere language can describe,--the scene that the Alpine
+eagle surveys each morning, as the purple curtain of night lifts itself
+from the horizon; range after range of mountains,--motionless billows
+that stretch away and become lost in the distant mists of the Vosges and
+the Jura,--immense forests, lakes, and towering peaks tracing their
+sharp outlines upon the steel-blue of the snow-clad valleys; beyond
+this, the infinite! What human skill could attain to the sublimity of
+such a picture? I stood overwhelmed with wonder and delight. At each
+glance some new detail was revealed to my eyes; hamlets, farms,
+villages, seemed to rise from every fold of the landscape, and as I
+gazed, these objects became more numerous.
+
+I had been standing thus for more than a quarter of an hour, when a hand
+was laid lightly upon my shoulder; I turned and met the calm face and
+quiet smile of my friend Gideon, who greeted me with:
+
+"Good morning, Gaston."
+
+Then he rested his elbows on the window-sill beside me, puffing clouds
+of smoke from his short pipe. Extending his arm towards the distant
+mountains, he said at length:
+
+"Look at that, Gaston; you should love it, for you are a son of the
+Black Forest. Look down there, way down; that is the Roche Creuse. Do
+you see it? You remember Gertrude? How far off those days seem!"
+
+He stopped and cleared his throat; I was at a loss what to reply. We
+stood for a long time in a contemplative mood, mute before the grandeur
+of the scene that rolled away beneath us. From time to time, the old
+steward, seeing my eyes rest on some point of the horizon, would
+explain:
+
+"That is the Wald Horn; this is the Tiefenthal. There you see the
+cascade of the Steinbach; it has stopped running now, and hangs like an
+ice cloak over the shoulder of the Harberg,--a cold garment for this
+season of the year. Down there is the path that leads to Tübingen; a
+fortnight more and we shall have difficulty in tracing it."
+
+An hour passed thus; I could not tear myself away from the scene.
+
+A few birds of prey, with gracefully hollowed wings, were sailing about
+the tower; a flock of herons flew above them, escaping their claws by
+reason of their loftier flight. Not a cloud was visible in the sky; all
+the snow had fallen to earth. The hunting-horn saluted the mountain for
+the last time.
+
+"That is my friend Sebalt mourning down there," said Sperver. "No one is
+a better judge of horses and dogs than he, and when it comes to sounding
+the horn, there is not his equal in all Germany. Just hear how mellow
+those notes are, Gaston. Poor Sebalt! he is pining away since our master
+became ill; he cannot hunt as he used to. His only consolation is to
+climb the Altenberg every morning just at daybreak, and play the Count's
+favorite airs. He thinks that may cure him."
+
+Sperver, with the tact of a man who himself loves beautiful things, had
+not interrupted my contemplation; but when, dazzled by the growing
+light, I turned back into the chamber, he said:
+
+"Gaston, things look more encouraging; the Count has had no return of
+the convulsions."
+
+These words brought me back to a more practical world.
+
+"Ah, I am glad to hear it."
+
+"And it is your doing, too."
+
+"Mine? I haven't even prescribed anything yet."
+
+"What of that? You are here."
+
+"You're joking, Gideon; what could my mere presence accomplish?"
+
+"You bring him good luck."
+
+I looked at him closely; he was in earnest.
+
+"Yes," he repeated seriously; "you are a bringer of good luck. In past
+years, our master has had a second attack the day after the first, and
+then a third, and fourth; but you have prevented this and arrested the
+course of the malady. That is clear enough."
+
+"Not to my mind, Sperver. On the contrary, I find it exceedingly
+obscure."
+
+"We are never too old to learn," continued the worthy fellow. "There are
+forerunners of good fortune and harbingers of ill. Take that rascal
+Knapwurst, for example; he is a sure sign of bad luck. If ever I happen
+to run across him as I am going out hunting, I am sure to meet with some
+accident; my gun misses fire, I sprain my ankle, or a dog gets ripped
+open. Knowing this, I always take care to set off just at daybreak,
+before the scamp, who sleeps like a dormouse, has got his eyes open; or
+else I steal through the postern gate."
+
+"A wise precaution; but your ideas seem odd to me, Gideon."
+
+"But you, on the other hand," he continued without noticing my
+interruption, "are an open-hearted, honest lad. Heaven has bestowed many
+blessings upon you; just one glance at your good-natured face, your
+frank gaze, and your kindly smile, is enough to make any one happy. And
+you bring good luck; that is certain. Do you want a proof of what I
+say?"
+
+"Why, certainly. I am not sorry to discover that I possess so many
+hitherto unknown virtues."
+
+"Well," said he, seizing my wrist, "look down there!"
+
+He pointed to a hillock a couple of gunshots distant from the Castle.
+
+"Do you see that rock half buried in the snow, with a bush to the left
+of it?"
+
+"Distinctly."
+
+"And you see nothing near it?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, that is easily accounted for; you have driven the Black Plague
+away. Every year, on the second day of the Count's illness, she was to
+be seen there, with her arms clasped around her skinny knees. At night,
+she lighted a fire, warmed herself, and cooked the roots of trees. She
+was a curse to every living thing. The first thing I did this morning
+was to climb up to the signal-tower and look around me. The old hag was
+nowhere to be seen. In vain did I shade my eyes with my hand and gaze to
+right and left, up and down, across the plain and over the
+mountain,--not a sign of her anywhere. She has scented you, sure
+enough!"
+
+Wringing my hand in his enthusiasm, the good fellow cried excitedly,
+"Oh, Gaston, Gaston! How lucky it was that I brought you here! How angry
+the old hag will be!"
+
+I must confess to a feeling of embarrassment at discovering so much
+merit in myself, which had hitherto escaped my observation.
+
+"So the Count has passed a comfortable night, Sperver?" I continued.
+
+"Very comfortable," he replied.
+
+"That is welcome news. Let's go down-stairs."
+
+We once more crossed the little courtyard, and I was able to obtain a
+better view of our means of egress, whose ramparts attained to a
+prodigious height,--continuing along the edge of the rock to the very
+bottom of the valley. It was a flight of precipices, so to speak,
+shelving one below another into the dizzy depths beneath. On looking
+down, I became giddy, and recoiling to the middle of the landing, I
+hastened down the passageway which led to the Castle.
+
+Sperver and I had already traversed several broad corridors, when a
+wide-open door blocked our passage. I glanced in and saw, at the top of
+a double ladder, the little gnome Knapwurst, whose grotesque physiognomy
+had struck me the night before. The hall itself attracted my attention
+by its imposing aspect. It was a storehouse for the archives of Nideck,
+a high, dark, dusty apartment, with long Gothic windows reaching from
+the ceiling to within three feet of the floor.
+
+There were to be found, ranged along the broad shelves by the careful
+abbots of olden times, not only all the documents, title-deeds, and
+genealogical trees of the families of Nideck, establishing their rights,
+alliances, and relations with the most illustrious nobles of Germany,
+but also the chronicles of the Black Forest, the collected remnants of
+the old Minnesingers, and the great folios from the presses of Gutenberg
+and Faust, no less venerable on account of their origin and the enduring
+solidity of their binding. The deep shadows of the alcoves, draping the
+cold walls with their grayish gloom, reminded you of the ancient
+cloisters of the Middle Ages; and in the midst of it all sat the dwarf
+at the top of his ladder, with a huge, red-edged volume lying open on
+his bony knees, his head buried to the ears in a fur cap; gray-eyed,
+flat-nosed, the corners of his mouth drawn down by long years of
+thought, with stooping shoulders and wasted limbs; a fitting
+_famulus_--the rat, as Sperver called him--to this last refuge of the
+learning of Nideck.
+
+That which gave to the place a unique interest, however, was the line of
+family portraits that covered one whole side of the ancient library.
+There they were, knights and ladies, from Hugh the Wolf down to Count
+Hermann, the present owner; from the crude daubs of barbarous days to
+the perfect work of the best painters of our own time. My attention was
+naturally centred upon this part of the room. Hugh I., with a bald head,
+seemed watching you from his frame as a wolf glares at the traveller
+whom a sudden turn in the forest path discloses to view. His gray,
+blood-shot eyes, bristling beard, and large, hairy ears, gave him an air
+of singular ferocity.
+
+Next to him, like the lamb next the savage beast, was a young woman,
+with a gentle, sad expression, her hands clasped on her breast, her
+long, silken tresses of fair hair parted over the forehead and falling
+in thick waves about her face, which they encircled with a golden
+aureole. I was struck with her resemblance to Odile of Nideck. Nothing
+could have been more delicate and charming than this old painting on
+wood, a little stiff in its outline, but charmingly simple and
+ingenuous.
+
+I had been studying this portrait for some minutes, when another,
+hanging beside it, drew my attention in its turn. Here, too, was a
+woman, but of the true Visigothic type, with a broad, low forehead,
+yellow eyes, and prominent cheek-bones, red hair, and nose like an
+eagle's beak. "That woman must have been to Hugh's liking," I said to
+myself, and I began to study the costume, which was in perfect keeping
+with the energy expressed in the face, for the right hand clasped a
+sword, and the waist was encircled in a steel corselet.
+
+I know not how to describe the thoughts that succeeded one another in my
+mind as I gazed upon these three faces. My eye roamed from one to
+another with singular curiosity, and I found it impossible to terminate
+my study. Sperver, standing on the threshold of the library, gave a
+sharp whistle, seemingly to attract Knapwurst's attention, who looked
+down at him from the top of his ladder without stirring.
+
+"Is it me you are whistling to like a dog?" said the dwarf.
+
+"Aye, you imp! None else."
+
+"Listen to me, Sperver," replied the gnome with supreme disdain; "you
+cannot spit so high as my shoe; I defy you!" and he stuck out his foot.
+
+"And if I should come up there?"
+
+"I would squash you flat with this volume."
+
+Gideon laughed, and replied:
+
+"Come, come, Knapwurst! Don't get angry! I don't wish you any harm; on
+the contrary I have the greatest respect for your learning; but what the
+devil are you doing at this hour, seated over your lamp? Any one would
+think you had spent the night here."
+
+"So I have, reading!"
+
+"Aren't the days long enough for you?"
+
+"No! I am looking up an important question, and I shan't sleep till I
+have settled it."
+
+"Well, by Jove; what is this interesting question?"
+
+"It is to find out under what circumstances Ludwig of Nideck discovered
+my ancestor, Otto the Dwarf, in the forests of Thuringia. You should
+know, Sperver, that my ancestor Otto was only an arm's length high;
+that is, about two feet and a half. He delighted the world with his
+wisdom, and figured honorably in the coronation of the Emperor Rodolph.
+Count Ludwig had him enclosed in a cold roast peacock, served up with
+all its plumage. During the feast, Otto spread out the peacock's tail,
+and all the nobles, courtiers, and great ladies were astonished at this
+ingenious piece of mechanism. At last Otto emerged, sword in hand, and
+cried in a thundering voice, 'Long live the Emperor, Rodolph of
+Hapsburg!' which was repeated on all sides with shouts and rejoicings.
+Bernard Hertzog mentions this circumstance, but fails to inform us as to
+the family origin of the dwarf, whether he was of noble descent, or of
+base extraction; the latter hypothesis being highly improbable, as the
+common herd are rarely possessed of so much wit."
+
+I was amazed at the conceit of this little creature, my curiosity,
+however, leading me to dissemble my feelings; for he alone could furnish
+me with the facts concerning the two portraits that hung on the right of
+Hugh the Wolf.
+
+"Monsieur Knapwurst," I said, in a tone of profound respect, "would you
+have the kindness to enlighten me upon a certain subject?"
+
+Flattered by these words, the little fellow replied:
+
+"Speak, monsieur; if it is a question of family history, I shall be glad
+to inform you. In other subjects I take but little interest."
+
+"It is precisely that. I should like to learn something about the noble
+ladies whose pictures hang on the wall yonder."
+
+"Aha!" cried Knapwurst, his face lighting up; "you mean Elfreda and
+Huldine, the two wives of Hugh, the founder of Nideck."
+
+Laying down his volume, he descended the ladder to talk more at his
+ease. His eyes glistened, and an air of gratification at this
+opportunity of displaying his learning shone out all over him.
+
+Having reached my side, he saluted me with a grave bow. Sperver stood
+behind us, seemingly well satisfied to see me admiring the dwarf of
+Nideck. In spite of the ill luck which he averred attached to the
+presence of the pigmy, he admired and boasted of his great learning.
+
+[Illustration: "IN THE PORTRAIT GALLERY."]
+
+"Monsieur," said Knapwurst, pointing with his long, yellow hand towards
+the portraits, "Hugh of Nideck, the founder of his race, married in 832
+Elfreda of Lutzelbourg, who brought to him as dowry the counties of
+Giromani and Haut Barr, the Castles of Geroldsdeck and Teufelshorn, and
+others. Hugh had no children by his first wife, who died young in the
+year of our Lord 837. Thereupon, Hugh, now lord and master of the dowry,
+refused to yield possession of it, and there followed terrible battles
+between himself and his brothers-in-law. His second wife, Huldine, whom
+you see in the steel breastplate, aided him by her wise counsels. She
+was a woman of indomitable courage, but her origin remains a mystery.
+One thing is certain, however: she rescued her husband, who had been
+taken prisoner by Frantz of Lutzelbourg. He was to have been hanged that
+very day, and the iron bar had already been stretched across the
+battlements in preparation for the execution, when Huldine, at the head
+of a band of the Count's vassals whom she had inspired by her brave
+example, burst into the courtyard by a rear entrance, rescued Hugh, and
+had Frantz hung in his place. Hugh the Wolf married his second wife in
+842, and by her he had three children."
+
+"So," I resumed meditatively, "the first of these wives was called
+Elfreda, and the descendants of Nideck are not related to her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Are you sure of this?"
+
+"I can show you our genealogical tree. Elfreda had no children; Huldine,
+the second wife, had three."
+
+"That is very surprising!"
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"I thought I noticed a resemblance."
+
+"Ha, ha! resemblances!" exclaimed the dwarf with a harsh laugh; "wait a
+moment. Just look at this wooden snuff-box that lies beside the plaster
+greyhound! It represents my ancestor, Hanswurst. He has a nose like an
+extinguisher, and a sharp chin, while I have a flat nose and an
+agreeable mouth; and yet this does not prevent my being his
+great-great-grandson."
+
+"No, certainly not."
+
+"Well, it is the same with the Nidecks. They may have certain
+characteristics in common with Elfreda, but Huldine is the head of the
+line. Look at this genealogical tree, monsieur. Have I not informed you
+correctly?"
+
+Then we separated,--Knapwurst and I,--the best of friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+I BREAKFAST WITH ODILE.
+
+
+"Nevertheless," I said to myself, "the resemblance is there! Is it
+chance? Nonsense! What is chance, anyway, save that for which we fail to
+grasp the reason? No; there must be some other explanation of it!"
+
+Buried in these reflections, I followed my friend Sperver, who had
+resumed his walk down the corridor. The portrait of Elfreda, that pure,
+artless face, blended in my fancy with that of the young Countess.
+Suddenly Gideon stopped. I looked up; we were standing before the
+Count's room.
+
+"Go in, Gaston," he said; "I will see, meanwhile, if breakfast is ready,
+and be with you again in a minute."
+
+I entered noiselessly, and made out, in the dim light, the broad figure
+of Becker, the forester, sprawled out leisurely in his armchair beside
+the bed and drowsing over his vigil.
+
+The Count was sleeping quietly, with every indication that this
+desirable state of things would continue. Seeing no reason for remaining
+longer, I directed Becker to let me know at once if the master should
+wake, and I withdrew to the hall, where I met Sperver returning to get
+me.
+
+"The Countess is waiting for you in the dining-room. She is overjoyed at
+the news of her father. Poor woman! It has been a hard strain upon her,
+for she insists on remaining close beside the Count, and her strength
+is not equal to the task."
+
+"So it seemed to me," I replied; and I secretly regretted that I saw no
+way in which I could properly suggest to the Countess that she should
+share her watchfulness more with others.
+
+We reached the dining-room. Sperver announced me and departed.
+
+My eyes fell first upon Odile, seated at the head of the table in a
+high-backed oaken chair. She was dressed in a gown of gray stuff, simply
+fashioned, with a bodice of white velvet worked in gold. Her superb
+figure was perfectly set off by the almost severe outlines of the dress.
+
+"It is she," I thought: "Hugh's first wife. There is the noble
+forehead; there are the long lashes, the somewhat languid bearing, and
+the indescribable smile."
+
+And as I gazed, the dream of last night recurred to me in all its
+charming vividness, and I felt that, far from entering upon her world
+but a few hours since, I had known her--aye, and loved her, too!--for
+years.
+
+"Good morning, monsieur!" she said in answer to my salutation, as she
+rose and rested one hand on the chair-back. "It seems that your presence
+here has already worked a change for the better. Our good Sperver tells
+me that my father's condition is improved."
+
+"I am delighted to be able to assure you that it is so, mademoiselle. We
+must endeavor to confirm these bettered conditions."
+
+"I am so thankful!" she exclaimed. "Who knows but it was Providence that
+brought you here?" and she indicated my seat at the end of the table
+opposite her.
+
+Bowing to the housekeeper, who sat before the broad fireplace, with her
+spectacles thrust back on her forehead, plying her busy needles, her lap
+filled with knitting-work which momentarily grew as she rocked back and
+forth in time to the ticking of the tall clock, I took the seat which
+Odile designated, experiencing a sense of rare contentment as I
+reflected upon my surroundings. Decidedly, my present employment
+combined pleasure with the exactions of duty.
+
+No further mention of the Count's condition was made during the repast,
+Odile preferring apparently to confine herself to other subjects.
+
+"Sperver," she said presently, "has often spoken of you to us with much
+pride and affection. Your relationship with the old steward is a
+romantic one, is it not?"
+
+"Rather," I replied. "It began some twenty years ago with his pulling me
+out of a swamp into which I got myself, through my desire to imitate his
+custom of roaming the forest."
+
+Then, as Odile smiled and seemed to be waiting for me to continue, I
+resumed:
+
+"I distinctly remember how, one morning, I escaped the vigilance of my
+old nurse, Gideon's wife Gertrude, and arming myself with my father's
+old sabre, I sallied into the forest with a vague notion of performing
+some similar exploits to those which Gideon was never tired of telling
+me. I had not gone far when, finding the forest very dark and lonely,
+and quite unlike what I had fancied it, I began to repent of my
+resolution and to wish I was safely at home again. The sabre, too, had
+grown very heavy, and everything about the undertaking having fallen far
+short of my anticipation, I turned around and began to retrace my steps.
+Having only such knowledge of direction as a boy of eight would be
+likely to have, I soon lost my way, and in attempting to cross the swamp
+of the Losser by picking my path along the tufts of grass above its
+surface, I lost my footing and slipped into the mud. Fortunately Sperver
+happened to be passing in the neighborhood. He heard my cries, and
+promptly coming to my aid, he pulled me out and carried me to safer
+ground. Meanwhile my absence from home had been discovered, and the men
+servants had been sent in all directions to search for me. My father was
+so delighted at seeing me again, unharmed, in Sperver's arms, that he
+rewarded his ranger with a brand-new carbine and a brace of his favorite
+hounds."
+
+I laughed as I recalled this incident, and the Countess joined me in it,
+continuing after a little:
+
+"And your old home?"
+
+"It has passed into other hands. On the death of both my parents, which
+occurred within a few years, I was left entirely without resources, save
+such as I could create for myself, and it became necessary to dispose
+of the estate in order to get the means which I required to pursue my
+studies."
+
+It seemed the most natural thing in the world to be thus confiding to
+Odile my intimate affairs, though ordinarily I guarded such matters with
+jealous care; but I felt, I know not why, that her expression of
+interest was more a wish to learn the real facts of my condition than
+merely to evince a civil concern in my interests. Such feelings are
+intangible; they cannot be explained.
+
+"You are living now in Tübingen?"
+
+"Yes; after six years' study in Germany and France, I have returned to
+the scenes of earlier times to try what fortune may have in store for
+me. I feel that I never should be contented anywhere else; and I am
+better satisfied to remain here with a modest success than in the cities
+with, maybe, a more considerable one."
+
+"How well I can understand that feeling," replied the Countess musingly.
+"Long ago, when we used to visit the court each year, I remember that,
+in spite of all its gaieties and pleasures, so well calculated to charm
+young minds, I was always glad when the time came to return to the
+Castle; and that for a girl of eighteen is unusual, I think."
+
+I was silently musing upon the fair face opposite me, and the charming
+personality of my noble hostess, which piqued my curiosity and aroused
+in me a singular desire to learn more of it. The young Countess
+conducted the affairs of the table with captivating grace, and the
+ready Offenloch was ever on the watch for her slightest nod or glance.
+Truly, I felt myself under a spell no less potent than the companions of
+Ulysses of old.
+
+Rousing myself at length from these agreeable reflections, I resumed:
+
+"You too, mademoiselle, are fond of the hunt, I suppose? for the Count's
+devotion to it is proverbial."
+
+"Yes!" she replied, "when it is not a deer or fox that is being hunted.
+Somehow the wild boar claims less of my sympathy, for it is often a
+question which comes off the better, the man or the beast."
+
+The truth of this remark it was reserved for me to learn at a later
+day.
+
+"As for me, I have never had any experience in the chase, as the years
+which I might have spent so were passed in foreign cities, but some time
+I hope to give it a thorough trial."
+
+A pause succeeded, during which Odile prepared the coffee. From time to
+time I glanced at Marie, whose admiration for my person expressed the
+evening before seemed in no way to have decreased, judging from the
+senile simper which invariably appeared on her face when she caught my
+eye.
+
+"This Castle has an indescribable charm for me," I continued after a
+little; "it has such a delightfully ancient air, and its old stones seem
+so full of romance;" and my eyes wandered to the two suits of armor at
+the further end of the room, which from their shadowy corners nodded at
+each other, gaunt and sightless, in the uncertain firelight.
+
+"I am fond of it," replied Odile; "indeed, I feel that I could never be
+happy anywhere else; but at times it is lonely, nevertheless."
+
+Then I began to reflect upon the singular vow which this charming young
+creature, so eminently lovable in every trait of character and person,
+had taken, it seemed almost wantonly and in a spirit of perversity; and
+yet I was satisfied that no such explanation could be sufficient, for I
+felt instinctively that no small or trivial thought could gain
+admittance to Odile's mind.
+
+"Perhaps," I thought, "some day the wanderer will come to implant the
+magic kiss, and she, like others of her sisters, will be obliged to
+obey the inexorable laws of the little god."
+
+So I thought. It seemed to me that one might be happy here, could he
+continue forever, as I was then, in Odile's companionship, amid gay
+companies and festivals, hunting-parties and the like, which I felt
+would become immediately inaugurated, were the Count's recovery to
+become an established fact. Then my thoughts reverted once more to my
+patient, and, speculating for the fiftieth time on all that Sperver had
+told me of his master, I was recalled to a less alluring train of
+reflections, and I became grave as I realized the burden of duty which
+rested upon me.
+
+An hour passed, the breakfast was finished. I rose and took leave of the
+Countess, who inclined her head with a friendly smile. As I stepped
+into the hallway, I descried Sperver in the distance.
+
+"The Count has waked, and he wishes to see you," he said, as he reached
+me.
+
+"He is no worse?" I asked.
+
+"Apparently not; he seems quiet enough."
+
+Still engrossed with the experience of the last hour passed in the
+dining-room, I moved along with Sperver down the corridor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE COUNT UNSHEATHES HIS CLAWS.
+
+
+I entered the Count's chamber. What was my surprise to perceive in the
+half-light of the alcove, the master of Nideck raised upon his elbow and
+studying me with profound attention. I had so little anticipated such a
+reception, that I paused in surprise.
+
+"Come here, doctor," he said in a faint but steady voice, reaching out
+his hand. "My good Sperver has often spoken to me of you, and I have
+been anxious to make your acquaintance."
+
+"Let us hope, monsieur," I replied, "that it may be continued under
+more auspicious circumstances; a little patience, and all will be
+well!"
+
+"I fear not," he replied; "I feel that the end is drawing near."
+
+"You are mistaken, monsieur."
+
+"No! Nature grants us, as a last favor, a presentiment of our
+approaching end."
+
+"How often have I seen such presentiments disproved!" I returned,
+smiling.
+
+He gazed fixedly at me, as sick people are wont to do when they are in
+doubt as to their true condition. It is a trying moment for the doctor;
+upon his expression depends the moral strength of the sufferer; if the
+sick man detect the suspicion of a doubt, all is lost; dissolution
+begins, the soul prepares to quit the body, and the malady holds full
+sway. I passed firmly through the ordeal; the Count seemed reassured;
+he pressed my hand again, and released it, calmer and more confident.
+
+During the pause which followed, Odile and Marie Lagoutte entered the
+room. They must have followed close behind us. They seated themselves in
+the two chairs which occupied the embrasure of the window, and Marie
+resumed her knitting, while Odile spread open a portfolio on her lap and
+seemed to be studying it.
+
+Soon the Count's glance wandered from my face to that of his daughter,
+whom he continued to regard fixedly for a long time in silence.
+
+This somewhat oppressive quiet continued, broken only by the jarring of
+the casements, the monotone of the wind, and the sound of the snow as
+it swirled and whispered against the panes.
+
+After a half hour of this, the Count suddenly began to speak:
+
+"If my beloved child Odile would but grant my request, if she would only
+consent to let me hope that one day she would fulfil the desire of my
+heart, I believe that alone would accomplish my recovery!" I glanced
+quickly at Odile; she had closed her book, and her eyes were fastened on
+the floor. I noticed that she had become deathly pale.
+
+"Yes," continued the sick man, "I should return to life and happiness!
+The prospect of seeing myself surrounded by a new branch of our family,
+of embracing my grandchildren, and of seeing the perpetuation of our
+house ensured, would suffice to cure me."
+
+I felt moved at the mild and gentle pleading of the sufferer. The young
+woman made no reply. After a minute or two, the Count, who looked
+entreatingly at her, pursued:
+
+"Odile, you refuse to make your father happy. My God! I only ask for
+hope; I fix no time! I do not seek to control your choice! We will go to
+court, and choose from a hundred noble suitors. Who would not be proud
+to win my daughter's hand? You shall be free to decide for yourself."
+
+He paused. Nothing is more painful to a stranger than these family
+discussions. There are so many conflicting interests, deep emotions,
+and sacred feelings involved, that our innate delicacy demands that we
+hold aloof from such scenes. I was pained, and would gladly have
+withdrawn, but the circumstances did not permit of it.
+
+"Father," said Odile, as if to evade further insistence on the sick
+man's part, "you will recover. Heaven will not take you from us who love
+you so dearly. If you only knew with what loving fervor I pray for you!"
+
+"That is not answering my question," said the Count drily. "What
+objection have you to my proposal? Is it not just and natural? Must I be
+deprived of the consolations accorded the most wretched? Have I made use
+of force or trickery?"
+
+"No, father!"
+
+"Then why do you refuse me?"
+
+"My resolution is taken; I have consecrated myself to God."
+
+So much firmness in so frail a being astonished me. She stood there like
+the sculptured Madonna in Hugh's Tower,--fragile, calm, impassive.
+
+The eyes of the Count glowed with feverish brightness. I endeavored to
+prevail upon the Countess, as best I could by signs, to give him a grain
+of hope, that his growing agitation might be calmed; but she did not
+appear to see me.
+
+"So," he cried in a voice choked with emotion, "you will see your father
+perish! A single word would save his life,--a word from your lips,--and
+you will not pronounce it."
+
+"Life is not within the gift of man, but of God alone," she murmured;
+"a word from me could be of no avail."
+
+"These are nothing but pious maxims," cried the Count bitterly, "to ease
+your conscience in refusing to do your duty! Has not God commanded,
+'Honor thy father and thy mother'?"
+
+"I do honor you, my father," she replied gently; "but it is my duty not
+to marry."
+
+I could hear the Count grind his teeth. He lay for a few moments,
+apparently calm, then he suddenly sprang up.
+
+"Out of my sight!" he screamed; "your presence is hideous to me!"
+
+Then turning to me:
+
+"Doctor," he cried with a savage smile, "have you a poison about you,--a
+poison that slays with the quickness of a lightning flash? It is only
+merciful to give it to me! Ah, God! If you knew how I suffer!"
+
+His features worked convulsively; he became livid. Odile had risen and
+moved towards the door.
+
+[Illustration: "'STAY!' HE HOWLED, 'I HAVE NOT CURSED YOU YET.'"]
+
+"Stay!" he howled; "I have not cursed you yet!"
+
+Up to this point, I had restrained myself, not daring to interfere
+between the father and his child; but I could endure it no longer.
+
+"Monsieur," I exclaimed; "in the name of your own health, in the name of
+reason, calm yourself! Your life depends upon it!"
+
+"What matters my life? What matters the future? Oh, if I were only done
+with it all!"
+
+His excitement increased with every moment. I feared lest, crazed with
+passion, he might spring from the bed and destroy his own child. She,
+still calm, but with cheeks as pale as his, fell on her knees before the
+threshold. At this moment, I succeeded in getting the Count to swallow a
+few drops of laudanum. He fell back with a long sigh, and soon his
+irregular breathing gave way to deep and leaden slumber.
+
+Odile arose, and her old governess, who had remained silent throughout,
+left the room with her. Sperver and I watched them as they slowly
+withdrew. There was a calm grandeur in the step of the Countess that
+bespoke a consciousness of duty fulfilled.
+
+When she had disappeared in the shadows of the corridor, Gideon turned
+to me: "Well, Gaston," he said gravely; "what do you think of this?"
+I bowed my head without replying. The unaccountable firmness of the
+young woman dumbfounded me.
+
+"Come Gaston!" exclaimed Sperver indignantly, "let's get a breath of
+fresh air! I'm strangling here!" and he pulled me out of the chamber.
+
+"That is the happiness of high-born people!" he exclaimed, as we stepped
+into the hall. "What is the use of being master of Nideck, with its fine
+Castle, forests, and game-preserves, and all else, if your own daughter
+can blight your life,--even cause your death, perhaps, by a nod of her
+head or a mincing refusal to obey your will? It would be a thousand
+times better to come into the world the son of a humble woodcutter, and
+live in the quiet accomplishment of your labor. Come down to my den,
+and we will drink a glass and have a pipe. I know nothing better to put
+care to flight than a good stiff glass."
+
+It was then about nine o'clock. The sky, so clear at daybreak, had
+become overcast; the north wind was whirling the flakes against the
+window-panes, and I could hardly distinguish the peaks of the
+neighboring mountains. We were descending the staircase which led to the
+main courtyard, when, at a turn of the corridor, we came face to face
+with Tobias Offenloch. The worthy majordomo was puffing like a porpoise.
+
+"Hullo!" said Gideon; "where are you going in such a hurry?"
+
+"To tell the Countess that the Baron Zimmer begs the privilege of
+paying his respects to her before quitting the Castle."
+
+"Baron Zimmer?"
+
+"Yes, the stranger who came in last night at midnight."
+
+"To be sure," replied Sperver; "I was forgetting."
+
+We went along. A moment later we reached our destination. My companion
+pushed open the door and we went in.
+
+We sat down before the hearth. Gideon possessed himself of a corkscrew
+and two bottles, and soon our glasses were filled and pipes aglow. We
+were about to begin a discussion of the singular scene of a few moments
+before, when Offenloch appeared, but not alone, for to our astonishment
+we saw the Baron Zimmer and his valet following at his heels. We rose.
+The young Baron approached to greet us with uncovered head, and I
+studied with interest his handsome face, pale and haughty, with long,
+black locks falling about it. He paused before Sperver.
+
+"Monsieur," he said, with that pure Saxon accent that no dialect can
+imitate, "I come to ask you about the country hereabouts. Mademoiselle
+the Countess of Nideck assures me that no one can inform me as well as
+yourself in regard to the passes of the Wald Horn."
+
+"I believe that is true, monsieur," replied Sperver with a low bow; "and
+I am entirely at your service."
+
+"Imperative reasons compel me to set out in the midst of this storm,"
+resumed the Baron, pointing to the eddying flakes outside; "I must
+reach the Wald Horn, six leagues from here, before nightfall."
+
+"That will be a difficult matter, monsieur, for all the roads are
+blocked with snow."
+
+"I know it, but it must be done."
+
+"A guide will be indispensable in that case. I will go with you if you
+like, monsieur, or Sebalt Kraft, the master of the hounds; he knows
+every inch of the mountain from Unterwalden to the Hunsdruck."
+
+"Thank you for your obliging offer; I appreciate it most fully, but I
+cannot accept it; your instructions will be sufficient."
+
+Sperver bowed again, and going over to a window, threw it wide open. A
+quick gust of wind whirled the snow clear across the room and closed the
+door with a crash. I remained standing with one hand resting on the back
+of my chair; Tobias took refuge from the cold draught in a corner of the
+chamber. The Baron and his servant approached the window.
+
+[Illustration: "YONDER YOU SEE THE PEAK OF THE ALTENBERG.'"]
+
+"Messieurs," said Sperver, trying to make himself heard above the noise
+of the storm, and pointing towards the horizon, "this is the lay of the
+country. If the day were clear, I would take you up to the signal-tower,
+where we could see the whole of the Black Forest, until it becomes lost
+to view in the distance; but as it is, I will do my best from here.
+Yonder you see the peak of the Altenberg, and further off, in the same
+line, just back of that white ridge, the Wald Horn, swept by the
+tempest. You must go straight towards the Wald Horn. There, if the snow
+permits, you will see from the top of the mitre-shaped rock that is
+called the Roche Fendue, three peaks: the Behrenkopf, the Geierstein,
+and the Triefels. It is by the last one, the furthest to the right, that
+you must make your way. A torrent divides the valley of the Rhethal, but
+it must be frozen over now. However, if it is impossible to proceed
+further, you will find on your left, as you climb the summit, a cavern
+half-way to the top, known as the Roche Creuse. You can pass the night
+there, and to-morrow, in all probability, when the wind has fallen, you
+will see the Wald Horn."
+
+"Many thanks for your kindness."
+
+"If you are fortunate enough to meet with a charcoal burner," continued
+Sperver, "he may be able to show you where the torrent can be forded,
+but I doubt if there is any such place at this season. Have a special
+care to keep around the base of the Behrenkopf, for if you get much to
+either side of it, the descent is impossible; there are precipices
+everywhere."
+
+During these observations, I was watching Sperver, whose clear, ready
+speech accentuated each sentence with great precision, and I glanced
+occasionally at the Baron, who was listening with singular attention. No
+obstacle seemed to daunt him. His old servant appeared no less resolute
+than he.
+
+Just as they were leaving the window, a ray of light broke through the
+clouds as the tempest seized the masses of snow and whirled them for an
+instant back upon each other like a floating drapery, and during this
+instant the three peaks behind the Altenberg were disclosed to view,
+serving to illustrate the details which Sperver had just given. Then the
+blizzard once more closed in.
+
+"Good!" said the Baron; "I have seen my destination, and thanks to your
+instructions, I hope to reach it."
+
+Sperver bowed without replying, and the young man and his servant,
+together with Offenloch, having saluted us, silently withdrew.
+
+Gideon closed the window, and addressing himself to me: "The Old Nick
+must possess a man," he said, laughing, "to set out in such weather! I
+shouldn't have the heart to turn a wolf outdoors. I believe I have seen
+the young man's face before, and the old one's, too, if I could only
+think where. Let us drink! Your health, Gaston!"
+
+I had gone over to the window, and as the Baron Zimmer and his servant
+climbed into their saddles in the middle of the courtyard, I saw, in
+spite of the snow that filled the air, a curtain slightly raised in the
+tower opposite, and the pale face of the Countess appear, glancing long
+and furtively at the young man.
+
+"Ha, Gaston, what are you doing?" cried Sperver.
+
+"Nothing. I am only looking at the strangers' horses."
+
+"Oh, yes, the Wallachians! I saw them in the stable this morning. They
+are fine creatures."
+
+The horsemen departed at full speed. The curtain in the tower window
+dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MARIE LAGOUTTE RELATES HER EXPERIENCE.
+
+
+When I again saw Odile her expression was one of complete wretchedness;
+her swollen eyes told me that she had been weeping long, and her extreme
+pallor and weariness cut me to the heart.
+
+"My dear mademoiselle," I said to her, with forced cheerfulness, "we
+must not be despondent. The turning-point of the malady must soon
+arrive, and this crisis safely passed, we may expect to see the Count in
+as good health as before."
+
+She looked at me with an expression of gratitude for my wish to console
+her, but underlying it, I felt there was a quiet conviction to the
+contrary, and I realized the weakness of my position when I reflected
+that she might very probably be possessed of facts, unknown to me, which
+entirely disproved my words.
+
+"At all events," she replied, after a pause of some moments, "it is
+grateful to know that there is some one who shares our anxieties and has
+the desire really at heart to mitigate them."
+
+"You speak truly, mademoiselle," I returned. "I desire nothing so much
+as to see peace and contentment restored to this house, and I only wish
+that I possessed a thousandfold more power to accomplish it than I do.
+But whatever my skill is, it shall be devoted to this one end; and I
+shall not despair of success until all my efforts have proved
+unavailing."
+
+I was surprised at my own warmth a moment after; but Odile's glance
+satisfied me that I had not transgressed the limits of that reserve with
+which she surrounded herself.
+
+"And furthermore," I continued, encouraged by this fact to speak what I
+had for some time meditated, "if I might add the advice of a friend to
+that of the doctor, I should beg of you to spare yourself as much as
+possible in the matter of night watches and too unremitting a care of
+the Count, for a true woman's strength is exhausted long before her
+will, and you owe it to your friends as well as to yourself to preserve
+the life which God has entrusted to you."
+
+Odile lowered her eyes, then raised them; and as I approached and lifted
+to my lips the hand which she gave me, I surprised there a look which
+opened up to me a world of speculation.
+
+I returned to my chamber, where I found an hour none too long to calm in
+a measure the exuberance of feeling to which my moments with Odile
+invariably gave rise.
+
+Inclination made me quite as much concerned to spare Odile the suffering
+which her father's revolting harshness in his moments of delirium caused
+her, as to restore the Count to health, for after the morning's
+experience I felt that my pity for the sick man had, in spite of
+myself, largely given place to loathing; and I felt too, with Sperver,
+that I could throttle him as he continued to heap injuries upon his
+daughter's defenceless head.
+
+However, there was but one way to alter the present condition of things
+and to establish a better one; namely, to effect the Count's cure, and I
+resolved that the best effort of my life should be expended here.
+Meanwhile I knew not where to begin. Medicines used otherwise than as
+opiates seemed lacking in the smallest efficacy. I saw nothing for it
+but to await developments.
+
+To remonstrate with Odile in the matter of the vow which she had taken
+was clearly out of the question, though I was curious to see if any
+yielding on her part would effect the change in her father's condition
+which he averred it would.
+
+And the reason of her absolute refusal to entertain even the thought of
+marriage? What could it be? She was not without feeling, a fact
+sufficiently demonstrated by her unswerving devotion to the Count. Nor
+did it seem to me that she could regard with disdain the fulfilment of
+that position which is the noblest aim and achievement of womankind, and
+which she was so eminently fitted by every circumstance of fortune to
+occupy and adorn. It could not be that there was any lack of
+understanding; for at times, when I surprised her glance resting upon
+me, I read in it a depth of sensibility that seemed almost
+unfathomable; and that its possessor was all kindness, in the strongest
+and best sense of the term, I was convinced. Of the answer to this
+riddle, it seemed then, I must forever remain in ignorance; but while
+any chance remained to solve it, I was determined to do so at all costs.
+
+Meanwhile the Count's illness continued its course. All that Sperver had
+told me verified itself. Sometimes the Count, starting up and leaning on
+his elbow with outstretched neck and staring eyes, would mutter, "She is
+coming! She is coming!" Then Gideon would shake his head and climb the
+signal-tower; but in vain did he look to right and left: the Black
+Plague was nowhere to be seen.
+
+After long reflection upon this strange malady, I had finally persuaded
+myself that the Count was deranged. The singular influence which the old
+creature exerted upon his mind, his alternate periods of delirium and
+calm, all served to strengthen me in this opinion. "Unknown chains unite
+his fate with that of the Black Plague," I said to myself. "That woman
+may have been young and beautiful in the past; who knows?" and my
+imagination, once launched in this direction, soon built up a romance;
+but I was careful to mention nothing of my thoughts,--Sperver would
+never have forgiven me for entertaining suspicions of a relationship
+between his master and the hag.
+
+During these anxious days, the one bright thing in my life was Odile's
+presence. Had it not been for this, I doubt if I should longer have
+preserved any degree of hope.
+
+I know not if I myself quite realized the extent of my growing affection
+for Odile, but certain it is that with each day her image became more
+and more identified with all that I held dearest in the world, and as I
+moved about the old Castle halls and chambers, the library, the
+drawing-room, the chapel, her fair figure and light step accompanied me
+in fancy, and I likened her to the delicate, fragrant rose, which in
+summer blossomed and waved from the rough interstices of the Castle's
+battlements.
+
+Things were in this pass when one morning, at about eight o'clock, I was
+walking up and down in Hugh's Tower thinking of the Count's malady, the
+outcome of which I could foresee no more clearly than before, and
+cudgelling my wits to determine what was next to be done. Suddenly I was
+roused from these cheerless reflections by three discreet taps on my
+door.
+
+"Come in!"
+
+The door opened, and Marie Lagoutte entered, dropping a low courtesy.
+The worthy woman's arrival annoyed me a good deal; I was on the point of
+asking her to leave me for the present, when an expression of unusual
+seriousness on her face aroused my curiosity. She had thrown a large
+red-and-green shawl over her shoulders, and stood with her lips pursed
+up and her eyes on the floor. It surprised me not a little to see her,
+after a moment, approach the door and open it again, apparently to make
+sure that no one had followed her.
+
+"What does she want of me?" I asked myself. "What do all these
+precautions mean?" I was puzzled.
+
+"Monsieur," she said at length, drawing nearer me, "I beg your pardon
+for disturbing you so early in the morning, but I have something
+important to tell you."
+
+"Pray go on! What is it about?"
+
+"It is about the Count."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur; you probably know that I sat up with him last night."
+
+"I know you did. Pray sit down!"
+
+She seated herself in a chair opposite me, a big, leather-covered
+armchair, and I remarked with interest the energetic character of the
+face which had seemed to me only grotesque on the evening of my arrival
+at the Castle.
+
+"Monsieur," she went on after a brief pause, fixing her dark eyes on me,
+"I must tell you first of all that I am not a timid woman. I have seen
+many things in my life,--things so terrible that nothing astonishes me
+any more. When any one has passed through Rossbach, Leuthen, and
+Zorndorf, he has left fear behind him on the road."
+
+"You speak truly, madame!"
+
+"I don't tell you this from a desire to boast, but only to convince you
+that I don't lose my wits at nothing, and that you may depend upon what
+I say when I tell you I have seen something."
+
+"What the deuce can she have to tell me?" I said to myself.
+
+"Well!" she continued; "last night, between nine and ten, just as I was
+starting up to bed, Offenloch came in and said to me:
+
+"'Marie, you must sit up with the Count to-night.'
+
+"I was surprised at this, and replied:
+
+"'What! sit up with the Count! Isn't madame going to sit up with him
+herself?'
+
+"'No; our mistress is ill, and you must take her place.'
+
+"Ill, poor child! I was sure it would end that way, and I told her so a
+hundred times; but what can you do, monsieur? Young people never have
+any thought for the future,--and then, it was her own father, too. So I
+took my knitting, said good night to Toby, and went to the master's
+room. Sperver, who was waiting for me, went off to bed as soon as I
+came in, and I was left all alone."
+
+Here the good woman paused, slowly breathed up a pinch of snuff, and
+seemed to be brushing up her memory. I had become attentive.
+
+"At about half past ten," she continued, "I was knitting away beside the
+bed, and every now and then I raised the curtain to see how the Count
+was doing; he never stirred; he was sleeping like a child. All went well
+up to eleven o'clock; then I began to feel tired; when you are old,
+monsieur, do what you will, you fall asleep in spite of yourself; and
+then, too, I didn't think anything was going to happen. I said to
+myself, 'He will sleep like a top till morning!'
+
+"Towards midnight the wind died down, and the big windows that had been
+rattling all the evening were quiet. I got up to see if anything was
+going on outside. The night was as black as a bottle of ink, and I went
+back to my armchair. I took another look at the sick man and I saw that
+he hadn't stirred; then I went on knitting. After a few minutes, I fell
+slowly, slowly to sleep. My chair was as soft as down and the room was
+very warm; I couldn't keep awake.
+
+"I had been asleep about an hour, when a draught of cold air woke me. I
+opened my eyes, and what did I see? The long, middle window was wide
+open, the curtains were drawn, and the Count was standing upright on the
+window-sill!"
+
+"The Count?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Impossible! He cannot move!"
+
+"I couldn't believe my eyes; but, nevertheless, I saw him as plainly as
+I see you this minute. He held a torch in his hand, and the air was so
+still that its flame never wavered."
+
+I stared at Marie Lagoutte, stupefied.
+
+"At first," she went on, "when I saw the master in this extraordinary
+position, it made such an effect on me that I wanted to scream; but then
+I thought, 'Perhaps he is walking in his sleep; if you cry out and wake
+him he will fall and be dashed to pieces.' So I kept still and watched
+him, as you can fancy. He raised his torch slowly, and then he lowered
+it, and he did this three times, like a man making signals to some one;
+then he threw it down on to the ramparts, closed the window, and drew
+the curtains; he passed before me without appearing to see me, and got
+into bed again muttering Heaven knows what."
+
+"Are you certain you saw all this, madame?"
+
+"Perfectly!"
+
+"It is strange!"
+
+"Yes, I know it, but it is true! Goodness, how astonished I was for a
+moment! Then, when I saw him go back to bed again and cross his hands
+over his breast as if nothing had happened, I said to myself, 'Marie
+Anne, you have had a bad dream; that is the only explanation of it!' and
+I went over to the window. But the torch was still burning; it had
+fallen into a bush a little to the left of the third gate, and you
+could see it glowing like a spark. There was no denying it!"
+
+Marie Lagoutte looked at me for some minutes without speaking.
+
+"You can imagine, monsieur, that there was no more sleep for me that
+night. I was on tenter-hooks; every moment I thought I heard something
+behind my chair. I wasn't afraid, but I was uneasy; it worried me. This
+morning, at the first signs of day, I ran to wake up Offenloch, and I
+sent him to the Count's bedside. As I went along the corridor I noticed
+that the first torch on the right was missing from its ring. I went down
+the stairs, and I found it in the little path that leads to the Black
+Forest. See! here it is!"
+
+And she took from under her apron the end of a torch, which she laid on
+the table. I was thunderstruck. How could this man, whom but the night
+before I had seen so weak and exhausted, have risen from his bed, walked
+to the window, and opened and closed the heavy sash? What did this
+midnight signal mean? Wide awake as I was, it seemed to me as if I, too,
+had witnessed the strange scene, and my thoughts reverted involuntarily
+to the Black Plague. I roused myself at last from introspection, and I
+saw Marie Lagoutte had risen and was about to depart.
+
+"Madame," I said, as I moved with her to the door, "you have acted
+wisely in telling me this, and I thank you heartily for doing so. You
+have told no one else of this adventure?"
+
+"No one, monsieur. Such things are only to be confided to the priest
+and doctor."
+
+"Ah! I see you are a very sensible person."
+
+These words were exchanged on my threshold. At this moment, Sperver
+appeared at the end of the gallery, followed by his friend Sebalt.
+
+"Ho, Gaston!" he cried, hurrying up; "I have news for you!"
+
+"Well, well!" I exclaimed; "more news. The Old Harry is most certainly
+taking a hand in our affairs."
+
+Marie Lagoutte had disappeared. The steward and his comrade entered the
+Tower.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SEBALT TRACKS THE PLAGUE.
+
+
+Sperver's face wore a look of supreme indignation; Sebalt's one of
+bitter irony. The master of the hounds, whose melancholy appearance had
+struck me during my first days at Nideck, was as thin as a rail; he wore
+a leather jacket fastened at the waist by a belt, from which hung a
+hunting-knife with a bone handle; long leather gaiters reached above his
+knees, and his horn hung at his elbow from a shoulder belt that went
+from right to left across his chest. On his head was a broad-brimmed hat
+with a heron's plume in the band, and his profile, terminating in a
+yellowish beard, suggested that of a goat.
+
+"Yes," continued Sperver; "I have some news for you!"
+
+He threw himself into a chair, burying his face in his hands, while
+Sebalt quietly drew his trumpet over his head and laid it on the table.
+
+"Come, Sebalt," cried Gideon, "speak out!"
+
+"The witch is roaming about the Castle."
+
+This information would have failed to interest me had it not been for
+the interview with Marie Lagoutte; but now it made a deep impression
+upon me. There was some mysterious connection between the Lord of Nideck
+and this horrid creature, the nature of which was an enigma to me. I
+felt that I must solve it at all costs.
+
+"One moment, gentlemen! one moment!" I said to Sperver and his comrade;
+"first of all, I want to know where this Black Plague comes from."
+
+Sperver stared at me in astonishment.
+
+"Heaven only knows!" he cried.
+
+"At precisely what time does she come within sight of Nideck?"
+
+"I told you before! Just a week before Christmas every year."
+
+"And she stays?"
+
+"From a fortnight to three weeks."
+
+"Is she ever seen except at that time, either going or coming?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then we shall have to catch her!" I exclaimed. "This is not natural!
+We must find out what she wants, who she is, and where she comes from."
+
+"Catch her!" said the master of the hounds, with an odd smile. "Catch
+her, indeed!" and he shook his head meaningly.
+
+"My dear Gaston," began Sperver, "your suggestion is all well enough,
+but it is easier said than done. If I could send a bullet after her,
+that would be another matter, for I can always come within gunshot of
+her, but this the Count forbids; and as to taking her otherwise, you
+might as well try to catch a squirrel by the tail. Listen to Sebalt's
+story, and you shall see for yourself."
+
+The person thus addressed, sitting on the end of the table with his legs
+crossed, looked at me and began:
+
+"This morning, as I was coming down the Altenberg, I followed the hollow
+Nideck road. The snow was on a level with its edges. I was going along,
+thinking of nothing in particular, when a foot-track caught my eye; it
+was deep, and went straight across the path; the creature had come down
+one side of the bank and gone up on the other. It wasn't a hare's foot,
+for that makes hardly any mark in the snow; nor the cloven hoof of the
+wild boar, nor a wolf's paw either; it was a deep hole. I stopped and
+brushed away the snow that was collecting round it. It was the Black
+Plague's track!"
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"How do I know it? I know the old hag's footprint better than her
+figure, for I always go along with my eyes on the ground. I can
+recognize any one in the country around by his foot-tracks, and a child
+couldn't have mistaken this one."
+
+"What was there about it so very different from any other?"
+
+"It is no larger than your hand; it is finely shaped, the heel a trifle
+long, the outline clean, and the great toe lies close to the others, as
+if they were pressed into a slipper. It is a beautiful foot. Twenty
+years ago, monsieur, I should have fallen in love with such a foot!
+Every time I come across one like it, it makes a great impression on me.
+Heavens! how can such a foot belong to the Black Plague?" And the good
+fellow fixed his eyes on the floor with a dismal air.
+
+"Well, Sebalt, go on!" said Sperver impatiently.
+
+"To be sure! Well, I recognized the track, and I set out to follow it. I
+was in hopes of catching the witch in her den, but you shall hear what a
+dance she led me. I climbed up the roadside, only two gunshots from
+Nideck, and struck off into the bushes, keeping the trail always on my
+right; it ran along the edge of the Rhethal. Suddenly it jumped over the
+ditch into the woods. I kept on, but happening to glance a little to the
+left of it, I discovered another track that had been following the Black
+Plague's. I stopped; 'Could it be Sperver's? or Kasper Trumpf's? or any
+of the other people's?' I asked myself. I stooped over and examined it
+closely, and you can fancy my surprise when I saw that it belonged to
+nobody in this part of the country. I know every footprint from here to
+Tübingen, and it was none of these. The owner must have come from a
+distance. The boot--for it was a kind of soft, well-made boot, with a
+spur that left a little rowelled line in the snow behind it--instead of
+being rounded at the end, was square; the sole, thin and without nails,
+bent at every step. The pace was short and hurried, like that of a man
+from twenty to twenty-five. I noticed the stitches in the leather at
+this glance, and I have never seen finer."
+
+"Who could it have been?"
+
+Sperver shrugged his shoulders and remained silent.
+
+"Who can have any object in following the old woman?" I asked, turning
+to Sperver.
+
+"The devil himself, perhaps," he replied.
+
+We sat for some minutes, each one busied with his own reflections.
+
+"I started on again," pursued Sebalt finally; "the tracks led up the
+mountain side amongst the fir-trees, and then turned off around the base
+of the Roche Fendue. When I saw this, I said to myself, 'Ah! you old
+hag! If there was much game of your sort, the sport of hunting would go
+to the dogs. It would be better to work as a galley slave!' We came--the
+two tracks and I--to the top of the Schneeberg. The wind had swept here
+and the snow was up to my waist, but I must get on! I reached the banks
+of the Steinbach torrent and there the Black Plague's foot-prints
+ceased. I stopped, and saw that after having tried up and down, the
+gentleman's boots had taken the direction of the Tiefenbach. This was a
+bad sign. I looked at the opposite bank, but there was no sign of a
+track there. The witch had waded either up or down the stream, to break
+the scent. Where should I go? To right or left? In my uncertainty, by
+Jove, I came back to Nideck."
+
+"You have forgotten to tell the doctor about her breakfast."
+
+"To be sure, monsieur! At the foot of the Roche Fendue, I saw she had
+lighted a fire; the snow was black around it; and I laid my hand on the
+spot, thinking that if it were still warm the Plague could not be far
+away, but it was as cold as ice. I noticed a snare in the bushes close
+by."
+
+"A snare?"
+
+"Yes; it seems the old creature knows how to manage traps. A hare had
+been caught in it; the impression of his body was still there where he
+had lain stretched out. The witch had lighted the fire to cook him; she
+knows a thing or two, you see!"
+
+"Just to think," cried Sperver angrily, "that this old wretch should
+find meat to feed on, when so many honest people of our villages are
+starving for the want of a bit of bread! It infuriates me! If I only had
+her in my clutches--!"
+
+He had no time to finish his sentence. The next moment, we were staring
+into each other's ashy faces, speechless and immovable. A howl--the howl
+of a wolf on a bitter winter's night--a cry that you must have heard to
+comprehend in the least, the agonized plaint of the savage beast,--was
+echoing through the Castle, and seemed not far from us. It rose from
+below, so fearfully distinct that we fancied the wild animal just
+outside our door.
+
+We often hear quoted, as the most terrible of sounds, the roar of the
+lion, as he rends the silence of approaching night in the immensity of
+the desert. But if the parched and burning sands of Africa have their
+voice, like the sound of the autumn tempest growling among the crags of
+the forest, so, too, have the vast, snowy plains of the North their
+characteristic cry, that accords so well with the dreary winter
+landscape, where all is sleeping, and not even a dead leaf rustles to
+disturb the perfect stillness; and this cry,--it is the howl of the
+wolf!
+
+Rousing himself with difficulty, Sperver sprang from his chair, rushed
+to the window, and stared down at the foot of the Tower.
+
+"Can a wolf have fallen into the moat?" he cried.
+
+But the howls came from within the Castle. Then turning to us:
+
+"Gaston! Sebalt!" he cried, "come on!"
+
+We flew down the stairs four steps at a time, and rushed into the
+armory. Sperver drew his hunting-knife, and Sebalt followed his example;
+they preceded me along the gallery. The cries were guiding us towards
+the chamber of the sick man. Sperver spoke no more, and hurried his
+steps. I felt a shudder pass over me; something forewarned us that an
+abominable scene was about to transpire before our eyes.
+
+As we approached the Count's apartment, we found the whole household
+afoot--hunters, kennel-keepers, and scullions, running this way and
+that, and asking each other, "What is the matter? where are the cries
+coming from?" Without waiting for anything, we dashed into the corridor
+which led to the Count's chamber, and in the vestibule we encountered
+the good Marie Lagoutte, who alone had had the courage to proceed there
+before us. She was holding in her arms the young Countess, who had
+fainted, and was hurrying her away as rapidly as she could. So agitated
+was I at this pathetic sight that for the moment I forgot the Count, and
+I sprang forward to Odile's aid; but Marie Lagoutte begged me to hurry
+to the Count, as her mistress was only in a faint and would soon revive,
+when she would be terribly distressed if I were not at her father's
+bedside. Realizing that in spite of my preferences my first duty was to
+my patient, I reluctantly quitted them, and hastened to overtake my
+companions.
+
+We reached the Count's room. The howls were coming from within.
+
+[Illustration: "THEN HE WOULD RESUME HIS FRIGHTFUL CRIES."]
+
+We stared at one another, trying in vain to explain the presence of such
+a guest. Our ideas were in utter confusion. Sperver threw open the door,
+and with his hunting-knife tightly grasped, started to enter the room;
+but he paused on the threshold, motionless as a stone. I glanced over
+his shoulder, and the sight that presented itself to my gaze froze
+the blood in my veins. The Count of Nideck, crouching on all-fours on
+the bed, his head bent forward and his eyes glowing fiercely, was
+uttering these terrible howls. He was the wolf! That low forehead, that
+long, pointed face, that bristling beard, that long, thin body, and
+those wasted limbs,--the expression, the cry, the attitude,--all bespoke
+the savage beast beneath a human mask. At times he would stop for a
+second to listen, and the tall curtains of the bed would tremble like
+leaves. Then he would resume his frightful cries.
+
+Sperver, Sebalt, and I stood nailed to the floor; we held our breath.
+Suddenly the Count stopped; like the hunted animal that sniffs the
+breeze, he raised his head and listened. Far, far away beneath the
+lofty arches of the snow-clad pines, a cry was heard; feeble at first,
+it seemed to grow louder as it was prolonged, and soon it rose clear and
+strong above the roaring of the storm. It was the she-wolf answering its
+mate.
+
+Sperver, turning towards me with livid face, his arm pointing to the
+mountain, cried:
+
+"Listen, it is the witch!"
+
+The Count, motionless, with raised head and extended neck, his mouth
+wide open, and eyeballs glowing like coals, seemed to understand the
+meaning of the distant voice, lost in the midst of the deserted gorges
+of the Black Forest, and a certain savage joy gleamed in his face. At
+this moment Sperver cried in a broken voice:
+
+"Count of Nideck! What are you doing?"
+
+The Count fell backwards as if thunderstruck. We rushed into the room to
+his assistance. The third attack had begun, and it was terrible to
+witness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE PLAGUE IN MY CHAMBER.--THE MIDNIGHT SCENE ON THE ALTENBERG.
+
+
+The Count of Nideck was in a dying condition. All that art might
+accomplish I had tried without avail, and at that moment, when life and
+death were struggling for the mastery, I was compelled to stand idly by
+and watch the sands of Time's hour-glass run out. Towards midnight, the
+Count seemed almost gone; his pulse beat feebly, and at times seemed to
+stop. Sometimes I thought the end was but the question of a few moments.
+At length, worn out with exhaustion and anxiety, I bid the weeping
+Sperver remain with his master while I repaired to the Tower to snatch
+a few moments' sleep.
+
+A bright fire was burning in my chamber. I threw myself on the bed
+without removing my clothes, and soon fell into a heavy, troubled
+slumber. I slept thus, with my face turned towards the fire, whose rays
+danced upon the polished flagstones. After an hour, the fire suddenly
+started up, and as it often happens, the flame, rising and falling
+momentarily, beat upon the walls its great red wings and tired my
+eyelids. Lost in a vague slumber, I half opened my eyes to see whence
+came these alternate lights and shadows, when I was brought wide awake
+by an appalling sight.
+
+[Illustration: "I RAISED MYSELF ON MY ELBOW AND STARED FEARFULLY IN THE
+DIRECTION."]
+
+At the further end of the hearth, hardly revealed by the light of a few
+glowing embers, a dark profile was dimly visible,--the profile of the
+Black Plague. At first, I thought it an hallucination, the natural
+offspring of my feverish thoughts. I raised myself on my elbow, and
+stared fearfully in the direction, real or fancied, of the image. It was
+she indeed! Calm and motionless she sat, her hands clasped about her
+knees, just as I had seen her in the snow, with her long, thin neck,
+sharp, hooked nose, and thin lips tightly closed,--and she was warming
+herself before the fire.
+
+I was horrified. How could the creature have got into my room? How could
+she have climbed the Tower, beneath which precipices yawned on every
+side? Everything that Sperver had told me concerning her mysterious
+power seemed no whit exaggerated. The vision of Lieverlé growling
+against the wall passed before me like a flash. I huddled close in the
+alcove, hardly daring to breathe, and watching this immovable silhouette
+as a mouse watches a cat from the bottom of its hole. The old woman
+stirred no more than the chimney-breast cut in the solid rock, and her
+lips moved as she mumbled inarticulate words.
+
+My heart beat painfully fast, and my fear increased from moment to
+moment, as I gazed on the motionless figure amid the perfect silence.
+This lasted perhaps a quarter of an hour, when the fire catching a pine
+splinter, the flame leaped up and a few rays penetrated to the end of
+the room. This flash sufficed to show me the aged woman dressed in an
+old gown of purple brocade that shimmered violet and red in different
+lights, with a heavy bracelet on her left wrist and a gold arrow stuck
+through her thick, gray hair, which was coiled up on the back of her
+head. It was like an apparition of past ages.
+
+Still, the Plague could have no hostile designs upon me, or she would
+have profited by my slumber to execute them. This thought was beginning
+to reassure me, when she suddenly got up and moved slowly towards my
+bed, holding in her hand a torch which she had just lighted at the fire.
+I now observed that her eyes were fixed and haggard. I made an effort to
+rise and cry out, but not a muscle of my body would obey my will, not a
+sound passed my lips, and the old witch, bending over me between the
+parted curtains, fixed her eyes on me with a strange smile. I tried to
+spring upon her and cry for help, but her glance paralyzed me as the
+snake's look charms the tiny bird. During this dumb contemplation, each
+second seemed to me an eternity. What was she about to do? I was
+prepared for anything. Suddenly she turned her head, listened, and then
+crossing the room with a rapid step, she opened the door. At last I had
+recovered a little courage; an effort of the will brought me to my feet,
+as if acted upon by an invisible spring, and I followed on the heels of
+the old woman, who with one hand was holding her torch above her head,
+and with the other kept the hall-door wide open.
+
+I was about to seize her by the hair when, at the end of the long
+gallery, beneath the oval archway that opened upon the ramparts, I
+saw--the Count of Nideck! The Count of Nideck, whom I thought dying,
+clad in a huge wolf-skin, with its upper jaw projecting like a visor
+over his eyebrows, the claws resting on his shoulders, and the tail
+dragging behind him over the flagstones. He wore heavy boots, a silver
+clasp fastened the wolf-skin at his throat, and his expression, except
+for the dull, icy look in his eyes, bespoke the strong man born to
+command,--the master.
+
+In the presence of such a personage my ideas became vague and confused.
+Flight was impossible. I had presence of mind enough left, however, to
+throw myself into an embrasure of the window.
+
+The Count entered the chamber and fixed upon the old woman a rigid
+stare. They held a whispered conversation, of which I was able to hear
+nothing, but their gestures were full of meaning. The old hag pointed to
+the bed. They moved to the fireplace on tiptoe, and there in the shadow
+of the triforium the Black Plague unrolled a large bundle, grinning
+hideously meanwhile. Hardly had the Count caught sight of the sack,
+before he sprang to the bedside and disappeared between the curtains,
+which stirred in a strange fashion. I could only see one leg still
+resting on the floor, and the wolf's tail moving back and forth. They
+seemed to be enacting a mock murder scene.
+
+Nothing could have been more horrible than this mute representation of
+such an act. The old creature approached the bed in turn, and spread out
+her sack on the floor beside it. The curtains still moved, and their
+shadows danced upon the walls. Then a great movement succeeded. The old
+creature and the Count together crowded the bed clothes into the sack,
+stamping them down with the haste of a dog scratching a hole in the
+earth, and the Lord of Nideck, throwing the shapeless bundle over his
+shoulder, started for the door. A sheet dragged behind him, and the old
+woman followed him with her torch. They crossed the court.
+
+My knees trembled and almost refused to support my weight; a prayer rose
+involuntarily to my lips. Two minutes had not passed before I was on
+their footsteps, dragged along by a subtle, irresistible curiosity. I
+crossed the court at a run, and was about to enter the Gothic Tower,
+when I perceived a deep, narrow pit at my feet, and into its depths
+wound a staircase, down which I saw the hag's torch turning, turning
+about the stone baluster like a firefly, until it became lost in the
+distance.
+
+I descended in turn the first steps of the staircase, guiding my course
+by the distant glimmer, when it suddenly disappeared. The old woman and
+the Count had reached the bottom of the precipice. Soon the steps
+ceased. I looked around me and discovered on my left hand a ray of
+moonlight that found its way into the pit through a low door, across
+the nettles and brambles laden with hoar-frost. I put aside these
+bushes, clearing away the snow with my feet, and found myself at the
+foot of Hugh's donjon-tower. Who would have supposed that such a hole
+led up to the Castle? Who had shown it to the old woman? I did not stop
+to answer these questions. The vast plain lay before me, flooded with a
+light almost equal to that of day. To the right stretched the dark
+extent of the Black Forest, with its perpendicular rocks, its gorges and
+ravines. The night air was still and bitter cold; I felt exalted by the
+keen atmosphere. My first glance was to discover the direction which the
+old woman and the Count had taken. Their tall, dark forms were moving
+slowly up the mountain side some two hundred paces in advance of me,
+and stood out against the background of the heavens studded with
+innumerable stars. I came close up to them at the bottom of the next
+ravine. The Count moved slowly on, the winding-sheet still dragging
+behind him. His attitude and movements, like those of his companion,
+were automatic in their precision.
+
+On they went, some twenty paces before me, following the hollow road to
+the Altenberg, now in the shadow, now in the full light, for the moon
+was shining with surprising brilliancy. A few clouds followed her, and
+seemed as if stretching out their great arms to seize her; but she
+evaded them, and her rays, cold as a blade of steel, cut me to the
+heart.
+
+I would gladly have turned back, but an invisible power impelled me to
+follow this funeral procession. Even to this hour, I still see in fancy
+the path that winds beneath the colonnades of the Black Forest. I hear
+the snow crunching beneath my step, and the fallen leaves rustling in
+the gently stirring north wind. I still see myself following those two
+silent figures, and I try in vain to explain to myself the mysterious
+impulse which caused me to dog their footsteps.
+
+At last we reached the forest and proceeded amongst the naked beeches,
+the dark shadows of whose higher boughs intersected the lower branches
+and traced their outlines on the snow-covered path. Sometimes I fancied
+I heard some one behind me; I would turn quickly around, but could see
+nothing.
+
+We gained at length the line of crags on the summit of the Altenberg,
+behind which the torrent of the Schneeberg rushes earlier in the year,
+but now there was only a mere thread of water slowly trickling beneath
+its thick covering of ice. The vast solitude no longer had its murmurs,
+its warblings, and its thunder; its oppressive stillness inspired fear.
+The Count and the old woman found a gap in the rocks, up which they
+mounted quickly and apparently without effort, while I was obliged to
+scramble up, clinging to the bushes in order to follow them.
+
+Scarcely had I reached the top of the rock which forms a corner of the
+precipice, when I found myself within three yards of them, and before
+me I saw a bottomless abyss. On the left hung the falls of the
+Schneeberg in sheets of ice. This resemblance to a wave leaping into the
+precipice, and bearing with it the neighboring trees, sucking up the
+underbrush and cleaving the ivys that follow on its crest without
+becoming uprooted; this appearance of mighty movement in the
+immovableness of death, and those two silent forms proceeding with their
+sinister work, all inspired me with indescribable terror. Nature herself
+seemed to share in my feelings.
+
+The Count had laid down his burden; the old woman and he swung it for a
+moment above the precipice, then the long shroud floated over the edge,
+and the actors in this awful drama bent over to watch it as it fell.
+The long, white sheet, swelling upwards as it met the rising breath of
+the chasm, and then falling slowly and disappearing from sight, still
+floats before my eyes. I see it sinking like the swan shot far up in the
+sky, her wings spread out and head thrown back, falling to earth in the
+agony of death.
+
+At this moment a cloud which had long been approaching the moon slowly
+veiled her in its bluish folds; complete darkness succeeded. After a
+little the moon appeared again through a rift in the clouds, and I saw
+the old woman seize the Count's hand and drag him along with dangerous
+speed down the mountain side. Then it became dark again, and I dared not
+risk a step lest I should fall headlong into an abyss. Once more the
+clouds parted. I looked about me and found myself alone on the high
+rock, knee-deep in snow. Seized with horror, I made my way cautiously
+down the steep declivity, and once on the plain I started to run towards
+the Castle, as much stunned as if I had shared in some dark crime.
+
+As for the Lord of Nideck and the old woman, I had lost sight of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+I LOSE MY WAY AND PASS THE NIGHT IN THE DWARF'S LODGE.
+
+
+I wandered around the Castle, unable to find the opening through which I
+had come out on to the plain. So much anxiety and emotion began to tell
+upon my mind; I moved aimlessly along, asking myself with dread if
+madness were not playing a part in my fancies, unable to believe what I
+had seen, and yet alarmed at the clearness of my perceptions. The image
+of the master of Nideck waving his torch in the darkness, howling like a
+wolf, coolly accomplishing an imaginary crime, without omitting a
+gesture, a circumstance, not even the smallest detail, then escaping and
+committing to the abyss the secret of the murder, harassed my mind and
+hung over me like a nightmare. I ran breathless and distracted through
+the snow, not knowing in what direction to guide my steps.
+
+As day approached, the cold became more intense. At last, exhausted, my
+legs feeling like lead, and my ears half frozen, I succeeded in
+discovering the iron grating, and I rang the bell with all my might. It
+was then about four o'clock in the morning. Knapwurst kept me waiting a
+terribly long time. His little lodge, built against the rock, just
+within the principal gate, remained quite silent; it seemed to me that
+the dwarf would never finish dressing, for I had fancied him in bed and
+soundly sleeping.
+
+I rang again, and this time his grotesque figure emerged abruptly from
+his doorway, and he cried furiously:
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+"I! The Doctor!"
+
+"Ah! that is another matter! I'll see whether you are telling the
+truth."
+
+He went back into his lodge to get a lantern, crossed the outer court
+with the snow up to his middle, and staring at me through the grating:
+
+"I beg your pardon, monsieur the doctor," he said; "I thought you were
+asleep up-stairs in Hugh's Tower. It was you ringing! Now I see why
+Sperver came to me at midnight to ask if any one had gone out. I said
+no, for I never saw you go out."
+
+"But for Heaven's sake, Knapwurst, open the door! You can tell me all
+this later."
+
+"Be patient for a moment, monsieur."
+
+And the dwarf deliberately turned the lock and drew back the bolts,
+while I stood with my teeth chattering, and shivering from head to foot.
+
+"You are cold, Doctor," observed the diminutive porter, "and you cannot
+get into the Castle. Sperver has fastened the inside door, I don't know
+why; he doesn't ordinarily; the grating is enough. Come into the lodge
+and warm yourself. You won't find my room much to boast of; properly
+speaking, it is nothing but a sty, but when you are cold you don't spend
+much time in looking about."
+
+Without replying to his chatter I followed him as rapidly as possible,
+burning with impatience to learn what things were passing in the Castle,
+but seeing nothing for it but to wait till dawn.
+
+We entered the lodge, and in spite of my state of complete frigidity, I
+could not help admiring the picturesque disorder of this species of
+nest. The slate roof leaned against the rock on one side, and on the
+other against a wall six to seven feet high, disclosing to view the
+blackened beams propped up against each other. The lodge consisted of a
+single room, furnished with a bed which the gnome did not take the
+trouble to make up very often, and two small dusty windows with
+hexagonal panes which the moon turned to mother-of-pearl with its pale
+rays. A large, square table occupied the middle of the room. How this
+massive oak table had ever been brought through the narrow doorway, it
+would have been difficult to explain. Upon a few shelves were arranged
+some old volumes and rolls of parchment, and on the table lay open an
+enormous tome with illuminated initial letters, bound in vellum, with a
+silver clasp and corners; it looked to me like a collection of old
+chronicles. Lastly, two armchairs, one covered with red leather and the
+other upholstered with a down cushion, and bearing the unmistakable
+impression of the dwarf's body, completed the furniture of the place.
+
+I will not stop to describe the desk with its five or six pens, the
+tobacco jar, the pipes scattered variously about, the little, low, iron
+stove in one corner of the room, with its door standing open, red hot,
+and sending a shower of sparks from time to time on to the stone floor,
+and the spitting cat with her back arched and her paw lifted in defiance
+of me.
+
+All these objects were veiled in that smoky amber light which rests the
+eye, and of which the old Flemish masters alone possessed the secret.
+
+"So you went out last night, monsieur the doctor," Knapwurst said to me
+when we were comfortably seated, he before his volume and I with my
+hands stretched out before the fire.
+
+"Yes, rather early. A woodcutter of the Black Forest needed my services;
+he had cut his left foot with an axe stroke."
+
+This explanation appeared to satisfy the dwarf; he lighted his black
+pipe, which hung down over his chin.
+
+"You don't smoke, monsieur?"
+
+"Indeed I do!"
+
+"Well, help yourself to a pipe! I was just here," he said, stretching
+his long, yellow hand over the page, "reading the chronicles of Hertzog
+when you rang."
+
+I now understood why he had kept me standing so long in the cold.
+
+"You waited to finish your chapter," I said smiling.
+
+"Yes, monsieur," he admitted; and we laughed together.
+
+"However, if I had known it was you, I should have put it off till
+another time," he added.
+
+A silence of some minutes followed, during which I studied the truly
+remarkable physiognomy of the dwarf: those deep wrinkles at the corners
+of his mouth, those little squinting eyes, the broad, unshapely nose
+rounded at the end, and especially his swelling, double-storied
+forehead. I noticed in his face something of the expression of Socrates,
+and as I warmed myself before the crackling blaze, I reflected upon the
+strange fortunes of certain of us.
+
+"Here is this dwarf," I said to myself, "this unsightly, stunted
+creature, exiled into a corner of Nideck like the cricket that sings
+beneath the hearthstone; this Knapwurst, who, in the midst of all these
+excitements, hunting-parties and gay cavalcades going and coming, the
+baying of hounds, stamping of horses, and winding of the hunters' horn,
+lives quietly alone, buried in his books, and thinking only of times
+long past, indifferent whether all is in songs or tears around him,
+whether it is spring, summer, or autumn that comes to peep in at him
+through his little dusty window panes, reanimating, warming or chilling
+the breast of Nature outside. While others are living, blessed with the
+hope and magic of love, striving to gratify ambition or avarice,
+plotting, coveting, and longing, he hopes for nothing, covets nothing,
+wishes nothing. He sits and smokes his pipe, and with his eyes fixed on
+the old parchment before him, he dreams and revels in things that no
+longer exist, perhaps never had any existence--what matters it to
+him--'Hertzog says this,' 'such a one has it differently,'--and he is
+happy. His parchment skin gets more and more wrinkled, his sharp elbows
+dig holes in the table, while his long fingers bury themselves in his
+cheeks, and his little gray eyes roam over Latin, Greek, and Etruscan
+characters. He goes into ecstasies, he licks his lips like a cat who has
+just lapped up a saucer of cream, and then he lies down on his cot, with
+his knees drawn up under the coverlid, and thinks he has passed the best
+possible kind of a day. O God of Heaven! Is it at the top or at the
+bottom of the ladder that we find the true application of your laws, and
+the accomplishment of the duties you have imposed?"
+
+Meanwhile the snow was melting from my legs, and the grateful warmth of
+the stove restored my spirits. I felt reanimated in this atmosphere of
+tobacco smoke and resinous pine. Knapwurst laid his pipe on the table,
+and passing his hand once more across the folio:
+
+"Monsieur de la Roche," he said in a grave tone that seemed to come from
+the bottom of his conscience, or if you prefer, from the depths of a
+twenty-five gallon cask, "here is the law and the prophets."
+
+"How do you mean, Knapwurst?"
+
+"Parchment, old parchment, is what I love. These old yellow leaves,
+eaten by worms, are all that is left us of times long gone by, from
+Charlemagne to our own day. The ancient families have disappeared, but
+the old parchments remain. Where would be the glory of the
+Hohenstauferns, the Liningens, the Nidecks, and so many other noble
+families, were it not for these? Where would be the fame of their
+title-rights, their deeds of arms, their heroic actions, their distant
+expeditions to the Holy Land, their ancient alliances and claims, and
+their conquests, did they not stand in these chronicles? These lofty
+barons, dukes, and princes would be as if they never existed--they and
+everything relating to them far and near.
+
+"Their great castles, fortunes, and palaces crumble and fall, and their
+ruins serve as vague reminders. Of all this a single memorial
+remains,--the chronicles, the history, the songs of bards and
+minnesingers,--parchment alone is left to us!"
+
+A brief silence followed, then Knapwurst resumed:
+
+"And in those distant times, when brave knights went forth to war,
+disputing and fighting over a bit of forest, title, or a lesser matter
+yet, with what contempt did they look upon this wretched little scribe,
+this man of letters and mystery, clad in ratteen, his only weapon an ink
+bottle dangling at his belt, and the handle of his pen for a plume. How
+often they jeered him, crying, 'That fellow is an atom, a flea; he is
+good for nothing; he cannot even collect our taxes or manage our
+estates, while we fine chaps go out on our mounts with lance in hand,
+ready for anything that comes in our way!' Thus they talked when they
+saw the poor devil dragging along behind them, shivering in winter,
+sweating in summer, and growing feeble in his old age. Ah, well! this
+atom, this flea, has caused them to survive long after their castles
+have turned to dust and their arms have rusted away, and for my part I
+love these old parchments; I respect and revere them. Like ivy, they
+clothe the ruins and prevent the old walls from crumbling away and
+becoming entirely effaced."
+
+Having given such expression to his thoughts, Knapwurst seemed grave,
+and reflecting upon these things his eyes filled with the tears of
+affectionate remembrance. The dwarf loved those who had tolerated and
+protected his ancestors. After all, he spoke the truth; there was
+profound good sense in his words. His warmth surprised me.
+
+"Have you learned Latin, Knapwurst?" I asked him.
+
+"Yes, monsieur," he replied, "I taught myself Latin and Greek. Old
+grammars were enough,--some of the Count's thrown into the ash-barrel;
+they fell into my hands and I devoured them. Some time after, the Lord
+of Nideck having chanced to hear me make some Latin quotation was
+surprised.
+
+"'Who taught you Latin, Knapwurst?' he asked.
+
+"'I taught myself, monseigneur.'
+
+"He asked me some questions, which I answered pretty well.
+
+"'By Jove!' he cried, 'Knapwurst knows more than I do! He shall keep my
+archives.'
+
+"And he gave me the key to the archive chamber. During the thirty years
+since then, I have read every page. Sometimes the Count, seeing me on my
+ladder, stops a minute and says to me:
+
+"'Ha! ha! What are you doing up there, Knapwurst?'
+
+"'I am reading the family records, monseigneur.'
+
+"'And you enjoy it?'
+
+"'Very much, monseigneur.'
+
+"'Well, well! I am glad to hear it; if it weren't for you, Knapwurst,
+who would know of the glory of the Nidecks?' and he goes off laughing. I
+do as I please here!"
+
+"He is a good master then?"
+
+"Oh, monsieur, what a heart, and what kindness!" exclaimed the dwarf,
+clasping his hands. "He has but one fault."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"He has no ambition."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, he could have attained to anything. A Nideck! One of the most
+illustrious families of Germany! Think of that, monsieur! He had only to
+choose; he might have been a minister or a field-marshal. But no! In his
+youth he retired from political life. With the exception of a campaign
+that he conducted in France, at the head of a regiment which he raised
+by his own exertions--with this exception, he has always lived far from
+noise and strife, simple and almost unknown, only interesting himself in
+his hunting."
+
+These details were of the greatest interest to me. The conversation was
+taking, of its own accord, the direction that I most wished, and I
+resolved to profit by my opportunity.
+
+"The Count has never had any great passions in his life, then?" I asked.
+
+"None, monsieur; and that is the pity, for noble passions make the
+renown of great families. It is a misfortune for the member of a noble
+race to be devoid of ambition. He allows his family to degenerate. I
+could cite many examples in proof of what I say. That which would be the
+pride of the tradesman's family, would be the ruin of the illustrious."
+
+I was amazed; all my speculations regarding the Count's past life were
+fast being disproved.
+
+"However, the Count has met with many reverses, has he not?"
+
+"Of what nature?"
+
+"He has lost his wife?"
+
+"Yes, you are right; his wife was an angel. He married her for love; she
+was a daughter of one the oldest and noblest families of Alsace, but
+ruined by the Revolution. The Countess Odette was her husband's sole
+happiness. She died of a lingering illness that lasted over the space of
+five years; every means was resorted to to save her life. They travelled
+together in Italy, but she returned worse than she went, and succumbed
+some three weeks after their return. The Count came near dying himself
+of a broken heart. For two years he shut himself up and would see
+nobody. His dogs and horses were neglected. Time at length calmed his
+grief, but there has ever been something here." (The dwarf laid his
+finger on his heart.) "You understand; it is a bleeding wound. Old
+wounds pain us in change of weather, and old griefs, too, when the
+flowers spring up above the tomb, and in autumn when the dead leaves
+cover the ground. The Count has never wished to marry again; his
+daughter is the sole object of his affection."
+
+"So this marriage was always a happy one?"
+
+"Happy? It was a blessing for everybody!"
+
+I was silent. Evidently the Count had not committed, could not have
+committed, a crime. I was obliged to yield to the weight of evidence;
+but then that nocturnal scene, these strange relations with the Black
+Plague, that horrible pantomime and the remorse in a dream which forced
+the couple to betray their past--what did it all mean? I became lost in
+thought.
+
+Knapwurst relighted his pipe and reached me one, which I accepted. The
+chill which had seized me had by this time passed away. I was
+experiencing that delicious period of inaction which follows the fatigue
+caused by unusual exertions, when, sprawled out in a big armchair in the
+chimney-corner and enveloped in a cloud of smoke, you abandon yourself
+to the pleasure of repose and listen to the blending of the cricket's
+chant with the unearthly singing of the green log on the hearth. We sat
+thus for a quarter of an hour.
+
+"The Count sometimes gets angry with his daughter," I ventured to
+remark. Knapwurst started, and fixing on me a suspicious, almost
+hostile look, replied:
+
+"I know, I know!"
+
+I watched him with a sidelong glance, thinking that I might learn
+something new, but he added ironically:
+
+"The towers of Nideck are high, and slander flies too low to reach
+them!"
+
+"Undoubtedly; but it is a fact, nevertheless, is it not?"
+
+"Yes; but this is a mere crotchet, an effect of his malady. Once the
+crisis is passed, all his affection for the Countess Odile returns. It
+is curious, monsieur, a lover of twenty years could not be more devoted,
+more affectionate than he. This young woman is his one joy and pride.
+Only fancy, no less than a dozen times I have seen him ride off to get
+her a dress, or flowers, or some like trifle. He would not entrust this
+commission to any one, not even to his faithful Sperver. The Countess
+does not even dare to express a wish in his presence, lest he should
+commit some new extravagance. In a word, monsieur, I assure you that the
+Count of Nideck is the worthiest of men, the tenderest of fathers, and
+the best of masters. As for the poachers who ravaged his forests, the
+old Count Ludwig would have hanged them without mercy; but our Count
+tolerates them; he even makes them his gamekeepers. Take Sperver, for
+instance! If Count Ludwig was still alive, Sperver's bones would be
+clicking together like castanets, at the end of a rope, while as it is,
+he is the steward and man-of-affairs at the Castle."
+
+My theories were fast falling to the ground. I rested my head between my
+hands and thought for a long time. Knapwurst, supposing that I was
+asleep, had resumed his reading. The gray dawn appeared through the tiny
+panes; the lamplight paled, and vague murmurs arose within the Castle.
+Suddenly footsteps sounded outside, some one passed before the window,
+the door opened abruptly, and Gideon appeared on the threshold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+I AM SUMMONED TO THE COUNTESS' CHAMBER, AND MAKE A CONFESSION.
+
+
+Sperver's pale face and rapid glance intimated that something unusual
+was happening; nevertheless, he was calm and did not appear surprised at
+my presence in Knapwurst's room.
+
+"Gaston," he said briefly, "I have come to get you!"
+
+I rose without replying and followed him. No sooner had we left the
+lodge than he seized me by the arm and drew me hastily towards the
+Castle.
+
+"The Countess Odile wants to speak to you," he whispered.
+
+"The Countess! Is she ill?"
+
+"No, she is quite recovered, but something unusual is going on. This
+morning at about one o'clock, thinking that the Count was about to
+breathe his last, I went to wake the Countess, but as I was on the point
+of ringing, my heart failed me. 'Why should I fill her with despair?' I
+asked myself. 'She will learn of her misfortune soon enough; and then to
+wake her up in the middle of the night, when she is so frail and broken
+by so much sorrow, might prove her own death-blow.' I stood some minutes
+reflecting what course to pursue, and at last I decided to take the
+responsibility upon myself, and I returned to the Count's room. I looked
+about; no one was there. Impossible! the man was in his last agonies! I
+ran along the corridor like a madman; no one was to be seen! I entered
+the gallery; no one there! Then I lost my head and rushed again to the
+Countess Odile's chamber. This time I rang. She appeared in tears.
+
+"'My father is dead?'
+
+"'No, madame!'
+
+"'He has disappeared?'
+
+"'Yes; I left the room for a moment, and when I returned--'
+
+"'And Monsieur de la Roche; where is he?'
+
+"'In Hugh's Tower.'
+
+"'In the Tower!'
+
+"She threw on a dressing-gown, seized a lamp and hurried out. I remained
+behind. A quarter of an hour afterwards she returned, her feet covered
+with snow, and very pale; it was pitiful to see. She set the lamp on
+the mantelpiece, and looking steadily at me, she said:
+
+"'Was it you who put the doctor in the Tower?'
+
+"'Yes, madame.'
+
+"'Unhappy man! you will never know the harm that you have done!'
+
+"I wanted to reply, but she stopped me.
+
+"'That is enough! Go and fasten all the doors and lie down. I will sit
+up myself. To-morrow morning you will go and find the doctor in
+Knapwurst's lodge, and you will bring him to me. Breathe no word of this
+to anybody! Remember you have seen nothing and know nothing!'"
+
+"Is that all, Sperver?"
+
+He nodded gravely.
+
+"And the Count?"
+
+"He has come back again; he seems better."
+
+We had reached the antechamber. Gideon knocked gently on the door, then
+opened it, announcing, "Monsieur the doctor."
+
+[Illustration: "I STEPPED FORWARD AND FOUND MYSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF
+ODILE."]
+
+I stepped forward and found myself in the presence of Odile. Sperver
+withdrew, closing the door behind him.
+
+A strange impression was produced upon my mind by the appearance of the
+young Countess, robed in a long gown of black velvet, and standing pale
+and firm with her hand resting on the back of an armchair, her eyes
+glistening with a feverish light.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, pointing to a chair; "pray be seated. I wish to
+speak with you upon a very grave subject."
+
+I obeyed silently. She seated herself in turn, and seemed trying to
+arrange her thoughts.
+
+"Chance, monsieur," she continued after a moment, fixing her large blue
+eyes upon me--"chance or Providence, I know not which to call it--has
+made you the witness of a mystery in which is involved the honor of our
+family."
+
+She knew everything, then. I was astonished.
+
+"Let us call it Providence!" I cried. "Who knows but that through me the
+spell that has so long overhung the Castle is destined to be broken?"
+
+"All this is frightful!" she continued; then in a despairing tone, "My
+father is not guilty of this crime!"
+
+I sprang up, and stretching out my hands deprecatingly, I exclaimed:
+
+"I know it, mademoiselle; I know of the Count's past life, and it is one
+of the purest that it would be possible to conceive!"
+
+Odile half rose from her chair as if to protest against any harsh
+judgment of her father, but seeing me myself undertake his defence, she
+sank back, and covering her face with her hands, burst into tears.
+
+"God bless you, monsieur," she murmured; "had you entertained a
+suspicion of my father, it would have killed me!"
+
+"Why, mademoiselle! Who could mistake for realities the unreasoning
+actions of the somnambulist?"
+
+"That is true, monsieur. I had reflected upon this myself--but
+appearances--I feared--pardon me--but I should have remembered that you
+are a man of honor."
+
+"Pray, dear Countess, calm yourself!" I exclaimed, feeling myself on the
+verge of losing my composure, so deeply was I moved by the grief of my
+beloved mistress.
+
+"No," she cried; "let me weep. These tears are a relief. I have suffered
+so for the past ten years! This secret, so long locked in my breast, was
+killing me, and I should have died at last like my dear mother! God has
+taken pity on me, and he has sent you to share the burden with me. Let
+me tell you all, monsieur, let me--" She could not continue; her voice
+was stifled in sobs. Her proud and high-strung nature, after having
+conquered grief so long, had succumbed to the fateful happening of the
+night before; the seal once broken and her secret betrayed, her
+vanquished nature, still struggling to shield its sacred trust, sought a
+grateful relief in unrestrained tears.
+
+My one sentiment of love and sympathy, repressed until that moment, now
+demanded expression with a power which I was unable to gainsay. I cast
+all prudence to the winds, and dropping on one knee beside Odile, I
+seized the delicate hands that covered her face and drew them gently
+away until her sorrowing glance rested on my face.
+
+"Odile!" I said, as her name rose naturally to my lips, in a voice so
+choked with emotion as to be hardly more than a whisper, "forgive my
+rashness, but it no longer rests with me to speak or not as I choose! I
+might never have said anything of this, at least not now, but your
+suffering affects me so powerfully that to be silent longer is not
+within my power. It must have been evident to you, had you cared to read
+it, that I love you and have loved you, far, far dearer than life
+itself, ever since my eyes first rested upon you in the Count's chamber,
+that first night when I came to the Castle. I cannot ask pardon for it!
+No! For I am convinced that no man could be near you for even this brief
+time and experience the wonderful charm of your being, to say nothing of
+witnessing your present sorrow, without feeling himself moved to the
+depths of his own nature. Odile, I love you! I see no goal in life but
+you, no future but one passed in your divine companionship; and though
+you might well reproach me for choosing such a moment to tell you so,
+believe me, it is through no wish to take advantage of your confidence.
+Did I feel myself guilty of such baseness, I should despise myself more
+than you could possibly do. Odile, my darling, I could not choose but
+speak. I must tell you this, even though it should be at the cost of
+your further favor!"
+
+As I spoke, Odile's eyes were fastened on my face with an expression of
+surprise, indeed, but in it there was no trace of disfavor, and her
+hands were not withdrawn from mine. A bright flush that, for the first
+time since I knew her, had succeeded to her usual pallor, mounted to her
+cheeks and served to increase her matchless beauty.
+
+She remained silent for some moments still, and I could perceive the
+agitation which my words had caused her, by the slight tremor of her
+frame and her quickened breathing.
+
+At length she began, with her clear, frank gaze fastened on my face:
+
+"I am deeply sensible of the honor you do me in expressing yourself as
+you have done, and I am convinced that no woman can do otherwise than
+feel a sense of the greatest satisfaction in knowing that she is so
+regarded by an honorable man. I must confess," she continued after a
+moment of hesitation, "that your words are far from being indifferent or
+unwelcome to me! Oh, how strange are the circumstances of my life! I
+know not how to reply to you! I know not--"
+
+And she paused, at a loss how to continue.
+
+I was happy. Odile had confessed enough to make me feel that I could
+bide my time for the present without endangering my future hopes;
+indeed, I felt that it might be wisdom to grant her time more fully to
+determine her sentiments, before pursuing the victory already won. I was
+now about to share in the secret of her life at her own request; and I
+resolved, if the reason of her vow should be explained, as I felt it
+must, to controvert it by any honorable means.
+
+"You have said enough to make me supremely happy!" I exclaimed. "You
+have not denied me the happiness of hope, and I shall not despair!
+Meanwhile, whatever I may win is fairly mine, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," murmured Odile, with just the slightest smile, in which I fancied
+there was less sorrow than before.
+
+"And now, dear one, I fear I have been selfish in intruding my own
+feelings where so much grief is present! Pray forgive me, and continue
+your story."
+
+I pressed her hands once more, and as she gently disengaged them I
+resumed my chair.
+
+Odile dried her tear-stained cheeks, and resting her face on her fair
+hand she began:
+
+"When I go back into the past, and return to my earliest dreams, I see
+again my mother. She was a stately woman, pale and silent, and still
+young at the time of which I am now speaking. She was scarcely thirty
+years, and you would have thought her at least fifty. White locks
+veiled her thoughtful forehead; her thin cheeks and severe profile, and
+her lips ever firmly closed with an expression of pain, gave to her
+features a strange character, in which grief and pride were blended.
+There was nothing that suggested youth in this old woman of thirty;
+nothing but her upright, haughty bearing, her brilliant eyes, and her
+voice, pure and sweet as the dreams of childhood. She often walked up
+and down for hours together in this very chamber, with her head bowed
+down, and I ran happily along by her side, little knowing that my mother
+was deep in sorrow, too young to comprehend the grief that was preying
+upon her heart. I knew nothing of the past; the present alone possessed
+any reality for me; this was happiness, and the future was but
+to-morrow's play." Odile smiled sadly, and resumed:
+
+"Sometimes it happened that in the midst of my dancing about her, I
+would interrupt my mother's walk, and she would stop, and seeing me at
+her feet, bend down and kiss me on the forehead with a far-off smile;
+then she would resume her interrupted walk. Since then, when I have
+wished to search my memory for remembrances of those early days, this
+tall, pale woman has appeared before me like the image of melancholy
+itself. There she is," she exclaimed, pointing to a picture on the wall;
+"not such as illness made her, as my father believed, but that terrible
+and fatal secret. Look!"
+
+I turned, and my glance falling suddenly upon the portrait which the
+young girl indicated, I shuddered. It was a long, thin, pale face,
+stamped with the cold rigidity of death, and with dark hollows under the
+eyes, which looked at you with a fixed, burning gaze of terrible
+intensity. There was a moment's silence.
+
+"How she must have suffered!" I exclaimed, with a sinking of the heart.
+
+"I know not how my mother made this frightful discovery," continued
+Odile; "but she knew of the mysterious attraction of the Black Plague,
+and of their meetings in Hugh's Tower,--all, in short,--but she never
+suspected my father. No! only she slowly pined away, as I am doing now."
+
+I hid my face in my hands, and the tears started involuntarily.
+
+"One winter night," she went on, "when I was only ten years old, my
+mother, whose energy alone sustained her,--for she was in the last
+stages of a decline,--came to my room. I was sleeping, when suddenly a
+cold, nervous hand seized my wrist. I opened my eyes, and opposite me
+stood a woman; with one hand she held a torch, and with the other she
+held my arm, which felt as if clasped in a chill vise. Her dress was
+covered with snow, a convulsive trembling agitated her limbs, and her
+eyes burned with a dark fire through the white, disordered locks that
+hung about her face. It was my mother.
+
+"'Odile, my child, rise and come with me! You must know everything!' she
+said.
+
+"I dressed myself tremblingly, and leading me along the lonely
+corridors to Hugh's Tower, she showed me the staircase that led down to
+the chasm.
+
+"'Your father will come out this way,' she said, pointing to the tower;
+'he will come out with the she-wolf. Fear nothing! He cannot see you.'
+
+"Hardly had she finished speaking, when my father appeared with the old
+woman, carrying his funereal burden. Taking me in her arms, my mother
+followed them, and I witnessed the scene on the Altenberg.
+
+"'Look, child!' she cried; 'you must, for I am going to die, and you
+shall keep the secret! You shall watch over your father alone--all
+alone! The honor of our family depends upon it!'
+
+"We returned. A fortnight later my mother died, leaving to me the
+accomplishment of her vow and the lesson of her example. I have
+faithfully discharged my trust, but oh, at what a cost! You have seen
+it! I have been obliged to disobey my father and make him wretched. My
+marriage could have accomplished nothing, though he does not know it,
+and to marry would have been to bring a stranger into our midst and
+betray the family secret. I resisted. No one in the Castle knows the
+nature of my father's malady, and had it not been for yesterday's
+crisis, which broke down my strength and prevented me from watching by
+my father, I should still have been the sole depositary of the secret.
+God has willed otherwise; he has placed in your keeping the honor of our
+family.
+
+"Such is my story, and in view of what you told me a few moments ago
+(and she colored charmingly), I feel that I need hardly ask you if you
+will share with me my burden, for my strength is unequal to it--I am
+bending beneath its weight."
+
+She had risen as she finished speaking. For all answer, I sprang
+forward, and throwing my arms about her I drew her close to me and
+covered her upturned face and forehead with passionate kisses, and she
+rested, a delicious burden in my arms.
+
+"Odile," I cried, "I will be all this and a thousand times more, if you
+will only consent to let me. I am the petitioner, not you; and in
+allowing me to share with you even the least of your trials, you make me
+forever your debtor. You have told me the reason of your vow, and in
+doing so you have removed the necessity for its further existence. Oh,
+Odile, may I hope--may I hope, I say, that if I can raise the spell
+which overhangs the Castle, and restore your father's health,--as the
+price of it, I may have your love?"
+
+After a moment, she replied softly, as she gently disengaged herself
+from my arms:
+
+"You may;" and she added, "until then my first duty is ever to my
+father."
+
+I pressed the hand which she yielded to me to my lips, exclaiming with a
+smile, "This seals the promise!"
+
+Then I continued:
+
+"And one thing more. We must seize this creature known as the Black
+Plague, and find out what she is, whence she comes, and what she wants
+here."
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, with a motion of her beautiful head, "I fear that
+is impossible!"
+
+"Who can say that?" I replied. "I want only your permission, and I will
+undertake to seize the Plague at once."
+
+"Do as your judgment dictates. I consent to everything beforehand."
+
+I took a long and reluctant leave of Odile, and hurried jubilantly to
+Sperver's room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WE CHASE THE PLAGUE.--HER DEATH.
+
+
+An hour after my conversation with Odile, Sperver and I were galloping
+hard over the plain from Nideck. The huntsman, bending over his horse's
+neck, set spurs to her from time to time, and the tall Mecklenberg, with
+flying mane and foaming lips, literally cleaved the air in her flight.
+As for my mount, I believe he took the bit in his teeth, and ran away
+with me. Lieverlé accompanied us, bounding along beside us like an
+arrow. We seemed to be borne along on the wings of the wind.
+
+The towers of Nideck were far behind us, and Sperver was leading the
+way, as usual, when I shouted to him:
+
+"Hallo, comrade! Pull up! Before we go any further, let us deliberate a
+little."
+
+He wheeled about.
+
+"Only tell me, Gaston, is it to right or left?"
+
+"No, no! Come here. You must first know why I have started off this
+morning. In a word, we are going to catch the hag!"
+
+An expression of supreme satisfaction lighted up the long, bronzed face
+of the old steward; his eyes sparkled.
+
+"Ha, ha!" he exclaimed; "I knew it would come to that sooner or later."
+
+With a movement of his shoulder, he slipped his rifle into his hand.
+This significant movement opened my eyes.
+
+"One moment, Sperver. We are not going to kill the Black Plague; we are
+going to take her alive."
+
+"Alive!"
+
+"Precisely; and to spare you future regrets, I warn you that the destiny
+of the old creature is identified with our master's. The ball that
+strikes her down kills the Count."
+
+Sperver sat open-mouthed with amazement.
+
+"Is this really so?"
+
+"Positively."
+
+There was a long silence; our horses tossing their heads at each other
+as if in salute, pawed the snow impatiently. Lieverlé yawned expectantly
+and stretched out his long, snake-like body, and Sperver sat motionless,
+with his hand resting on his rifle.
+
+"Well, then, we will try to take her living," he said at length; "we
+will handle her with kid gloves, since it must needs be so; but it is
+not such an easy matter as you think, Gaston."
+
+Pointing with his extended hand to the mountains which lay unrolled
+about us in the form of a great amphitheatre, he added:
+
+"You see before us the Altenberg, the Birkenwald, the Schneeberg, the
+Oxenhorn, the Rhethal, and the Behrenkopf, and if we were up a little
+higher, we could see fifty other peaks, extending clear into the plain
+of the Palatinate. Within this distance are rocks, ravines, defiles,
+torrents, and endless forests, and the old woman wanders everywhere
+through this wilderness. She has a sure foot and a good eye, and can
+scent you a good league away; so you see we shall have a pretty chase
+before us."
+
+"If it were an easy thing to do, I shouldn't have chosen you out of all
+the people of the Castle."
+
+"That sounds all very well. Still, if we can once get on her trail, I
+don't deny that with courage and patience--"
+
+"As for her trail, don't worry about that; I will put you on it myself."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"You, able to follow up a trail?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Ah, well, since you are so confident and know so much more about it
+than I do, that's another thing; go ahead. I'll follow."
+
+It was easy to see that the old huntsman was vexed at my venturing to
+encroach upon his particular field of operations. Therefore, laughing
+inwardly, I waited for no second invitation and turned to the left, sure
+of coming upon the traces of the old woman, who, after having left the
+Count in the subterranean passage, must have recrossed the plain to gain
+the mountain.
+
+Sperver followed on behind me whistling with assumed indifference, and I
+could hear him muttering:
+
+"The idea of looking for the she-wolf's tracks in the middle of the
+plain. Any one should know that she would follow along the edge of the
+forest, as she always does; but it seems she walks about now with her
+hands in her pockets, like a well-to-do citizen of Tübingen."
+
+I turned a deaf ear to all this, and kept on my way. Suddenly he gave an
+exclamation of surprise, and looking at me sharply:
+
+"Gaston," he said, "you know more than you are willing to admit."
+
+"How do you mean, Gideon?"
+
+"The track that it would have taken me a week to find, you have got at
+once. There is something behind this."
+
+"Where do you see it, then?"
+
+"Come, don't pretend to be looking at your feet," and pointing to a
+scarcely perceptible white streak at some distance ahead of us, he said:
+
+"There it is."
+
+He started off at a gallop. I followed him, and a moment later we
+leaped from our saddles. It was indeed the Black Plague's track.
+
+"I should like to know," said Sperver, folding his arms, "how the devil
+that trace came to be here!"
+
+"Don't let that trouble you."
+
+"You're right, Gaston. Don't mind what I say. I talk nonsense sometimes.
+The principal thing now is to find out where this track leads."
+
+The huntsman knelt on the snow. I was all ears, he all attention.
+
+"It is a fresh track," he said at the first glance; "last night's. As I
+thought, Gaston, during the Count's last attack the hag was prowling
+about the Castle."
+
+Then examining it more carefully:
+
+"She passed here at about four o'clock this morning."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"The track is fresh, but there is sleet around it. Last night at twelve
+o'clock I went out to lock the doors, and sleet was falling then; there
+is none on this footprint, and therefore it must have been made since
+then."
+
+"That is true, Sperver; but it may have been made later, at nine or ten
+o'clock for instance."
+
+"No; look! It is covered with frost. There is no mist to freeze except
+at daybreak; the old woman passed here after the sleet and before the
+frost; that is to say, between three and four this morning."
+
+I was astonished at the accuracy of Sperver's reasoning. He got up,
+slapping his hands together to shake off the snow, and looking at me
+thoughtfully, he added, as if speaking to himself:
+
+"Let us call it, at the latest, five o'clock! It is now twelve, isn't
+it?"
+
+"Quarter to twelve."
+
+"Very good; the hag has seven hours' start of us. We must follow her
+step by step wherever she may lead us. On horseback we can come up with
+her in from one hour to two, and if she is still moving, by seven or
+eight this evening she ought to be in our clutches. Come on, Gaston;
+there is no time to lose!"
+
+We started on again, following the traces which led us straight towards
+the mountain. As we galloped along, Sperver called out:
+
+"If good luck would have it that this cursed Plague had gone into a hole
+in the rocks somewhere to lie down for an hour or two, we might catch
+her before nightfall."
+
+"Let's hope so, Gideon."
+
+"Don't fool yourself that way. The old she-wolf is always moving; she
+never grows tired; she roams through all the hollow roads of the Black
+Forest. We mustn't indulge vain hopes. If she should happen to have
+stopped somewhere along the road, so much the better for us, and if she
+is still going, we have no reason to be discouraged. Come! hurry along!"
+
+It was a strange occupation; that of a man engaged in hunting down one
+of his own kind; for, after all, this unfortunate woman was a fellow
+creature, endowed like us with an immortal soul, and feeling, thinking,
+and reflecting like ourselves. It is true that perverted instincts had
+brought her near the level of the wolf, and that some great mystery
+overhung her destiny. Her prowling life had doubtless obliterated her
+moral being, and even effaced her human character; but granted all this,
+it is, nevertheless, an incontrovertible truth that nothing in God's
+universe gave us the right to exercise over her the despotism of man
+over the brute creation.
+
+Notwithstanding, a savage ardor hurried us on in pursuit; for my part,
+my blood boiled, and I was determined to stop at nothing which would
+enable me to get this strange being into my power. The wide waste of
+snow flew past us, and the fragments of crust, thrown up by our horses'
+hoofs, whizzed past our ears.
+
+Sperver, sometimes with his head thrown back, and his long mustache
+blowing in the wind, and always with his gray eye on the trail, reminded
+me of the famous horsemen of the steppes, whom I had seen passing
+through Germany in my childhood; his tall, sinewy horse, with full mane
+and body tapering like a greyhound's, completed the illusion. Lieverlé,
+in his enthusiasm, bounded sometimes as high as our horses' backs, and I
+could not help trembling at the thought that, should he come upon the
+Black Plague, he might tear her to pieces before we could make a
+movement to prevent him.
+
+The old woman led us a terrible chase; on every hill she had doubled,
+and at every hillock we found a false scent.
+
+"It is easy enough along here," said Sperver, "for you can see a long
+distance ahead, but when we get into the woods, it will be another
+matter; we shall have to keep our eyes open there. Do you see how the
+cursed beast has confused her tracks? There she has amused herself
+sweeping the trail, and from that rising ground that is exposed to the
+wind she has slipped down to the stream and crept through the cresses to
+reach the thicket yonder. If it weren't for these two foot-prints, she
+would have tricked us completely."
+
+We had just reached the border of a fir forest. In these forests, the
+snow never penetrates between the branches of a tree. It was a difficult
+way. Sperver dismounted to watch the tracks closer, and placed me on the
+left, that my shadow might not come between him and the ground. There
+were large open spots covered with dead leaves and pine-needles, which
+take no imprint. Thus it was only in the unsheltered places, where the
+snow lay on the ground, that Sperver could recover the trail.
+
+It took us an hour to get through this patch of woods. The old poacher
+gnawed his mustache with vexation, and his long nose almost touched his
+chin. When I tried to speak, he interrupted me shortly, crying:
+
+"Don't talk; it bothers me!"
+
+At last we descended into a valley to the left, and Gideon, pointing to
+the she-wolf's steps, running parallel with the edge of the undergrowth,
+remarked:
+
+"This is no false sortie; we can follow it confidently.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because the Black Plague has a habit, whenever she doubles on her
+tracks, of going three steps to one side, then, retracing them, taking
+four, five or six in the other direction, and finally jumping into a
+clear space. But when she thinks she has covered the trail, she strikes
+out without troubling herself about false scents. Look! what did I tell
+you? She is burrowing now into the brushwood like a wild boar; it will
+be easy enough to follow her here. So much for that; and now, let's keep
+the tracks between us and light a pipe!"
+
+We halted, and the good fellow, whose face was beginning to brighten up,
+looked at me with enthusiasm, crying:
+
+"Gaston, this promises to be one of the finest days in my life. If we
+take the old creature, I will fasten her to the saddle behind me like a
+bundle of old rags. Only one thing troubles me."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Having forgot my horn. I should like to have sounded the return as we
+were approaching Nideck. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
+
+He lighted his stub of a pipe, and we started on again. The track of the
+she-wolf now led up a wooded slope so steep that we were obliged many
+times to dismount and lead our horses by the bridle.
+
+"There it goes to the right," said Sperver; "in this direction the
+mountains go up like the side of a house. One of us may have to lead
+both horses while the other scrambles along after the trail, and as the
+devil will have it, it's getting so dark we can't see anything much
+longer."
+
+The landscape was at this point assuming a grander aspect. Enormous
+boulders, covered with icicles, raised one beyond another their angular
+peaks, like breakers in a sea of snow.
+
+There is nothing that imparts a more melancholy sense to the beholder
+than a winter scene among these mountains. The irregular line of crests,
+the dark ravines, the denuded trees and bushes sparkling with a tracery
+of hoar frost, all assume before your eyes a look of indescribable
+desolation and still sadness; and the silence, so profound that you can
+hear a dead leaf rustle on the snow-crust, or a pine-needle swirl from
+its branch,--this silence oppresses you; it forces upon you the
+realization of man's littleness in the scale of Nature's vast economy.
+
+Sometimes we felt a need of speaking, if only to break the stillness:
+
+"Ah, we are getting nearer the end of this business! How beastly cold it
+is! Lieverlé, what have you got there?" or some like insignificant
+phrase.
+
+Unfortunately, our horses were beginning to tire; they sank up to their
+bellies in the snow, and no longer whinnied as they did on setting out.
+The inextricable defiles of the Black Forest stretched out indefinitely.
+The old woman loved these solitudes; here she had passed around a
+deserted charcoal-burner's hut; further on she had torn up the tender
+roots which overspread the surface of the rocks; and here again she had
+sat down at the foot of a tree to rest, and that recently,--at most two
+hours before, for the marks in the snow were fresh. At sight of this,
+our hopes and enthusiasm were redoubled; but the daylight was fast
+fading out. Strangely enough, ever since our departure from Nideck, we
+had met neither woodcutters, charcoal-burners, nor log-haulers; the
+solitude was as complete as in the Siberian steppes. At five o'clock the
+night had so far closed in that Sperver halted and said to me:
+
+"Gaston, we have started a couple of hours too late. The Plague has got
+too long a start of us. In ten minutes the woods will be as dark as an
+oven. Our best plan will be to reach the Roche Creuse, twenty minutes
+from here, light a good fire, and eat our provisions and empty our
+goat-skins. When the moon comes up we will take up the trail again, and
+if the old hag is not the devil himself, ten to one we shall come upon
+her frozen stiff at the foot of some tree, for no human creature could
+live through such a tramp in such weather as this. Sebalt himself, who
+is the best walker in all the Black Forest, could not have stood it.
+What do you say, my boy?"
+
+"I should be mad to think otherwise, and, moreover, I am perishing with
+hunger!"
+
+"Well, let's be off!"
+
+He took the lead, and we pressed into a narrow gorge between two walls
+of precipitous rock. The fir-trees formed an arch above our heads;
+beneath our feet trickled what the frost had left of a mighty torrent,
+and from time to time a wandering ray penetrated the obscurity, and
+reflected the dull, lead-colored ice mantle. The darkness had become
+such that I deemed it wise to let my bridle fall on the horse's neck.
+The steps of our horses on the slippery pebbles reëchoed with an odd
+noise like the laughing and chattering of monkeys through the narrow
+glen. The rocks took up and repeated every sound, and in the distance a
+blue point seemed to grow as we advanced. It was the outlet of the
+gorge.
+
+"Gaston," said Sperver, "we are now in the bed of the Tunkelbach. It is
+the wildest pass in all the Black Forest, and it terminates in a cave
+called La Marmite du Grand Guelard. In the spring, when the snow is
+melting, the Tunkelbach pours all its torrents into it to a depth of
+two hundred feet. It makes a tremendous roar; the waters leap over the
+edge, and their spray falls upon the neighboring mountains. Sometimes
+they even flood the cavern of the Roche Creuse, but just now it must be
+as dry as a powder-flask, and we can build a big fire there."
+
+As I listened to Sperver's observations, I was at the same time
+considering this ominous defile, and reflecting that the instinct of the
+savage beasts, which seek such retreats far from the light of day and
+from all that gladdens the soul, must be akin to remorse. The creatures
+that live in the sunshine,--the goat on the open crag, the horse running
+free on the plain, the dog frisking about his master, the bird basking
+in the sunshine,--all breathe in joy and happiness with their gambols
+and their songs. The kid, browsing in the shade of the great trees on
+the green hillside, is as poetic an object as the retreat that he
+prefers; the wild boar, as fierce and savage as the trackless brakes
+through which he roams; the eagle as proud and lofty as the towering
+peaks where he rests in his sweeping flight; the lion as majestic as the
+mighty arches of his den,--but the wolf, the fox, and the ferret seek
+the darkness, with fear their only companion; aye, this instinct is
+closely related to remorse.
+
+I was still reflecting upon these things and already felt the keen air
+blowing against my face--for we were approaching the opening of the
+gorge--when suddenly we perceived a reddish reflection dancing upon the
+rock a hundred feet above us, turning to purple the dark green of the
+firs, and making the frost wreaths on the tree trunks glitter.
+
+"Ha!" whispered Sperver hoarsely, "we've got the witch!"
+
+My heart leaped; we moved along pressed close against each other. The
+dog growled warningly.
+
+"Can't she escape us?"
+
+"No; she is caught like a rat in a trap. La Marmite du Grand Guelard has
+but one outlet, and we are barring it. Everywhere else the rocks rise
+sheer two hundred feet. Ha! you Satan's hag, I've got you!"
+
+He sprang from his horse into the ice-cold water of the Tunkelbach,
+handing me his bridle. I shivered. The click of his rifle as he cocked
+it sounded with fearful distinctness, and the sound sent a nervous wave
+clear to my finger-tips.
+
+"Sperver, what are you doing?"
+
+"Never fear; it is only to frighten her."
+
+"Very good; but no blood! Remember what I have already told you. The
+ball that strikes the Plague kills the Count!"
+
+"Rest easy on that score!"
+
+He moved forward, without stopping further to listen to me. I could hear
+the splash of his feet in the water; then I saw his tall figure appear
+at the outlet of the glen, black against the bluish background. He stood
+full five minutes motionless. Meanwhile, I was slowly approaching him,
+and when he at last turned around, I was within three paces of him.
+
+"Sh!" he said mysteriously; "look there!"
+
+At the end of the open gorge, now revealed to us, which was dug out like
+a quarry in the mountainside, I saw a bright fire unrolling its golden
+spires before the mouth of a cave, and in front of the fire sat a man
+with his hands clasped about his knees, whom I recognized by his
+clothing as the Baron Zimmer. He sat motionless, with his eyes fixed on
+the fire, and seemed lost in thought. Behind him a dark form lay
+stretched upon the ground, and further in the distance, his horse, half
+lost in the shadows, gazed upon us with fixed eyes, ears pricked up, and
+distended nostrils.
+
+I stood stupefied. How came the Baron Zimmer to be in this dense,
+terrifying wilderness at such an hour and such a time,--what was he
+doing here? Had he lost his way? The most contradictory conjectures
+succeeded each other in my brain, and I knew not where to pause, when
+the Baron's horse began to neigh. At the sound, the master raised his
+head:
+
+"Well, Rappel, what now?"
+
+Then, in his turn, he gazed in our direction, straining his eyes to make
+us out in the darkness. That pale face, with its clear-cut features,
+delicate lips, and heavy black eyebrows, gathered in a frown, would have
+struck me with admiration under any other circumstances, but now an
+indefinable feeling of apprehension took possession of me, and I was
+filled with vague anxiety. Suddenly, the young man cried:
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"I, monsieur," replied Sperver quickly, at the same time advancing
+towards him; "I, Sperver, steward of the Count of Nideck!"
+
+A strange expression passed across the Baron's features, but not a
+muscle of his face quivered. He rose to his feet, gathering the folds of
+his cloak more closely about him. I drew towards me the horses and the
+hound, who suddenly began to howl as he had done on the night of my
+arrival at the Castle.
+
+Who of us is not subject in some degree to superstitious fears? At the
+sound of Lieverlé's menacing growls, I felt a dread of I know not what,
+and I shuddered instinctively. Sperver and the Baron stood at a
+distance of fifty yards from each other; the first immovable in the
+middle of the gorge, with his rifle resting against his shoulder; the
+other, standing erect before the entrance of the cave, holding his head
+high, and surveying us with a haughty glance.
+
+"What do you want here?" he asked defiantly.
+
+"We are looking for a woman," replied the huntsman; "a woman who comes
+each year prowling about the Castle of Nideck, and we have orders to
+seize her."
+
+"Has she robbed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Has she committed murder?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+"Then what do you want of her? What right have you to pursue her?"
+
+Sperver straightened up, and fixing his gray eye on the Baron:
+
+"And you? What right have you over her?" he asked with a strange smile;
+"for she is there. I can see her at the back of the cavern. By whose
+authority do you meddle with our affairs? Do you not know that we are at
+this moment within the domains of Nideck, and that we administer all
+forms of justice at our pleasure?"
+
+The young man grew paler yet, and replied shortly:
+
+"I am not accountable to you for any act of mine."
+
+"Take care," replied Sperver; "I am acting in the name of my master, the
+Count of Nideck, and am but doing my duty. You will have to answer for
+any interference on your part."
+
+"Your duty!" exclaimed the young man, with a bitter smile; "if you speak
+of your duty, you may force me to tell you mine."
+
+"Let us hear it," cried the old steward, whose face was becoming
+discomposed with anger.
+
+"No," returned the Baron, "I will tell you nothing, nor shall you set
+foot inside this cave."
+
+"We will see about that," said Sperver, advancing towards the cavern.
+
+The young man drew his hunting-knife. Seeing this, I tried to spring
+between them, when the hound, which I was holding by a leash, shook
+himself free, throwing me to the ground with the force of the shock. I
+thought that the Baron was lost; but at the same moment a savage cry
+rose from the back of the cavern, and as I rose to my feet, I saw the
+old woman standing upright before the fire, her clothing in rags, her
+head run forward, and her gray locks scattered about her shoulders, with
+her long, skinny arms raised towards heaven, and uttering dismal howls,
+like the cries of the wolf in the cold winter nights, when hunger is
+gnawing at his entrails.
+
+Never in my life had I witnessed such a frightful spectacle. Sperver,
+motionless, with his eyes fixed on the strange scene before him, seemed
+turned to stone. The dog, surprised himself at this unexpected
+apparition, stood still for a moment, then suddenly arching his
+bristling back, he flew at the hag with a low growl of fury that made
+me shudder. The entrance to the cavern was some eight or ten feet above
+the spot where we stood, or he would have reached it with a single
+bound. I can hear him still, as he crashes through the frost-laden
+bushes, and see the Baron fling himself before the old woman with the
+heart-rending cry:
+
+"My mother!"
+
+Then, as the dog takes his final spring, Sperver, quick as lightning,
+raises his rifle, and brings down the noble animal dead at the young
+man's feet. All this was the work of an instant. The gorge was
+momentarily lighted by the rifle flash, and the echoes, taking up the
+noise of the explosion, carried it roaring and tumbling to the infinite
+depths of the neighboring crags.
+
+When the smoke cleared away, I saw Lieverlé lying stretched out at the
+foot of the rock, and the old woman fainting in the arms of the young
+man. Sperver eyed the Baron gloomily, as he dropped the butt of his
+rifle to the ground, his features working with rage and grief.
+
+"Baron," he said, pointing to the cave, "I have killed my best friend to
+save the woman whom you call your mother. You may thank God that her
+destiny was bound up with that of my master. Take her away from here.
+Take her far away, and let her never return; for, if she does, I cannot
+answer for myself."
+
+Then, glancing at his dog:
+
+"My poor Lieverlé!" he cried; "was this to be the outcome of our long
+years of friendship? Come, Gaston, let us hurry away from this accursed
+spot. I might do something I should regret afterwards."
+
+Seizing his horse's mane, he started to throw himself into his saddle,
+but suddenly his heart swelled to bursting, and dropping his head on his
+horse's neck, he wept like a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE BARON'S STORY.--HE DISAPPEARS.
+
+
+Sperver set out, carrying the body of Lieverlé in his cloak. I had
+refused to follow him, for I felt that duty compelled me to remain near
+this unhappy woman, and I could not have abandoned her without violating
+my conscience. Moreover, I am obliged to confess I was curious to
+examine more closely this mysterious being, and hardly had Sperver
+disappeared in the darkness of the defile before I began climbing the
+path to the cavern. A strange sight awaited me there. Upon a large fur
+cloak with green facings lay the old woman in a long purple robe, with
+a golden arrow stuck through her gray hair, her withered hands
+clutching her breast.
+
+Time will never efface the image of this woman from my mind. Her
+vulture-like face, distorted by the last agonies of death, her staring
+eyes and half-opened mouth, were appalling to look upon. Such might have
+been the last hour of the terrible Queen Frédégonde. The Baron, on his
+knees beside her, tried to restore her to animation, but at the first
+glance it was evident to me that the unfortunate creature was dying, and
+it was not without a sentiment of profound pity that I kneeled to raise
+her arm.
+
+"Leave her alone! How dare you touch her?" cried the young man
+bitterly.
+
+"I am a doctor, monsieur."
+
+"Ah, pardon me!"
+
+He was deathly pale, and his lips trembled nervously. After a moment, he
+asked:
+
+"What is your opinion, monsieur?"
+
+"It is over. She is dead."
+
+Without replying, he leaned back against the wall of the cavern, his
+forehead resting in his hands, and staring straight before him,
+motionless as marble. I sat near the fire, watching the flames as they
+climbed to the arched top of the cave, casting their vivid reflections
+upon the rigid features of the Black Plague.
+
+We had been sitting thus for a full hour without stirring, when suddenly
+lifting his head, the Baron said to me:
+
+"Monsieur, all this confounds me. Here is my mother,--for twenty-six
+years I thought I knew her, and now a whole world of mystery and horror
+opens itself before my eyes. You are a doctor; tell me if you have ever
+known anything like it before."
+
+"Monsieur," I replied, "the Count of Nideck is afflicted with a malady
+that bears a striking resemblance to that of which your mother has been
+the victim. If you have confidence enough in me to relate to me the
+facts which you yourself must have witnessed, I will gladly tell you
+what I know of the matter, for this exchange may be the means of saving
+my patient."
+
+As I began to speak the Baron started, and exclaimed:
+
+"What? the Count of Nideck visited thus? This is more than a
+coincidence."
+
+And without further parley he informed me that the Baroness Zimmer,
+belonging to one of the noblest families in Saxony, and being a blood
+relation of the Count of Nideck (to whom he should have made himself
+known had not circumstances required that he should maintain the
+strictest secrecy as to his identity), had been accustomed for many
+years to make a journey into Italy towards Christmas, accompanied by an
+old man servant, who alone possessed her entire confidence; that this
+man, being at the point of death, had desired a private interview with
+her son, and that at the last hour, tormented no doubt by remorse, he
+had told the young man that his mother's journey into Italy was only a
+pretext to furnish her a means of making an excursion into the Black
+Forest, of the object of which he himself was in ignorance, but which
+must have been of some fearful nature, since the Baroness invariably
+returned haggard, in rags, and almost dead, and that it required weeks
+of rest to repair the terrible fatigues of these few days.
+
+This is what the old servant had related to the young Baron, thinking
+that in so doing he was only fulfilling his duty. The son, wishing to
+learn the truth of his story, whatever the cost to himself, had this
+very year verified the incomprehensible fact by following his mother
+first to Baden, and then pursuing her step by step into the gorges of
+the Black Forest. The tracks which Sebalt had discovered on the
+Altenberg were his.
+
+When the Baron had finished his confidence, I thought that I ought no
+longer to conceal from him the singular influence which the advent of
+the old woman exercised upon the Count's health, nor indeed any of the
+attendant circumstances, and accordingly, I imparted to him even the
+slightest details.
+
+The Baron was amazed by the coincidence of these facts; the mysterious
+attraction which these two beings exercised over one another without
+knowing it, the ghastly drama which they had enacted without
+consciousness, the acquaintance which the old woman had shown with the
+Castle and its most secret passages, without ever having seen them
+before; the costume which she had discovered in which to carry out the
+murder in pantomime, and which could only have been discovered in some
+mysterious retreat which magnetic clairvoyance had revealed to her.
+
+When I had ended the recital of my experiences, the Baron relapsed into
+his former gloomy silence, nor did he again rouse from it while I
+remained near him. I fancied I could read in his face and attitude the
+one wish to distance himself forever from the scene of this bitter
+revelation.
+
+While we were still sitting, each one buried in his own reflections, the
+darkness of night began to fade. An owl, far off in the shadows, sounded
+the retreat of darkness with its strange note, like the gurgling of
+liquid from a bottle. Presently we heard a whinnying in the depths of
+the defile, and then, in the first rays of dawn, we saw a sledge
+approaching, driven by the Baron's servant. It was covered with straw,
+and upon it rested a litter, on which we laid the body of the old woman.
+
+I mounted my horse, who did not seem sorry to stretch his legs again,
+having stood half the night in the snow, and I accompanied the sledge as
+far as the outlet of the glen. There, having gravely saluted one another
+for the last time, they proceeded in the direction of Hirschland, and I
+on my way towards the Castle of Nideck.
+
+At nine o'clock I was again in Odile's presence.
+
+"The Plague is dead!" I cried, "and the spell is raised forever from
+the Castle. Henceforth we may look for the olden days at Nideck."
+
+[Illustration: "ODILE DROPPED HER EYES."]
+
+And I related the extraordinary experiences of the last twenty-four
+hours, exulting in our victory over the hag. When I had finished, and
+recalled to my now happy love her promise of the day before, Odile
+dropped her eyes, flushed charmingly, and returned the pressure of my
+hand with averted head.
+
+After some precious moments passed in the indulgence of our new-found
+happiness, I proceeded to the Count's chamber. I found him in a very
+satisfactory condition. He was naturally in a state of complete
+exhaustion after the terrible crises that he had been through, but was
+entirely himself, and the fever had disappeared the evening before.
+Everything pointed towards a speedy recovery.
+
+"Monsieur," I said, as he greeted me with a warm grasp of my hand, "your
+restored health is assured, and it is but the matter of a few days when
+you will be able to indulge in your favorite pastime again."
+
+"I believe you, monsieur! I feel that myself as I have never done
+before, and I am bound that you shall remain at Nideck and accompany me
+on my first boar hunt."
+
+"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, monsieur," I replied. "Though
+an entire novice in the art, I shall doubtless gain much by employing my
+powers of observation."
+
+"And furthermore," continued the Count, "your reward for this greatest
+of all services which you have performed for me shall be whatever you
+may require that lies within my gift!"
+
+"Monsieur," I replied, bowing low, "your generosity overwhelms me.
+However, we will discuss the matter of compensation at a future time,
+when your strength will better admit of it. At present let me say that
+the existing state of affairs is an ample reward for anything I may have
+been able to accomplish in your behalf." And meanwhile I wondered if the
+Count realized the significance of his promise as I reflected upon the
+recompense I was presently to seek at his hands.
+
+As his malady left him, I found the master of Nideck a changed man. His
+features, which had at first aroused only a sentiment of repugnance in
+me, slowly resumed their natural expression, and became dignified and
+even handsome. His generosity and kindness exceeded anything I had
+before experienced, and everything that Knapwurst had declared in his
+master's favor was realized to the utmost. From liking I grew to loving
+him, as I felt indeed I must have done if only as the author of Odile's
+being.
+
+The fortnight that followed was one of rejoicing throughout Nideck. The
+Count gained with wonderful rapidity, and for a week past he had moved
+about the Castle with a buoyancy and contentment of demeanor which only
+Odile and the old steward could recall having seen in him long years
+before, ere the dead witch had yet entwined him in the meshes of her
+baneful spell.
+
+Even the grim, melancholy Sebalt had become grotesquely gay, and he
+discontinued his matinal post on the Altenberg, feeling, no doubt, that
+he had contributed not a little to his master's recovery. As for
+Sperver, he was radiant, and he would come to my chamber late at night,
+after I had left Odile, and as we sat over our bottles we would discuss
+for the fiftieth time the circumstances of my stay within the Castle.
+
+During the earlier stages of the Count's convalescence I repaired each
+morning to his chamber, where I invariably found Odile arrived before
+me, and as the Count was fond of reading, which served to wear away the
+period of his enforced inactivity, Odile and I would share for hours
+together the reading of "Garin the Lorrainer," which was one of his
+favorite romances.
+
+The extent of my contentment may be imagined. Whenever I glanced up from
+my book as it became necessary to turn a page, I invariably met Odile's
+eyes fastened upon my face, and speaking the whole language of love and
+contentment, and when she in turn assumed the reading, I found myself
+lost in a world of reverie and speculation as I continued to study her
+beautiful face, which was always a revelation to me, no matter how long
+it remained before my gaze.
+
+Oh, the delight of all this! How I pity you crabbed misanthropes who
+know not the richness of a loving woman's endearments!
+
+I had determined, with Odile's sanction, to broach the subject of our
+betrothal to the Count as soon as his health would permit it.
+
+Meanwhile, our hours at table were spent in laying plans for our future.
+I was sanguine of success in my avowal, for added to the Count's desire
+of seeing his line perpetuated,--which lay nearest his heart,--I knew
+that he felt, though how deservedly I leave it to the reader to
+determine, that I had been instrumental in restoring him to health.
+These considerations, combined with his invariable desire to secure to
+his daughter her slightest wish or whim, I believed would be sufficient
+to ensure the consummation of my desire. Moreover, with my beloved
+champion beside me, I felt strong enough to overcome the opposition of
+the universe.
+
+But the future still held something in store, and as it often happens
+when we fancy ourselves beyond the reach of an adverse Fate, we may in
+reality be standing within the shadows of the Valley of Darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BOAR HUNT.
+
+
+"You must be ready to start with the Count in an hour," exclaimed
+Sperver, as he stood on my threshold before the sun had yet risen.
+"Sebalt and Becker came in late last night, famished, and covered with
+mud, and they have reported a wild boar's tracks near the Leidenthal. I
+will lend you whatever clothes you need, but be quick, for there's only
+breakfast between us and the start."
+
+I got up, and taking a hasty plunge in the icy water beside my bed,
+which served to drive the vapors from my brain, I half dressed myself,
+and followed Sperver to his room.
+
+"The beaters found game worthy of our powder," continued Gideon. "They
+brought back a dried clump of bog-mud with an enormous hoof-print in the
+middle of it. If the Count's carbine misses fire, we must stand in well
+beside him this time, though he always grudges the fatal shot to any arm
+but his own."
+
+I paid little heed to his words, busied as I was in accommodating myself
+to my borrowed garments, and I presently emerged from the chamber
+dressed in a leather hunting-jacket, cap, and long gaiters which reached
+to my hips; a carbine and long hunting-knife completed my outfit.
+
+"If I only had you for a couple of weeks on the forest patrol, I would
+make a first-class shot out of you," said Sperver with a grin. "As it
+is, I suppose you know as much about a gun as a pike does of mountain
+climbing."
+
+"Just about!" I laughed. "However, I'm fortunately in such good company
+that it will make little difference whether I can tell the muzzle from
+the stock, or not."
+
+"There's something in that," he returned; "and as there are to be ladies
+in the party you may find other employment as agreeable as the killing
+of animals," and he looked at me with a dry twitching of his mouth.
+
+I made no reply to this beyond rather a grim smile, and a moment later
+we reached the dining-room. I found the Count dressed in
+hunting-costume, seated at the table, on which Tobias was placing the
+last dishes for the breakfast. He complimented me on my professional
+appearance, and added that, judging from externals, a little practice
+was all that was necessary to make me an accomplished huntsman.
+
+I looked in vain for Odile as I entered the room, but she presently
+appeared in a close-fitting habit which became her marvellously well,
+sparkling with health and freshness, and bearing in one hand her long
+skirt, and in the other a pearl-handled crop. A pistol with a heavy
+barrel was thrust beneath her belt, more for ornament, I fancied, than
+for service.
+
+"Ha! Odile!" cried her father, as she greeted us and took her seat at
+the table, "the mere sight of your rosy cheeks and lithe step puts new
+life into me! It's a pleasure to look at you. Isn't it so, Monsieur
+Gaston?" then, as Odile grew crimson with confusion, the Count perceived
+his blunder, and began to busy himself with the dishes before him. The
+next moment I caught Odile's eye, as she stole an amused glance at me,
+and I nodded a quick affirmative, without violence to my conscience.
+
+The meal passed with narratives of hunting exploits by the Count, who
+delighted in recalling his past experiences, often discontinuing his
+meal to illustrate by attitudes and gestures his combats with the
+different animals of the regions round about. Odile and I proved good
+listeners, though, perhaps, as one sometimes hearkens to a strain of
+music, the better to indulge his own reflections.
+
+Breakfast finished, we went down into the courtyard. A dozen horses
+stood saddled just inside the principal gate. Sebalt, in his leather
+dress, with his double-coiled horn strapped across his back, and a heavy
+cowhide whip in his hand ready to strike, held a score of dogs in leash,
+that were baying and tugging at their bonds in excited anticipation of
+the part they were to play in the day's sport. Joy gleamed in every line
+of his goat's face as his long deferred desire was now about to be
+realized. Gideon, who held the Count's horse, looked more himself than I
+had seen him since the death of poor Lieverlé; he seemed to have
+recovered much of his wonted good spirits.
+
+I pushed aside the groom who stood beside Odile's horse, and she sprang
+from my hand into the saddle. Then I, in turn, mounted my horse, and
+moved abreast of Odile and the Count.
+
+When all was in readiness, Sebalt raised his horn and sounded the
+departure as, according to Sperver, he alone could sound it.
+
+The neighboring hillsides took up the sound, and threw it back in tones
+of purest silver, and all the echoes of the valleys were awakened and
+fled away towards the rising sun. This warm February sun had done its
+work, and the snow had disappeared to a level of but a few inches,
+covered with a hard crust. We started off at a gallop. Sebalt and
+Sperver rode first, with Odile, the Count, and myself close behind them.
+Becker and the under-keepers came on in the rear.
+
+Sebalt led the pack along the base of the Gaisenberg, and skirting the
+falls of the Lauterbach, he followed along the defile at its further
+side, from which point the trail diverged in the direction of the
+Leidenthal. The weather was superb, not a cloud in the heavens, and the
+frosty air clear as crystal. The bare oaks creaked their gaunt branches,
+and the singing pines waved their lofty tops in the fresh south wind.
+The yelping of the pack could have been heard for a mile around, and
+Gideon, turning from time to time, called to them:
+
+"Hold your noise, you rascals; you'll have reason enough to howl before
+long, I'll warrant."
+
+There was little chance for conversation at the furious pace which we
+were following, and I contented myself with frequent glances at Odile,
+whose superb beauty was enhanced by the bright color in her cheeks,
+which excitement, exercise and happiness called forth. As for the Count,
+I could no longer recognize in him the dying patient of my first night
+at Nideck. All trace of his terrible illness had vanished, and he rode
+like a youth of twenty years, vigorous, calm, confident.
+
+At the end of an hour we emerged from the defile into the dazzling
+sunlight beyond. The dogs came upon the trail of the boar, and their
+long, full cries changed to exultant yappings; they glided along to
+right and left among the rocks, their noses to the ground, and they ran
+and leaped along the trail. Not one of them followed the other's lead,
+until he had verified the scent for himself; like all true hunting dogs,
+they relied only upon themselves.
+
+Meanwhile, the blast of the horn, the short, savage yelps of the pack,
+and the noise of our horses' hoofs as they pierced the sparkling snow
+crust, made music of an exciting, bewildering sort. I galloped on imbued
+to the finger-tips with the contagious anticipation everywhere around
+me.
+
+For some little time past the order of the hunt had been broken up. The
+Count, seemingly lost in the one object of the chase and oblivious to
+all else, had ridden far ahead, and had almost overtaken Sebalt and
+Sperver, who were at such a distance from us that the sound of their
+trumpets grew feebler and feebler, and at length were entirely lost,
+save that at rare intervals they reached our ears like the sigh of the
+passing breeze. The mounts of Becker and his comrades, though chosen for
+endurance and strength, were not the equal of ours in speed; and thus it
+was that Odile and I now found ourselves alone, as it were, midway in
+the plain.
+
+On we went. Every now and then Odile would turn her head and smile at
+me; then she would whisper to her horse, and we bounded along yet
+faster. From the less frequent pauses of the pack, that glided, no
+larger than rabbits now, up the distant slopes, and their straight-ahead
+course, I fancied that the foremost of the party were approaching the
+whereabouts of the game.
+
+It was now that a belt of dense woods became visible on the rising
+ground before us. The Count had by this time gained so far upon us that
+we presently saw him disappear, together with his followers, within its
+borders.
+
+"We must be in at the death!" cried Odile breathlessly; "let's make
+haste!" and she urged her horse still further, while I clapped spurs to
+mine. Twenty minutes later we had covered the intervening distance, and
+dashed into the shadows of the wood.
+
+We had not proceeded above a mile further, when we found that our road
+forked, and running over an extensive ledge of rock, swept bare of snow
+and pine-needles by the wind, we were at a loss which path to follow,
+for there were no tracks of horses nor dogs, and the direction of both
+paths being apparently the same, the noise of the pack growing
+momentarily fainter, afforded us no clue to our proper course.
+
+We reined up, impatient at this vexatious occurrence.
+
+"Which way now?" I cried to Odile.
+
+She hesitated for a moment.
+
+"Let's go to the right!" she replied. "There's a new blaze on that
+beech-tree yonder. Perhaps one of the men's guns bruised the bark as he
+passed it!" and without waiting for me to reply, she started on again.
+
+It occurred to me a few moments later that we might now be left entirely
+alone if, perchance, we had chosen the wrong path, and if our followers,
+who would inevitably meet with the same question of direction on
+reaching the fork in the road, should decide upon the one to the left.
+
+I felt little apprehension in being thus deserted, as it were, but let
+it not be understood by this that fearlessness formed any part of my
+character; it was to the more ignoble trait of ignorance that my present
+equanimity was due. I did, however, feel that Odile should be reminded
+of the fact, and I proceeded to communicate it to her; but whether it
+was that her attention was so much engrossed by the business in hand
+that she had no thought for anything else, or whether she considered my
+apprehensions groundless, her only reply was a smile and a motion of her
+head, as her horse carried her away from me, which I interpreted as
+meant to reassure me, and I gave my horse his head.
+
+From time to time we heard, far over on the mountainside, the sound of
+the woodcutter's axe, falling against the oak with measured
+stroke,--that slow, heavy stroke that is taken up and exaggerated by the
+echoes,--then the creaking of the falling tree, the shout of warning,
+and the thud of the giant as it measured its length upon the earth,
+crashing among the underbrush. Owing to the frequent windings of the
+woodland path, and the uncertain character of the ground, we were
+obliged to moderate our speed, and as we came upon the open land between
+the hills, the barking of the dogs reached us, loud for a moment, then
+faint again, as some intervening object came between us.
+
+"You hear the dogs!" cried Odile; "we are on the right path after all!"
+
+And as the sounds became more distinct with each moment, I was satisfied
+that she was right.
+
+Here and there, as we entered a dark defile, we saw the fire of the
+charcoal-burner beneath the shadowy boughs, spreading its purple ring
+over the snow-crust and even to the tops of the swaying firs, then
+drawing its uncertain rays the closer until it was no longer but a
+spark, only to spread them out again yet wider than before. The outline
+of the charcoal-burner, stooping over the flame, with his broad-brimmed
+hat flattened on his shoulders, smoking his short, black pipe, and
+turning potatoes in the embers, reminded me at a distance of the trolls
+that are said to quarry gems of untold value in the centre of the
+earth.
+
+The noise of the dogs, forming a discordant, frenzied concert, grew
+nearer every moment. At length a sharp turn to the left, as we emerged
+from the deep, narrow glen which we had been traversing for some minutes
+past, brought us, it almost seemed, right upon the game, so startling
+was the uproar that greeted us.
+
+I was now convinced that we had happened upon the right path, and I
+expected momentarily to come upon the Count's party engaged in securing
+the game. I glanced back to see if Becker and his comrades were near us,
+but our frequent windings through the forest would have concealed them
+completely from our view, even had they followed us.
+
+Up to this point I had been vaguely regretting my inexperience in the
+hunt, though I still had little realization of the danger that might
+threaten us. But now, as I heard the loud blare of Sebalt's horn not
+above a quarter of a mile before us, I felt entirely reassured, and both
+Odile and I were looking expectantly for the forms of the Count and his
+huntsmen among the trees.
+
+A few rods further on we came upon a brake, half swamp, half stubble,
+beyond which, as far as the eye could reach, the sun once more shone
+brightly. We advanced at a walk, which the treacherous nature of the
+ground made necessary. The din of the maddened dogs, and a strange,
+ominous snarl, the like of which I had never before heard, told us that
+the beast was run, or nearly run, to earth.
+
+"Whose hand will the slaying fall to to-day?" I exclaimed laughingly to
+Odile.
+
+"To my father's, if his aim is true," replied Odile excitedly.
+
+She had hardly finished these words when a sudden parting of the bushes
+before us brought us into a crescent-shaped clearing some fifty yards in
+extent, and entered at its opposite side by the other forest path.
+Directly in the centre of this clearing, surrounded by a score of dogs
+that had seized him by the ears and neck, and were vainly endeavoring to
+bear him down, regardless of those of their number who had succumbed to
+his savage tusks,--was a huge wild boar!
+
+I confess to a sensation of horror at the sight. I glanced involuntarily
+at Odile, whom I would have given anything in the gift of man to see
+removed as far as possible from the spot. She, apparently undaunted
+still, though with a shade less color in her fair cheeks, turned hastily
+towards me and motioned me to hand her my rifle. I complied with
+misgiving, silently cursing my ignorance of the weapon's use, and in
+another moment Odile was gazing along its glistening barrel.
+
+There was a report, and though the aim was true it failed of its effect.
+And now the raging brute, infuriated by the pain of the wound, charged
+directly upon Odile, heedless of the sharp fangs which lacerated him,
+unchecked by the combined strength of the pack.
+
+My dismay was complete when, the next moment, the frightened animal
+which Odile rode, rearing up at the boar's furious onslaught, lost its
+footing in the treacherous bog-land and fell on its side,--happily upon
+its right side.
+
+[Illustration: "I FELL UPON MY KNEE BEFORE THE BRUTE."]
+
+Leaping to the ground, I had only time to seize my love about the waist
+and swing her beyond the reach of the horse's flying hoofs, when the
+boar was upon me. There was no time for reflection. I fell upon my knees
+before the brute, my hunting-knife extended straight before me, and held
+with all the strength of my arm.
+
+So quickly works the eye sometimes, in moments of danger, that in this
+instant I saw the Count, or rather, perhaps, he came within my range of
+vision, pale as death, and riding at the highest speed along the
+opposite path, while close behind him followed Gideon and Kraft.
+
+The knife in my hand never swerved, for the love I bore Odile steadied
+my arm as I fancy that alone could have done. The mad rush of the boar
+was but the means of his surer destruction. He came straight upon the
+knife, and the momentum of his ponderous body drove the steel deep
+through his heart. I felt the gush of his life's blood pour over my arm
+and chest; then I heard a cry from Odile's lips and a shout of wild
+triumph from the Count and his huntsmen; then I fell backwards, my
+consciousness half crushed out by the enormous weight of the brute's
+body as it struck against me in its swaying fall to the earth.
+
+A moment later Odile, oblivious to all around her, had thrown herself
+into my arms and burst into uncontrollable tears. The crisis of the
+moment just passed had completely unnerved her and robbed her of her
+usual calm control.
+
+We stood thus when the Count reined up before us.
+
+"Ha! is it so?" he exclaimed, endeavoring to hide his emotion beneath a
+joking exterior. "And why not? Who deserves better of a woman than the
+lad who has saved her life and her father's too!" And as Sebalt and
+Gideon rode up, all three jumped from their saddles and wrung my hands,
+while good old Sperver beamed with gratified pride, and pulled the brim
+of his hat down over his eyes to screen them from the glare of the sun.
+
+These words of the Count had filled our cup of happiness to the brim.
+Though I had dared to hope for little exception on his part when I
+should determine to impart to him my wishes, yet this complete and
+cordial acceptance of the relationship existing between Odile and myself
+filled me with unwonted exultation. Nor was the Count's satisfaction any
+less, I believe, as he realized that the fulfilment of that desire which
+lay nearest his heart was now assured him. It seemed, moreover, that he
+had guessed something of the truth during the hours which we had passed
+together in his sick-room.
+
+"Aye," said he, in speaking of it afterwards, "did you think I had not
+weighed my words, Gaston, when I promised you any reward you should
+require of me? And was I wrong in believing that such a spirited lad as
+you, and one after my own heart, might find his happiness in Odile; for
+she is lovely, is she not, though she is my child?"
+
+For all answer, I drew Odile closer to me, and kissed the fair face that
+rested on my shoulder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE BANQUET.--THE DWARF EXPLAINS THE MYSTERY OF THE NIDECK HOUSE.
+
+
+The body of the boar was strapped across the backs of the two horses
+which the beaters, Wilhelm Mölz and Yeri Scharf, relinquished for the
+purpose, themselves returning on foot to the Castle.
+
+I looked with strange fascination at the shaggy brute that had so nearly
+put an end to all my cherished prospects. The bristling, wiry hair
+running over head and shoulders and extending half-way to the haunches;
+the broad yellow tusks that forced up the black, leathery upper lip;
+the small, savage eyes now glazed and half-closed in death, all inspired
+me with reluctant curiosity and loathing.
+
+We retraced our road to the Castle, walking our jaded mounts. The dogs
+followed close behind us, their tongues lolling from their mouths, and
+eyeing at intervals their fallen foe, as if not yet sure that he was
+beyond renewing the combat.
+
+As we reached the eventful fork in the forest path, the Count drew up:
+
+"Here's where you went astray," he said; "you didn't see the bit of red
+flannel, torn from the lining of Sebalt's jacket, that we pinned to the
+tree, just here, within the left-hand path? By Jove, it's gone! This
+stiff breeze must have drawn it against the knife's edge and cut it
+through. Look! There it is, caught in the thicket."
+
+Sure enough, a long strip of red flannel was fluttering in the twigs of
+the underbrush a few feet away.
+
+"I shudder when I think how we might be returning now!" exclaimed the
+Count, and a look of gloom settled for a moment upon his face.
+
+Gideon rode up to the tree, and pulling out his hunting-knife, restored
+it to his belt. We looked thoughtfully along the fateful path for
+several minutes still. Then we resumed our homeward course.
+
+It was towards two o'clock when we trooped into the courtyard. We
+presented a somewhat less spirited appearance than at our setting out
+at daybreak, but we were victorious and happy, nevertheless.
+
+While the huntsmen and hostlers were busy in removing the boar and
+caring for the dogs and horses, the Count continued to the lodge gate,
+and Odile and I followed him leisurely, along the rugged path.
+
+As we passed the lodge room, wherein we could descry the dwarf and a
+half-dozen other figures seated about the fireplace, Offenloch stepped
+out, and bowing to the Count, he said:
+
+"Some musicians from the Forest, monsieur! They ask permission to play
+in the Castle this evening in return for food and a night's lodging."
+
+"Good!" said the Count; "music is just what we want, and such as these
+fellows play! For I was just sending for you, Offenloch, to bid you
+prepare a feast to-night worthy of the triple event to be celebrated.
+Tell all the people of the Castle to be present in the dining-room at
+eight o'clock, and see that no one of them all is missing. These players
+shall furnish us music. Let nothing be wanting to every one's pleasure."
+
+The delighted butler smiled expectantly, and withdrew to carry out his
+master's instructions.
+
+We continued to the drawing-room, where we took leave of one another to
+prepare for the evening's festivities. A few minutes later I found
+myself in my chamber. I was pretty thoroughly used up with the unusual
+experiences of the morning, and throwing off my borrowed clothes, I lay
+down on my bed, where I presently fell into a leaden slumber.
+
+I woke some hours later, much refreshed, to find the sun set and my
+tower chamber dark. After five minutes of yawning and stretching, I got
+up, and striking a light, I set about to prepare myself for the feast.
+
+Meanwhile I reflected--in that state of complete happiness which life
+cannot offer twice, and which it does not often fall to our lot that
+first time to embrace--upon the circumstances of my present. It seemed
+like the touch of the genie's hand that I should now find myself
+installed for all time at Nideck, the accepted lover of its mistress,
+and beloved by its master, the Count.
+
+I was still reflecting in this wise as I went down the stairs to the
+dining-room. I found a gay company assembled there. Many of the faces
+were new to me, as I had never penetrated to the remoter parts of the
+Castle; but all were gay and laughing, and bespoke impatient expectation
+of the amusement in store for them. The arrangements for the repast were
+elaborate and complete, and worthy of their projector, Offenloch.
+
+Hardly had the members of the household finished greeting me, when Odile
+appeared on the Count's arm, her exquisite beauty well set off by a rich
+gown of black brocade that made her complexion dazzling by contrast, and
+in her hair a single band of jewels.
+
+They proceeded to the head of the table, and the Count motioned me to
+him. Then, with Odile on his right hand and I at his left, he addressed
+the gathering:
+
+"My friends," said he, "you shall now know the purpose of your being
+called hither to-night. It is to celebrate the greatest of all events in
+the lives of three of us; namely, the saving of your mistress's life
+this morning, as you have doubtless already heard, and the restoration
+of your master's health, both the work of Monsieur de la Roche beside me
+here" (I experienced much more embarrassment than gratification at this
+unexpected eulogy), "and lastly, that which is fraught with like
+significance for us all, the betrothal of your mistress and our
+benefactor!"
+
+At this point the Count was interrupted by a chorus of cheers that were
+prolonged for several moments. As the noise subsided he went on:
+
+"It is well known to you all how dear to me the thought has been of
+feeling that the ancient line of Nideck, which has held an honorable
+place in the history of Alsace for many centuries, should continue to
+flourish long after I, Count Hermann, shall have passed away. That time
+is not far distant, and when it comes it rejoices me to think that I
+shall hand over to these young people beside me here the future of my
+race. Your young master has endeared himself already to your hearts, and
+he will continue to do so during the years which are to come. Your
+devotion to me in the past has been complete, and the memory of it is
+one of the proudest of my possessions; and now I ask you to extend this
+devotion to those who shall succeed me when I in turn pass on the Castle
+and its lands. And now but one more word. This night shall be devoted to
+revelry, and there should be no downcast eye among us! He who rejoices
+most shall best prove his loyalty to his house. Eat, drink, and be
+merry! The Count of Nideck requires it of you!"
+
+He paused, and a chorus of shouts greeted his message of good-will. The
+old housekeeper wiped her eyes with a corner of her apron, while some of
+the younger maids were reduced even to whimpering; the men maintained a
+sturdy silence, but it was evident that all, especially the old steward,
+the dwarf, and the master of the hounds, were no less affected than the
+women.
+
+Ere we resumed our seats, the ancient wassail-bowl of the Nidecks,
+blackened by centuries past, was filled to overflowing with sparkling
+wine from the Drachenfels, and went the round of the table, each one
+draining all he could at a breath. The generous draught served to
+increase the already growing hilarity. The happy eyes and faces sparkled
+more brightly under its magic spell. Then, in response to a signal from
+the Count, we seated ourselves about the board.
+
+The table fairly groaned beneath its burden of dishes ranged everywhere
+with lavish profusion. Bottles of all shapes and sizes, cobwebbed and
+redolent of the Castle's earthen vaults, were dotted all about, with
+glasses of as various patterns beside them, and long-stemmed pipes lay
+beside the plate of each smoker, while an army of small dishes, the
+contents of which I could not even guess, were ranged the length of the
+board. Directly in the centre of it all, in an enormous platter of
+flowered china, rested the head of the ill-favored boar, swimming in a
+lake of white wine sauce.
+
+The meal progressed; the merriment increased. To-night there was license
+everywhere, and each one enjoyed himself after his own manner. Healths
+were emptied with marvellous rapidity till I felt my head reeling with
+the fumes of the wine and the intoxication of happiness.
+
+An hour passed. The Count, Odile, and I, were toasted at intervals of
+every few minutes. I wondered how long this state of things could
+continue successfully. I looked about me.
+
+There was Sperver, a little distance down the table, with his thin
+forehead and bristling gray head, his eyes shining and his mustache wet
+with wine; at his right sat Knapwurst and on his left Marie Lagoutte.
+His cheeks were a good deal flushed, and on his breast sparkled the
+badge of his office; it was a pleasure to see his honest, happy face.
+Marie Lagoutte was even more loquacious than was her wont; her large,
+cotton cap was pushed very much to one side, and she drank first with
+one and then with another with the greatest impartiality.
+
+Knapwurst, squatting in his armchair, his head on a level with Sperver's
+elbow, looked like an enormous cabbage. Then came Tobias Offenloch, so
+red that he looked as though he had dipped his face in the wine before
+him. His wig rested against the chair-back, and his wooden leg was stuck
+straight out before him under the table. Further on, Sebalt's long,
+melancholy face stood out in grotesque relief, smiling faintly into his
+glass.
+
+There were, besides the musicians, the serving-men and women, domestics
+and hangers-on,--all that little world, in short, which lives and
+flourishes around great families as the moss, the ivy, and the
+convolvulus cling about the forest oak. Their eyes were moist with
+wine-begotten tears. The Vine of Bacchus wept freely everywhere. The
+light of the great bronze lamp shed over all its beautiful amber tint
+and left in the shadows the old gray walls where hung in wreaths the
+trumpets, bugles, and horns of the former lords of the Castle. The scene
+was like a glimpse from ages past.
+
+The roof rang with songs and shouts, and ballads long lain dormant in
+the minds of the singers now came forth and woke the startled echoes of
+the Castle.
+
+For my part, I did little else but listen and occupy myself with the
+faces about me; for thanks to the exercise of the morning and my long
+inhaling of the old wine, smelling of vervain and cypress, that mounted
+to my brain, and clothed all things for me in vague, unreal beauty, I
+was in that wholly receptive mood which disaffects even the semblance of
+effort.
+
+So I listened with entire complacency to the singularly successful
+efforts of the entertainers, who were elated to an unusual degree by
+every circumstance of the occasion.
+
+The evening wore on. The boar's head had disappeared; the array of small
+dishes was reduced to a mass of indistinguishable débris; one set of
+bottles had been emptied and replaced by another, and our pipe-bowls
+were aglow.
+
+At this point the Count suggested that we should have music. The
+musicians, having enjoyed their fill of food and wine, and burned out a
+generous pipe, hastened to comply.
+
+Taking up their instruments, they moved over before the hearth, where
+seats had been arranged for them in the form of a semicircle. They
+seated themselves, and began to put their instruments in tune.
+
+It was a picturesque sight, these sons of the Black Forest seated in the
+dim light of the hall,--the old harper, bent with years, leaning over
+his instrument; next him a short, thick-set fellow, whom his comrades
+called Black Pierre, passively supporting his 'cello, and gazing about
+him curiously at the unfamiliar objects in the room; at his side the
+handsome, jovial-looking flute player, a picture of rugged health and
+careless good humor; while next in line came a man of medium stature,
+whose indistinctive features were rendered more so by the large creases
+in his cheeks, made by supporting his violin, which he held firmly
+beneath his square chin, while he tightened the horse-hair of his bow;
+and finally, to complete the semicircle, the clarinet player, a slight,
+sunburned boy, scarce turned eighteen, unmistakably a member of one of
+those numerous Gypsy bands whose camps are always to be found in the
+plateau of the Rothalps between Alsace and Lorraine.
+
+The music began, and in justice to the vagabond players it must be said
+that it was of no ordinary degree of excellence. All the fire and pathos
+of their lawless natures was blended in the melody; now low and sad and
+tender as the reveries of old age itself; then rising and swelling into
+a burst of passion and longing that bewildered and electrified you; then
+in the midst of all this followed a lively measure, persuasive and
+careless, that in turn gave way to a waltz, foolish, palpitating,
+wanton.
+
+I sat enchanted, my eyes roving over the faces of those around me.
+Odile, too, seemed to find the strains a fitting accompaniment to her
+thoughts, for she nodded approvingly at me from time to time, and once I
+thought I saw a tear hang on her eyelash. However, that may have been
+mere imagination, as I invariably become sentimental with my third
+bottle.
+
+After a little the music began again. This time it was Schiller's
+"Brigands," and this more ambitious undertaking was rendered with a
+spirit and understanding hardly to be looked for in those who rarely
+aspired higher than the audiences of the inns, or the woodcutter's
+gatherings in the shambles of the forest.
+
+I glanced once more about me. Everyone's eyes were fastened on the
+flooring. Even the frowzy scullion, who winced as he became conscious of
+my gaze, and passed the back of his hand across his nose apologetically,
+seemed lifted for the moment from his pots and kettles to loftier
+thoughts. Other pieces followed; there were those to suit every mood and
+fancy. The Count was enthusiastic in his applause at the end of each
+number, and demanded more, while the others expressed their satisfaction
+with clapping and stamps on the stone floor.
+
+When at last the music came to an end, the players were rewarded with
+generous gold pieces by the master, and returned well satisfied to the
+table to wear away what little was left of the night, in wine and
+conversation.
+
+The hour was late. The old clock ticked on in the chimney-corner, and
+groaned in its casing as its heavy weights ran out their length. The
+fire fell on the hearth; the great yule logs of the early evening had
+given out their substance, and now were crumbling away into ruddy embers
+and soft, flaky ashes. And still the merriment continued, still glasses
+were filled and drained, and still the call for songs and stories went
+on.
+
+At length, at that hour when fatigue begins to assert itself over
+inclination, when vitality is low, and the shadows become deeper,
+colder, and the night more mysterious, then it was that the Count
+exclaimed:
+
+"Each one shall sing a final song except Knapwurst, for he has a voice
+like a bull-frog, but he is first in story-telling in all Alsace! When
+it comes his turn he shall tell us a story. Sperver, you shall begin
+with the song of Black Hatto the Burgrave!
+
+  "I am the king of these mountains of mine."
+
+And the steward, rising and standing like the figure of the wild
+huntsman in the heather, thundered forth the song with wonderful effect.
+The entire room joined in the chorus, and the old suits of mail fairly
+creaked and trembled with the sound.
+
+"Bravo!" cried the Count. "Nobly done, Sperver! It is your turn now,
+Becker! Sing what you like!"
+
+Becker, whose arm had stolen unperceived around Gretchen's waist, got
+up hastily, in some embarrassment, and steadying himself against the
+table, complied with a species of madrigal, proclaiming the virtues of
+lasses of the present, and claiming in a loud refrain that they were
+quite the equal of those of the olden times. And in truth they were,
+judging from the fair faces at intervals about the board, sitting with
+their eyes veiled by long, drooping lashes, as sleep and the wine were
+now stealing over them. The kennel-keeper's tribute to their charms
+served to arouse them, however, and they stole shy and gratified glances
+at each other as he sang.
+
+After Becker, the Gypsy youth followed with a herdsman's jodel, and so
+the round was gradually completed.
+
+The clock struck two from its niche in the corner. The last embers
+flared up and fell. The lamp burned low.
+
+"A story from Knapwurst now!" exclaimed the Count; "and then the day is
+done!"
+
+A complete silence succeeded; Knapwurst's quaint relations were
+favorites, it seemed.
+
+The dwarf, half-tipsy as a result of his liberal potations, rested his
+elbows on the table, and with his fists dug into his hollow cheeks, and
+his eyes staring out of his head, he began in a harsh, monotonous voice:
+
+"Bernhard Hertzog relates that the Burgrave Hugh, surnamed the Wolf, the
+founder of Nideck, having become old, used to cover his head with a sort
+of hood that fell down about his shoulders, which he wore over his
+steel helmet when engaged in combat; when he wished to breathe more
+easily, he removed the helmet and covered his head with the hood alone,
+the scallops of which hung down about his waist. Up to the age of
+eighty-two, Hugh still wore his armor, though he could hardly breathe in
+it. Then he sent for Otto of Burlach, his chaplain; Hugh, his eldest
+son; Berthold, his second son; and his daughter, Bertha, of the red
+hair, the wife of a Saxon chief named Zaan, and said to them, 'Your
+mother, the she-wolf, has bequeathed to you her claws; her blood is
+mixed with mine, and it will be born again among you from century to
+century, and weep among the snows of the Black Forest. Some will say,
+'It is the moaning of the wind!' Others, 'Hark! The owl hoots!' But it
+is your blood, mine, and the blood of the she-wolf who made me to murder
+Elfreda, my first wife before God and the Holy Church! Yes, she has
+perished by my hand. Cursed be the she-wolf, for it is written, 'I will
+visit the crime of the father upon the children, unto the third and
+fourth generations;' aye, until justice be done.' And old Hugh died.
+From that day the north wind has sobbed, and the owl has hooted, and the
+lost traveller by night knows not that it is the blood of the she-wolf
+bemoaning her crime. 'And she will bemoan it,' says Hertzog, 'from
+century to century, until that day when Hugh's first wife, Elfreda,
+shall reappear in the form of an angel at Nideck, to pardon and
+console.'"
+
+The dwarf paused, and silence succeeded, which lasted for a full minute;
+then he continued, with drunken gravity, pointing his long forefinger at
+Odile:
+
+"There is she who was to return to pardon and console. She has returned.
+At this moment she is sitting beside the Count, our master! Look, sirs!
+Do you not recognize her? Is it not she? Henceforth the lords of Nideck
+may rest in peace, for justice is done, and the good angel of this noble
+house has returned."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Count of Nideck, by Ralph Browning Fiske
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+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Count of Nideck, by Ralph Browning Fiske.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
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+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
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+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
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+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Count of Nideck, by Ralph Browning Fiske
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Count of Nideck
+       adapted from the French of Erckmann-Chartrian
+
+Author: Ralph Browning Fiske
+
+Illustrator: Victor A. Searles
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2011 [EBook #34999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF NIDECK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from
+scanned images of public domain material from the Google
+Print archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 384px;">
+<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" width="384" height="600" alt="Book Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE COUNT OF NIDECK</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 380px;"><a name="ILL_002" id="ILL_002"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="380" height="600" alt="&quot;AND THE COUNT WAS STANDING UPRIGHT ON THE WINDOW-SILL.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;AND THE COUNT WAS STANDING UPRIGHT ON THE WINDOW-SILL.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Count of Nideck</span></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Adapted FROM The French</span></h3>
+
+<h4>OF</h4>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Erckmann: Chartrian</span></h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Ralph Browning Fiske</span></h2>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATED</h3>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Victor A. Searles</span></h2>
+
+<h4>BOSTON</h4>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">L.&nbsp;C. Page &amp; Company</span></h4>
+
+<h4>INCORPORATED</h4>
+
+<h4>1897</h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1897</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By L.&nbsp;C. Page and Company</span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b><span class="smcap">The summons to the Castle</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b><span class="smcap">I meet the countess</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b><span class="smcap">My first night in Hugh's Tower</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b><span class="smcap">Knapwurst acquaints me with the genealogy of the Nidecks</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b><span class="smcap">I breakfast with Odile</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b><span class="smcap">The Count unsheathes his claws</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b><span class="smcap">Marie Lagoutte relates her experience</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b><span class="smcap">Sebalt tracks the Plague</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b><span class="smcap">The Plague in my chamber.&mdash;The midnight scene on the Altenberg</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b><span class="smcap">I lose my way and pass the night in the dwarf's lodge</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b><span class="smcap">I am summoned to the Countess's chamber, and make a confession</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b><span class="smcap">We chase the Plague.&mdash;Her death</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b><span class="smcap">The Baron's story.&mdash;He disappears</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b><span class="smcap">The boar hunt</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b><span class="smcap">The banquet.&mdash;The dwarf explains the mystery of the Nideck house</span></b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_002"><b>"<span class="smcap">And the Count was standing upright on the window-sill</span>"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_003"><b>"<span class="smcap">Pointing to a dark object crouching in the snow</span>"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_004"><b><span class="smcap">In the portrait gallery</span></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_005"><b>"'<span class="smcap">Stay!' he howled, 'I have not cursed you yet</span>'"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_006"><b>"'<span class="smcap">Yonder you see the peak of the Altenberg</span>'"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_007"><b>"<span class="smcap">Then he would resume his frightful cries</span>"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_008"><b>"<span class="smcap">I raised myself on my elbow and stared fearfully in the direction</span>"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_009"><b>"<span class="smcap">I stepped forward, and found myself in the presence of Odile</span>"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_010"><b>"<span class="smcap">Odile dropped her eyes</span>"</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_011"><b>"<span class="smcap">I fell upon my knee before the brute</span>"</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SUMMONS TO THE CASTLE.</h3>
+
+<p>Towards Christmas time, in the year 1780, as I lay soundly sleeping in
+my room at the Swan Tavern, in T&uuml;bingen, old Gideon Sperver burst
+suddenly into my room, crying, "Gaston, my boy, I have come to take you
+back with me to the Castle! You know Nideck, twenty miles from
+here,&mdash;the estate of my master, the Count of Nideck!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My failure to respond was perhaps due to the fact that I had not seen my
+worthy foster-father for twenty years, that in this time he had grown a
+full beard, and that now, in my half-aroused condition, he appeared
+before me thus, with a huge fur cap pulled down over his ears, and
+holding an ill-smelling lantern just under my nose.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place," I replied, "let's take up things in their proper
+order. Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who am I?" repeated the good fellow, with such genuine surprise and
+distress in his tones that I felt a somewhat embarrassing sense of
+ingratitude. "What! Don't you remember your foster-father, Gideon
+Sperver, the General's old ranger who saved your life as a child, in the
+swamp of the Losser?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> And his voice became so husky that he stopped and
+cleared his throat.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my dear Gideon, I know you now, indeed! Give me your hand!" We
+gripped each other's hands, and Sperver, passing his sleeve across his
+eyes, continued, "You know Nideck?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, by reputation. What are you doing there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the Count's steward."</p>
+
+<p>"And how did you happen to come hither?"</p>
+
+<p>"The young Countess Odile sent me to fetch you."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good. When are we to start?"</p>
+
+<p>"At once. It is an urgent matter; the old Count is very ill, and his
+daughter begged me to lose no time. The horses are waiting for us
+below."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear Gideon, just look at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> the weather; it has been snowing for
+three days!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! We are not starting on a boar hunt. Put on your fur coat, fasten
+on your spurs, and we are off! Meanwhile, I will order a bite for you to
+eat."</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared, and, as I never could refuse the chosen companion of my
+childhood anything from my youngest days, I hurriedly dressed myself,
+and lost no time in following him into the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I knew you would not let me go back alone!" he cried delightedly.
+"Swallow down this slice of ham and drink a stirrup-cup, for the horses
+are growing impatient. I have strapped your valise to the saddle."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that for?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will be needed for some days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> at Nideck; that is indispensable. I
+will explain everything to you on the way."</p>
+
+<p>We went down into the inn yard. At that moment two horsemen arrived.
+They seemed exhausted, and their horses were white with lather.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver, who was a great lover of horses, exclaimed in surprise, "What
+beautiful animals! They are Wallachians; fine and swift as deer. Come,
+make haste and throw a blanket over them, my lad," he continued,
+addressing the hostler, "or they may take cold!"</p>
+
+<p>The travellers, enveloped in white astrakhan greatcoats, passed close to
+us just as were putting foot in the stirrup. I could only distinguish
+the long brown moustache of one, and his dark eyes that were singularly
+bright. They entered the inn. The groom released our bridles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> and wished
+us a safe journey. We set off at a gallop.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver rode a pure Mecklenberg, and I was mounted on a spirited horse
+of Ardennes; we fairly flew over the snow. In ten minutes we had left
+the outskirts of T&uuml;bingen behind us. It was beginning to clear up. All
+trace of our road had become obliterated by the considerable fall of
+snow. Our only companions were the ravens of the Black Forest, spreading
+their great hollow wings above the drifts, lighting for an instant here
+and there, and crying in discordant notes, "Misery! Misery! Misery!"
+Gideon, buried in his coat of wild-cat skin and fur cap, galloped on
+ahead. Suddenly he turned in the saddle and called, "Hey, Gaston! This
+is what they call a fine winter's morning."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So it is; but a bit severe."</p>
+
+<p>"I like the clear cold weather; it makes you tingle. If old Parson Toby
+had the courage to start out in such weather, he would never feel his
+rheumatism again."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled as well as my stiff cheeks would let me. After an hour of this
+furious pace Sperver slowed down and let me catch up with him. "Gaston,"
+he said in a serious tone, "you ought to know the circumstances of the
+master's illness."</p>
+
+<p>"I was just thinking of that."</p>
+
+<p>"The more so, as a great number of doctors have already visited the
+Count."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; they have come from Paris, Berlin, and even Switzerland, and have
+made a most careful study of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> patient and employed all their
+skill, but to no purpose."</p>
+
+<p>As no answer seemed called for, I remained silent, waiting for him to
+continue.</p>
+
+<p>"The Count's disease is a terrible affliction somewhat akin to madness.
+It returns every year on the same day and at the same hour; his eyes
+grow red as fire, he shudders from head to foot, and he mutters
+incoherently."</p>
+
+<p>"The man has undoubtedly become unbalanced through trouble and
+adversity."</p>
+
+<p>"No! Not so! He possesses power and wealth and untold
+honors,&mdash;everything, in short, that other people most desire; but the
+most singular part of it is that he fancies if his daughter would only
+consent to marry, it would effect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> his cure; and she as strangely
+refuses even to entertain the idea, maintaining that she has consecrated
+her life to God. The Count cannot bear to think that the ancient race of
+Nideck must perish with her."</p>
+
+<p>"How did his illness first declare itself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly, twelve years ago."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke my companion seemed to be trying to recall something. "One
+evening," he began, after a moment, "I was alone with the Count in the
+armory of the Castle. It was about Christmas time. We had been hunting
+wild boar all day in the gorges of the Rhethal, and had returned at
+nightfall bringing with us two poor hounds ripped open the length of
+their bellies. It was just such weather as this, cold and snowy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> The
+Count was striding up and down the room, his head upon his breast and
+his hands clasped behind his back, like a man who is deep in thought.
+From time to time he paused, and looked at the high windows that were
+fast becoming veiled in snow, while I sat in the chimney-corner warming
+myself, thinking of my dogs, and silently cursing all the wild boar of
+the Black Forest. For fully two hours everybody in the Castle had been
+asleep, and there was no sound to break the silence, save the noise of
+the Count's heavy spurred boots on the flagstones. I distinctly recall
+how a raven, doubtless borne along by a gust of wind, came flapping
+against the panes with a discordant cry, and how the sheets of snow fell
+from the windows. The casements on that side of the house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> were suddenly
+changed from white to black."</p>
+
+<p>"Have these details any bearing on your master's illness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me finish. You shall see for yourself. At the raven's cry, the
+Count suddenly halted; his eyes became fixed, his cheeks ashy pale, and
+he bent his head forward like a hunter who hears the game approaching. I
+went on warming myself, thinking meanwhile, 'Won't he go to bed soon?'
+For, to tell the truth, I was dropping with fatigue. I can see it all,
+Gaston; I am sitting there now! Scarcely had the raven uttered its harsh
+croak above the abyss, when the old clock struck eleven. At the same
+moment the Count turned on his heel; he listened; his lips moved; I saw
+him totter like a drunken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> man. He stretched out his hands, his teeth
+tightly clenched, and his eyeballs shining like fire. 'My lord,' I
+cried, 'what is the matter?' But he burst into mad laughter, stumbled,
+and fell upon the floor, face downwards. I called for help immediately;
+the servants hurried to the room. Sebalt and I raised the Count and
+moved him to the bed near the window; but just as I was about to cut my
+master's cravat with my hunting-knife,&mdash;for I believed it was a stroke
+of apoplexy,&mdash;the Countess Odile entered, and threw herself upon the
+body of her father, uttering such piteous cries that I tremble yet when
+I think of it. From that hour, Gaston, a pall has hung over the Castle,
+and Heaven only knows when it will be lifted. Every year, at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> same
+day and hour, the Count is seized with these strange convulsions. The
+attacks last from a week to a fortnight, during which he howls and cries
+in a most terrifying manner. Then he slowly recovers. He is pale and
+weak, and moves about steadying himself on the chairs of his chamber,
+and turning fearfully to look, at the slightest sound, seemingly afraid
+of his own shadow. The young Countess, the sweetest creature in the
+world, never leaves him; but he cannot bear the sight of her at these
+times. 'Go! Go!' he cries, stretching out his arms before him. 'Leave
+me! Haven't I suffering enough as it is, without your hated presence?'
+It is abominable to hear him, and I, who am always at his side in the
+chase, and would readily risk my life to serve him,&mdash;I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> could throttle
+him at these moments, when I witness his monstrous treatment of his own
+daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>Sperver, whose swarthy face had assumed a gloomy look, set spurs to his
+horse, and we continued at a gallop. I had become thoughtful. The cure
+of such a malady seemed to me exceedingly doubtful, if not indeed
+impossible. It was evidently some moral disease. In order successfully
+to combat it, it would be necessary to trace it back to its origin, and
+this origin was doubtless lost in the vagueness of the past. These
+reflections tended to increase my apprehension. The old steward's story,
+far from inspiring me with confidence, had depressed me,&mdash;a doubtful
+state of affairs to insure success.</p>
+
+<p>It was about three o'clock when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> we descried the ancient Castle of
+Nideck on the furthest horizon. In spite of the vast intervening
+distance, we could distinguish the high turrets suspended like baskets
+from the angles of the edifice. It was as yet but a mere outline, hardly
+distinguishable from the blue sky; almost imperceptibly the red granite
+peaks of the Vosges appeared. At that moment Sperver slowed up and
+cried, "Gaston, we must get there before night shuts in. Forward!"</p>
+
+<p>But it was in vain that he plunged his spurs into his horse. The animal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+remained motionless, with his fore legs planted firmly before him, his
+mane bristling up with fear, and emitting two streams of bluish vapor
+from his nostrils.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="ILL_003" id="ILL_003"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_003.jpg" width="500" height="322" alt="&quot;POINTING TO A DARK OBJECT CROUCHING IN THE SNOW.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;POINTING TO A DARK OBJECT CROUCHING IN THE SNOW.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"What does this mean?" cried Gideon, astonished. "Do you see anything,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+Gaston? Can there&mdash;" He did not finish his sentence; pointing to a dark
+object crouching in the snow at a distance of some fifty paces on the
+hillside, he exclaimed, in a tone of such distress that I was a good
+deal startled, "The Black Plague!" Following with my glance the
+direction of his extended arm, I was astonished to perceive an aged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+woman, her legs bent up between her clasped arms, and so ragged that her
+red elbows protruded from the sleeves of her dress, seated in the snow.
+A few locks of gray hair fell in disorder about her thin, red,
+vulture-like neck. Singularly enough, a bundle of some sort rested on
+her knees, and her haggard eyes wandered over the snowy plain. Sperver
+had gone far to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> right and kept as far as possible out of the old
+creature's way. I had some trouble in overtaking him.</p>
+
+<p>"What the deuce is the meaning of all this? Are you joking?" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Joking! God forbid that I should jest about such matters. I am not
+superstitious, but this meeting with the old witch frightens me." Then,
+turning his head and seeing that the old creature had not stirred, and
+that her eyes were still fixed on the plain before her, he seemed
+somewhat reassured.</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston," he said solemnly, "you are a man of learning, and are
+acquainted with many subjects of which I know nothing, but believe me, a
+man is wrong to laugh at things he cannot understand. It is not without
+reason that I call this woman the Black Plague. Throughout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> the Black
+Forest she is known by that name, but here at Nideck she has won a
+special right to it."</p>
+
+<p>My companion rode on for a few minutes without speaking. "Come, Sperver,
+explain yourself more clearly! I confess I don't understand you in the
+least."</p>
+
+<p>"The hag that you saw down there is the cause of all our misfortunes. It
+is she who is slowly killing the Count."</p>
+
+<p>"How is that possible? How can she exercise such an influence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you. But one thing is certain: on the first day of the
+Count's attack, at the very moment even, you have only to climb up to
+the signal-tower and you will see the Black Plague crouching like a dark
+speck in the long stretch of snow between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> T&uuml;bingen Forest and the
+Castle of Nideck. Every day she comes a little nearer, and at her
+approach, the Count's attacks grow worse; sometimes when the trembling
+fits come upon him, he says to me, 'Gideon, she is coming.' I hold his
+arms and try to quiet him, but he keeps muttering with staring eyes,
+'She is coming! Oh, oh! She is coming!' Then I climb the tower and
+survey the landscape. You know I have a keen eye, Gideon. At last, amid
+the distant mists, between sky and earth, I distinguish a black speck.
+The next morning the speck has grown larger; the Count starts up in his
+bed with chattering teeth. On the second day we can see the old creature
+distinctly, almost within rifle-shot on the plain; and then it is that
+the Count's jaws<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> become set like a vice, his eyes roll in his head, and
+he utters terrible cries. Ah, the cursed witch! A score of times I have
+brought my carbine to bear on her, but the poor Count has prevented me
+from drawing the trigger, crying, 'No, Sperver; shed no blood!' Poor
+man! He is sparing the creature who is killing him by inches; he is
+nothing but skin and bones."</p>
+
+<p>My good friend Gideon was too much taken up with the vision of the hag
+to be brought back to calm reason. Moreover, who can define the exact
+limits of the possible? Do we not each day see the realm of reality
+extend itself more widely? These hidden influences, these unseen bonds,
+this world of magnetism that some proclaim with all the ardor of the
+fanatic,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> and others deny with scorn and ridicule,&mdash;who can say that all
+these forces will not some day revolutionize our universe? It is easy to
+arrogate to yourself a claim to superior knowledge in the face of such
+general ignorance. I confined myself, therefore, to begging Sperver to
+moderate his anger, and beyond all things not to fire upon the Black
+Plague, warning him that it would very probably bring grave misfortune
+upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! I will risk all that!" he exclaimed; "the worst they could do
+would be to hang me."</p>
+
+<p>"But that would be a good deal for an honest man to suffer."</p>
+
+<p>"As well die one way as another. In this case, you are suffocated,
+that's all. I would as lief die that way as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> to receive a blow on my
+head, or a stroke of apoplexy, or give up smoking, drinking, and a good
+digestion."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Gideon, that sounds odd, coming from a graybeard."</p>
+
+<p>"Graybeard or not, that is the way I look at it. I always keep a bullet
+in my rifle at the service of the witch; from time to time, I renew the
+priming, and if ever the occasion offers&mdash;" He finished his sentence by
+an expressive gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong, Sperver! I am of the same opinion as the Count: 'no
+bloodshed.' Reconsider, and discharge your piece against the first wild
+boar you happen upon."</p>
+
+<p>These words seemed to have some effect upon the old huntsman; he dropped
+his chin on his breast, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> his face assumed a thoughtful expression.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, we were climbing the wooded slopes which separate the
+squalid hamlet of Tiefenbach from the Castle of Nideck. Night had
+overtaken us, and as it often happens after a clear, cold day in winter,
+the snow was beginning to fall again, and large flakes fell and melted
+on our horses' manes. The animals whinnied and increased their pace,
+cheered doubtless by the prospect of a warm shelter. Every now and then,
+Sperver turned and looked behind him with evident anxiety, and I was not
+free from a certain indefinable apprehension as I reflected upon the
+strange account of his master's malady which the steward had given me.
+Besides, man's spirit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> harmonizes itself with its surroundings, and, for
+my part, I know of nothing more melancholy than a forest covered with
+snow and hoar frost, and stirred by a moaning wind; the trees have a
+sombre, icy look that chills you to the heart.</p>
+
+<p>As we climbed the slope, the oak-trees became fewer, and the birches,
+straight and white as marble columns, stretched one beyond another, far
+out to the horizon line intersecting the dark arches of the larch-trees.
+Suddenly, as we emerged from a thicket, the ancient fortress reared up
+before us, its dark extent sprinkled with points of light. Sperver had
+pulled up before a funnel-shaped gateway, cut deep in the rock between
+two towers, and barred by an iron grating.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here we are!" he cried, leaning over the horse's head and seizing the
+deer's-foot bell-handle. The clear tinkle of a bell sounded in the
+interior.</p>
+
+<p>After a few minutes of waiting, a lantern appeared at the end of the
+archway, dispersing the gloom, and showing us within its circle of light
+a little dwarf with a yellow beard and broad shoulders, enveloped in
+furs from head to foot. He came slowly towards us and pressed his great
+flat face against the grating, straining his eyes to make us out in the
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Sperver?" he asked in a harsh voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Open the door, Knapwurst!" cried the huntsman. "Don't you know how
+devilish cold it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I know you now," replied the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> little fellow; "it is you indeed! You
+always speak as though you would swallow people whole."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and the gnome, raising his lantern towards me with an
+odd grimace, greeted me with, "Welcome, Monsieur Doctor," but in a tone
+as much as to say, "Here is another one who will go the way of the
+rest." Then he quietly closed the door, while we dismounted, and this
+done, he came to take our horses by the bridle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>I MEET THE COUNTESS.</h3>
+
+<p>Following Sperver, who climbed the staircase at a rapid pace, I was able
+to convince myself that the Castle of Nideck merited its reputation. It
+was a true stronghold, cut out of the rock; a relic of feudal times. Its
+high, deep archways re&euml;choed the sound of our steps, and the wind
+blowing through the loopholes caused the flame of the torches which were
+fastened at intervals along the wall to flare and flicker and send our
+giant shadows dancing along the corridor. Sperver knew every nook and
+cranny of this vast place; he turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> many times to right and left, and
+I followed him, out of breath. At last he stopped on a large landing,
+and said to me:</p>
+
+<p>"I will leave you with the people of the Castle for a moment, Gaston,
+while I go to inform the young Countess Odile of your arrival."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good; do whatever you think suitable."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find among the domestics, our majordomo, Tobias Offenloch, an
+old soldier of the regiment of Nideck. In former days he made a campaign
+in Germany under the Count."</p>
+
+<p>"A good fellow, no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"You will also see his wife, a Frenchwoman, named Marie Lagoutte, who
+pretends to come of good family."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"To be sure; only, between ourselves, she was nothing but a
+canteen-woman of Soubise's army. One day she brought us in Tobias
+Offenloch on her cart, minus one leg, and the poor fellow married her
+out of gratitude; you understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely; but open the door,&mdash;I am freezing!" I tried to push past
+him, but Sperver, obstinate, like all good Germans, was bound to
+enlighten me as to the people into whose presence I was about to enter,
+and seizing me by the frogs of my greatcoat, he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is Sebalt Kraft, the master of the hounds, a sad sort of
+chap, but without an equal in sounding the horn; Karl Trumpf, the
+butler; Christian Becker, and all our people, if they haven't all gone
+to bed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Thereupon Sperver pushed open the door, and I stood surprised on the
+threshold of a high, dark hall, the former guardroom of Nideck. I took
+in at a glance the three windows at the further end of the room, that
+dominated the precipice; on the right a sort of sideboard of old oak,
+browned by age, and on it a small cask, glasses, and bottles; on the
+left a Gothic chimney with a broad mantel-shelf empurpled by the blazing
+fire underneath, and ornamented in front and on the sides by carvings
+representing the various scenes of a boar hunt in the Middle Ages; and
+finally, in the centre of the room, a long table upon which stood a huge
+lamp, its light reflected by a dozen mugs with pewter lids.</p>
+
+<p>All this I saw at a glance, but it was the people that interested me
+most.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> I recognized at once the majordomo with his wooden leg; a small,
+square, thick-set man, with a ruddy face, and prominent waistband, and a
+nose of marvellous brilliancy. He wore an enormous hemp-colored wig,
+with a long pigtail, a coat of apple-green plush with steel buttons as
+large as a five-franc piece, velvet breeches, blue silk stockings, and
+shoes with silver buckles. He was about to turn the spigot of the cask;
+an air of inexpressible satisfaction beamed upon his rubicund face, and
+his eyes, starting slightly from his head, glowed in profile like a pair
+of watch glasses. His wife, the worthy Marie Lagoutte, dressed in a gown
+of woolen stuff with a large flowered pattern, and her thin face the
+color of a withered apple, was playing cards with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> two servants, all
+three seated in straight-backed armchairs. Some small split pegs pinched
+the olfactory organ of the old woman and that of another player, while
+the third was winking slyly and seemed to enjoy seeing his opponents
+subjugated beneath this new variety of Caudine Forks.</p>
+
+<p>"How many cards?" he was asking them.</p>
+
+<p>"Two," replied the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Christian?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha! I've got you! Cut the king; now the ace. Ha, ha, ha! Another
+peg, mother; this will teach you once more to boast to us of your French
+games!"</p>
+
+<p>"Master Christian, you don't treat the fair sex with due respect."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"When we play cards, we respect nobody."</p>
+
+<p>"But you see, I have no room for any more."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! with a nose like yours, there's always room enough."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Sperver cried, "Here I am, comrades!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, Gideon! back so soon?"</p>
+
+<p>Marie Lagoutte made haste to shake off her numerous pegs with a motion
+of her head; the big majordomo emptied his glass, and everybody turned
+to look at us.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the Count better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hum!" exclaimed the majordomo, drawing down his under-lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Is his condition unchanged?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just about," answered Marie Lagoutte, who never took her eyes off me.
+Sperver noticed this.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let me present to you my foster-son, Monsieur de la Roche, from
+T&uuml;bingen," he said proudly. "Things will change now in the Castle,
+Master Tobie; now that Gaston has come, this cursed malady will be put
+to flight. If we could only have found him out sooner! However, better
+late than never."</p>
+
+<p>Marie Lagoutte was still watching me, and the examination seemed to
+satisfy her, for, turning to the majordomo, "Come, come, Monsieur
+Offenloch! Stir yourself," she said; "offer monsieur the doctor a chair!
+You sit there with your mouth open like a great carp!"</p>
+
+<p>With these words, the good woman sprang up as though moved by a spring,
+and came to help me off with my greatcoat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Permit me, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good, my dear woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Hand it to me, monsieur. Such weather! Ah, monsieur, what a country
+this is!"</p>
+
+<p>"So our master is neither better nor worse," continued Sperver, shaking
+the snow from his cap. "We are here in time. Ho! Kasper! Kasper!"</p>
+
+<p>A little man with a drooping shoulder, indicating a partial paralysis of
+his frame, and a face liberally sprinkled with freckles, came out of the
+chimney-corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Here I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! You must prepare for the doctor the chamber at the end of the
+long gallery,&mdash;Hugh's chamber. You know which one."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Sperver. I will see to it at once."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"One moment! You will take the doctor's valise with you as you go.
+Knapwurst will give it to you. As to supper&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear; I will take care of all that."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good."</p>
+
+<p>The little man went out, and Gideon, after throwing off his cape, left
+us to go and inform the young Countess of my arrival. I was somewhat
+embarrassed by the attentions of Marie Lagoutte.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, up with you, Sebalt!" she said to the master of the hounds; "you
+ought to be sufficiently roasted by this time, sprawling there since
+morning. Sit down by the fire, Monsieur Doctor; your feet must be cold.
+Stretch out your legs; that's the way." Then, after a minute: "You have
+come just in time;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> our master had his second attack yesterday, and it
+was a terrible one; hey, Master Offenloch?"</p>
+
+<p>"Terrible is just the word," replied the majordomo gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor is it to be wondered at, when a man takes no nourishment; and he
+eats nothing, monsieur. Fancy, it is two days since he has taken so much
+as a bowl of broth."</p>
+
+<p>"Or a glass of wine," added Tobie, crossing his fat hands on his
+comfortable waistband.</p>
+
+<p>I felt it incumbent upon me to express some surprise, so I shook my
+head; whereupon the majordomo came over and sat down on my right,
+saying, "Take my advice, doctor, and prescribe a bottle of Marcobrunner
+every day."</p>
+
+<p>"And a chicken wing at each meal,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> added Marie Lagoutte; "the poor man
+is as thin as a ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"We have some Marcobrunner sixty years old, and Johannisberg of the year
+'14; for Villars's fellows didn't drink it all, as Madame Offenloch
+would have it. You might prescribe now and then a glass of Johannisberg;
+there is nothing like it to set a man on his feet."</p>
+
+<p>"There was a time," said the master of the hounds in a melancholy tone,
+"there was a time when our master went on the hunt twice a week, and he
+was well; now that he has stopped, he is ill."</p>
+
+<p>"That is reasonable enough," observed Marie Lagoutte; "the fresh air
+gave him an appetite. The doctor should order him three hunts a week to
+make up for lost time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Two would do," replied the master of the hounds dismally; "two would
+do. The dogs must have some time to rest. They must be considered as
+well as we."</p>
+
+<p>A few moments of silence succeeded, during which I could hear the wind
+rattling the windows and whistling boisterously through the loopholes
+and along the empty halls. Sebalt had crossed his legs, and with his
+elbow on his knee supporting his chin, he gazed into the fire with
+unspeakable gloominess. Marie Lagoutte refreshed herself with a pinch of
+snuff, and I was reflecting on that strange infirmity that leads us to
+press our advice on others, whether they desire it or not, when the
+majordomo rose, and leaning over the back of my chair, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you have a glass of wine, doctor?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, but I never drink before visiting a patient."</p>
+
+<p>"What, not even one small glass?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even a tiny glass."</p>
+
+<p>He opened his eyes very wide, and looked with astonishment at his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur the doctor is right," she said; "I am of his opinion; I prefer
+to drink with my meals and take a glass of cognac afterwards. In my
+country, the women drink cognac; it is more genteel than kirschwasser."</p>
+
+<p>Marie Lagoutte had hardly finished this explanation, when Sperver opened
+the door part way, and motioned me to follow him. I nodded a farewell to
+the worthy company, and as I stepped into the passage, I heard Tobie's
+wife saying to him, "He is a nice-looking young man. He would have made
+a fine soldier!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Sperver looked uneasy; he said nothing. I too was
+thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>A few steps beneath the shadowy arches of the Castle served completely
+to efface from my mind the grotesque figures of Tobie and Marie
+Lagoutte,&mdash;poor, inoffensive creatures, living like bats under the
+vulture's powerful wing. Soon Gideon threw open the door of a sumptuous
+apartment, hung with violet-colored velvet worked in gold. A bronze
+lamp, resting on a corner of the mantelpiece, and covered with a globe
+of ground crystal, vaguely lighted up the room. Thick rugs deadened the
+sound of our footsteps. It seemed like a refuge consecrated to silence
+and meditation.</p>
+
+<p>On entering, Sperver lifted the heavy draperies that concealed a turret
+window.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> I saw him gaze earnestly into the plain beneath, and I divined
+his thoughts; he was looking to see if the witch were still there,
+crouching in the snow,&mdash;but he could see nothing, for the night was
+dark. As I moved forward into the room, I made out, by the pale rays of
+the lamp, a young woman of girlish figure seated in an armchair, her
+forehead resting in her hand, and her whole attitude one of patient but
+despairing sorrow. Her back was slightly turned towards us, and for this
+reason I could not at first see her face.</p>
+
+<p>But at the rustle of our entrance she rose quickly, and exhibited to my
+gaze the most beautiful presence I had ever beheld. The tall, stately
+figure, the ideal formation of the features, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> glory of golden hair
+that fell about the fair, white neck, the deep, lustrous eyes that
+bespoke a soul as pure and beautiful as the scenes among which it
+flourished,&mdash;everything about the young mistress of the Castle
+proclaimed her to be of that noble type which we meet with but once, if
+at all, in a lifetime. Just what my feelings were at sight of this
+beautiful young woman I know not, but certain it is that they were of a
+nature hitherto unknown to me, and I felt a strange sense of harmony and
+contentment within me as my glance continued to rest upon her.</p>
+
+<p>After a moment the Countess advanced, and said simply, "You are welcome,
+monsieur;" then, motioning towards the alcove where the Count lay, she
+added, "There is my father."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I bowed low, and without reply,&mdash;such was my agitation,&mdash;I approached
+the couch of the sick man. Sperver, standing at the head of the bed,
+held the lamp in his raised hand, and the light, softened by the crystal
+globe, fell palely upon the face of the Count. Odile remained near me,
+waiting anxiously for my first word.</p>
+
+<p>At the first glance I was struck with the strange physiognomy of the
+Lord of Nideck, and in contrast to the admiration that his daughter had
+inspired within me, my first thought was, "He is an old wolf!" And in
+truth, his head bristling with gray hair and swelling behind the ears;
+his long, pointed face and receding forehead; his narrow eyes and shaggy
+eyebrows that met in a point over the bridge of his nose, imperfectly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+shading the dull, cold eye beneath; his short, stiff beard, spreading
+unevenly over his bony jaws,&mdash;in short, everything about the man made me
+shudder, and brought involuntarily to my mind the oft-alleged affinities
+between man and the brute creation.</p>
+
+<p>I mastered my repugnance, and raised the arm of the sick man. It was
+wasted and tremulous, the hand small and wiry. The pulse was rapid,
+fluttering and feverish, indicating intense nervous excitement. What was
+I to do? I considered. On one side stood the young Countess, anxiously
+awaiting an expression of my opinion; on the other, Sperver, trying to
+read my thoughts and following attentively my slightest movement. A
+painful restraint was thus imposed upon me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>However, I saw that no decided step could be undertaken as yet. I
+dropped the arm, and listened to the breathing. From time to time,
+something like a sob escaped the sick man's breast; then the respiration
+became normal again; then faster, and finally, labored. Some sort of
+nightmare oppressed him. But the cause!&mdash;this I must determine first,
+and I must confess it seemed hopeless enough. I turned round, sorely
+perplexed.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any hope, monsieur?" asked the young woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday's crisis is drawing to a close, mademoiselle. We must seek to
+ward off the next attack."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that a possible thing?"</p>
+
+<p>I was about to reply in some scientific generalities, not daring to
+commit myself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> when the distant sound of the Castle bell fell upon our
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Strangers," said Sperver.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment of silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Go and see who it is," said Odile, whose brow was shadowed with
+anxiety. "How can we be hospitable at such times? It is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>Just then the door opened, and a yellow head and rosy cheeks appeared in
+the shadow, whispering, "The Baron Zimmer, accompanied by his servant,
+asks for shelter in the Castle. He has lost his way in the mountains."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Gretchen," replied the Countess quietly; "go and tell
+Offenloch to attend to the wants of the strangers. Tell him to inform
+the Baron Zimmer that the Count is very ill, and that this alone
+prevents him from doing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> the honors of the house in person. Wake up our
+people, and see that he is properly waited on and that everything is
+suitably done."</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to describe the well-born simplicity with which
+the young mistress of the Castle gave her orders, and I reflected that
+if an air of nobility seems inherent in some families, it is certainly
+because the discharge of hospitable and charitable duties tends to
+elevate the character and ennoble the soul.</p>
+
+<p>All this passed through my mind while I was admiring the gentle glance,
+the distinguished carriage, and the exquisitely cut features of Odile of
+Nideck,&mdash;that purity of outline only to be met with in the realms of
+aristocracy,&mdash;and I tried in vain to recall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> anything comparable to her
+in my recollection.</p>
+
+<p>"Make haste, Gretchen! Don't keep the travellers waiting," said the
+young Countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madame."</p>
+
+<p>The servant departed, and I stood for a few moments unable to dispel the
+charm of my meditations. Odile turned and addressed me.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, monsieur," she said with a sad smile, "we are not allowed to
+indulge our grief; we must ever divide ourselves between our feelings
+and the claims that others have upon us."</p>
+
+<p>"That is too true, mademoiselle," I replied; "souls of the higher sort
+seem purposed to serve as a guide and promise to us weaker ones: the
+traveller who has lost his path, the sick man,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> and the starving
+pauper,&mdash;each has a claim upon them, for God has created them like the
+stars above us, for the happiness of all."</p>
+
+<p>Odile lowered her deep-fringed eyelids, while Sperver pressed my hand.</p>
+
+<p>After a moment, the Countess continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, monsieur, if you could only save my father!"</p>
+
+<p>"As I have had the pleasure of telling you before, mademoiselle,
+yesterday's crisis is past; we must now endeavor to prevent its
+recurrence."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe that this can be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"With God's help, mademoiselle, it is not impossible. I must give the
+matter the most careful thought."</p>
+
+<p>Odile, much agitated, moved with me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> to the door, and as I bowed myself
+out of the chamber, I fancied that I detected in her lovely face an
+expression of increased hope. Sperver and I crossed the antechamber,
+where a few servants were standing awaiting the orders of their
+mistress. We had just entered the corridor, when Gideon, who led the
+way, turned abruptly round, and resting his hands on my shoulders, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston, I am a man to be trusted; what is your opinion of the case?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to be feared to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that; you said as much to the Countess. But to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Don't turn your head. I suppose you can't prevent a recurrence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+the attack, but, frankly, do you think he will die of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may, but I don't anticipate it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," cried the good fellow joyfully; "that means you are sure he
+won't!"</p>
+
+<p>Thrusting his arm through mine, he pulled me into the gallery. We had
+hardly set foot in it when the Baron Zimmer and his groom appeared,
+preceded by Sebalt, who carried a flaming torch in his hand. They were
+on their way to their chambers, and these two figures, with their cloaks
+flung over their shoulders, their knee-boots of soft Hungarian leather,
+their waists tightly buttoned in, their long green tunics ornamented
+with frogs and twisted fringes of silk and gold, their bearskin caps
+drawn down over their ears, and their long hunting-knives stuck in their
+belts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> looked strangely picturesque in the white light of the dripping
+pine torch.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" exclaimed Sperver, "if I am not greatly mistaken, those are
+our T&uuml;bingen friends. They were close at our heels, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right; they are the same people! I remember the younger one by
+his slim figure; he has the profile of an eagle, and wears his mustache
+like the astrologer-general Wallenstein."</p>
+
+<p>They disappeared beneath a side triforium.</p>
+
+<p>Gideon took a torch from the wall, and guided me through a labyrinth of
+corridors, passageways, and high, low, turret-shaped, and winding
+entries. I thought he would never have done.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the hall of the Margraves," he said; "and this is the portrait
+gallery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> There is the chapel, where no mass has been said since Louis
+the Bald became a Protestant. Next comes the armory."</p>
+
+<p>These facts possessed but little interest for me. After having reached
+the end of the gallery, we had to descend a staircase that seemed
+interminable; at last, thank Heaven! we halted before a low, massive
+door. Sperver drew an enormous key from his pocket, and handing me the
+torch, said, "Mind the light; be careful!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, he pushed open the door, and the cold outside air
+rushed into the passageway. The flame leaped back and sent a shower of
+sparks in all directions. I fancied myself standing on the edge of an
+abyss, and I recoiled instinctively.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ha, Ha!" laughed the steward, his mouth parted in a broad grin, "any
+one would think you were afraid, Gaston. Come on! We are now in the
+little court that leads from the Castle to the old tower."</p>
+
+<p>The good fellow moved on by way of example. The snow lay deep in this
+courtyard, and the wind swept it with terrific gusts. Had any one seen
+our flaring torch upon the plain, he would have asked himself, "What are
+they doing up there in the clouds? Why are they prowling about at this
+time of night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps the old witch is looking up at us," I thought, and the idea
+made me shudder. I drew closer the folds of my cloak, and holding my hat
+on with the other hand, I ran after Sperver, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> held his light above
+his head to show me the path, and moved along with rapid strides.</p>
+
+<p>We rushed into the tower, and then into Hugh's Chamber, where a bright
+fire greeted us with cheerful cracklings. How grateful it was to be
+sheltered by the thick walls! I had stopped while Sperver closed the
+door, and contemplating this ancient abode, I cried, "Thank God, we
+shall have a moment to rest now!"</p>
+
+<p>"And before an excellent table," added Gideon. "Just look at that,&mdash;the
+leg of a kid, two roasted pheasants, a blue-backed pike, his mouth
+stuffed with parsley; cold meats and hot wines is what I like. I have no
+fault to find with Kasper; he has carried out my orders to the letter!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gideon spoke truly,&mdash;"cold meats and hot wines;" for before the fire
+stood a generous array of bottles, being submitted to the gentle
+influence of the heat. The sight of this repast served to whet my
+already considerable appetite; but Sperver, who understood the art of
+being comfortable, said to me:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be in too great a hurry, Gaston! Let's take things easily! We
+have time enough; the pheasants won't fly away, and as for the pike,
+I'll warrant he cares no more about swimming. In the first place, having
+been eight hours in the saddle, your boots must hurt you, so off with
+them. Sit down there and put your boot between my knees. I've got that
+one; let's have the other. There you are. Now put your feet in these
+slippers, take off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> your cloak, and throw this dressing-gown over you.
+Now you'll do!"</p>
+
+<p>Having gone through a similar course of preparation, he cried in a
+hearty tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Gaston, fall to! You do your share and I'll do mine, and remember
+well the German proverb: 'If Beelzebub created thirst, surely the Lord
+made wine to quench it.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>MY FIRST NIGHT IN HUGH'S TOWER.</h3>
+
+<p>We ate with the ravenous appetite which a ten hours' ride through the
+snows of the Black Forest would be likely to impart. Sperver attacked,
+in turn, the kid, the pheasants, and the pike, murmuring, with his mouth
+full, "Thank God for the woods, the heather, and the ponds." Then,
+leaning over the back of his chair and seizing the first bottle that
+came under his hand, he added, "And for the hillsides, green in spring
+and purple in autumn. Your health, Gaston!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yours, Gideon!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The fire crackled, the forks jingled, the bottles gurgled, and the
+glasses clinked, while outside the wind of the winter night, the blast
+from the snow-bound mountains, sang its unearthly hymn,&mdash;the hymn that
+it sings when storm-driven, fantastic cloud-shapes rush across the sky
+and obscure from moment to moment the pale face of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>We continued our grateful meal. Sperver filled the "wieder komm" with
+old Brumberg wine, whose sparkling froth bordered its generous edges,
+and, handing it to me, he cried, "Here's to the recovery of Hermann of
+Nideck, my noble master! Drink to the last drop, Gaston, that your
+prayer may be heard."</p>
+
+<p>This was done; then, refilling the bowl, he drained it in his turn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A sense of satisfaction took possession of us. We felt at peace with all
+the world. I sprawled out in my chair with my head thrown back and my
+arms hanging down, and began to study my apartment. It was a low, arched
+chamber cut out of the live rock, shaped like an oval, and measuring in
+the highest part not more than twelve feet. At the further end I
+perceived a sort of alcove, and in it a bed resting on the floor, and
+covered, as nearly as I could make out, with a bearskin robe. Still
+further back was another and smaller niche, with a statue of the Virgin
+cut out of the same piece of granite and crowned with a bunch of
+withered grass.</p>
+
+<p>"You are studying your chamber," said Sperver; "it is not as large nor
+as luxurious as the rooms of the Castle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> We are now in Hugh's Tower,
+and it is as old as the mountain itself. It dates back to the time of
+Charlemagne. In those days the people didn't understand the art of
+building lofty, spacious dwellings; they cut right into the solid rock."</p>
+
+<p>"That served the purpose as well; but it is an odd corner that you have
+stuck me in, Gideon."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be deceived on that point, Gaston; it is the place of honor.
+Whenever the Count's particular friends come to visit him, they are put
+in here. Hugh's Tower is the most honorable accommodation of all."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, who was this Hugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Hugh the Wolf!"</p>
+
+<p>"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Certainly; the founder of the family of Nideck; a rough customer, they
+say. He came and settled down here with a score of horsemen and archers.
+They scaled the highest rock on the mountain,&mdash;you will see it
+to-morrow,&mdash;and built this tower. 'We are the masters,' they declared,
+'and woe be to those who try to pass without paying toll. We will fall
+on them like wolves, tear the clothes from their backs, and the hides,
+too, if they are obstinate. From here we can command the landscape, the
+passes of the Rhethal, the Steinbach, and the Roche Plate, and the
+entire line of the Black Forest. Let the merchants beware.' And the bold
+fellows carried out their threats under the leadership of Hugh the Wolf.
+Knapwurst told me all about it when we were sitting up the other
+night."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Knapwurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know; the little dwarf who opened the gate to us; a droll chap,
+Gaston, who is always to be found in the library bent over a book."</p>
+
+<p>"So you have a scholar at Nideck."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the rascal! Instead of staying in his lodge, where he belongs, he
+spends the whole blessed day shaking the dust from old family
+parchments. He moves about among the shelves like a cat, and he knows
+our history better than we do ourselves. He would like nothing better
+than to tell you his stories; he calls them chronicles. Ha, ha, ha!"</p>
+
+<p>Hereupon, Sperver, exalted by the old wine, laughed for some moments,
+without knowing exactly why.</p>
+
+<p>"So that is why you call this the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> Tower of Hugh the Wolf?" I resumed.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I just tell you so? What are you so surprised at?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you are. I see it in your face. What are you thinking of?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't so much the name of the tower that surprises me, as that you,
+an old ranger, who from a baby had never known any home but the
+fir-trees and crests of the Wald Horn and the gorges of the Rhethal, who
+would never sleep with a roof over your head in spite of all my father's
+urging, and who amused yourself roaming the paths of the Black Forest
+and revelling in the fresh air, the sunlight, and the freedom of a
+hunter's life, should be found here, after sixteen years, in this
+red-granite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> hole. Come, Sperver, light your pipe and tell me how it
+happened."</p>
+
+<p>The old ranger drew a short, black pipe from his leather jacket, filled
+it leisurely, and snatching up a coal from the hearth, placed it on the
+bowl of his pipe; then, with his head thrown back and his eyes wandering
+over the ceiling, he replied thoughtfully:</p>
+
+<p>"After I left your father's service twenty years ago, it was long before
+I could bring my mind to work for any other master, for I loved the
+General, and you, and your pretty mother, as I could never come to love
+others, not even the Count and my mistress Odile. So I took to poaching
+for a term of years, and found a living by any means I could, until one
+night the Count came upon me in the moonlight.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He did not despise Sperver, the old hawk, the true man of the woods;
+and he said to me, 'Comrade, you have hunted long enough by yourself;
+now come and hunt with me. You have a good beak and strong claws, and
+you might as well hunt my game with my permission as without it.'"</p>
+
+<p>Sperver was silent for some minutes; then he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"I was getting old,&mdash;and the old falcons and hawks, having long swept
+the plains, end by settling down in the cleft of a rock to die. So it
+was with me. I loved the open air, and I love it yet; but now, instead
+of lying on a high branch at night and being rocked to sleep by the
+wind, I prefer to come back to my cover, quietly pick a woodcock, and
+dry my plumage before the fire."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sperver was silent for some moments; then he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"I still hunt as before, and afterwards I drink a quiet glass of
+Rudesheimer with my friends, or&mdash;" At this moment a shock made the door
+tremble.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a gust of wind," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is something else. Don't you hear a claw scratching on the
+panel? I think one of the dogs must have got loose. Open, Walden! open,
+Lieverl&eacute;!"</p>
+
+<p>He got up, but he had not gone two steps when a formidable Danish hound
+leaped into the room and raised his fore-paws on his master's shoulders,
+licking his cheeks and beard with his long, red tongue, and whining with
+joy. Sperver put his arm around the dog's neck, and turning to me:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gaston," he said, "what man could love me as this dog does? Look at
+this head, these eyes, and teeth!"</p>
+
+<p>He drew back the animal's lips and showed me a set of fangs that could
+have torn a buffalo to pieces. Then pushing him off with difficulty, for
+the dog redoubled his caresses, he cried, "Down with you, Lieverl&eacute;; I
+know you love me! Who would, if you did not?" He went and closed the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>I never had seen a dog of such formidable proportions before; he
+measured nearly four feet in height, with a broad, low forehead and fine
+coat, a bright eye, long paws, broad across the chest and shoulders and
+tapering down to the haunches,&mdash;a mass of nerves and muscles
+interwoven,&mdash;but he had no scent. If such animals possessed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> scent
+of the terrier, the game would soon be exterminated.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver had returned to his seat and was passing his hand proudly over
+Lieverl&eacute;'s head, while he enumerated the dog's fine points. Lieverl&eacute;
+seemed to understand him.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Gaston, that dog would strangle a wolf with a snap of his jaws.
+He is what you might well call perfection in the matter of courage and
+strength; not yet five, and in his prime. I need not tell you that he is
+trained to hunt wild boar. Every time we meet them, I fear for Lieverl&eacute;;
+he attacks them too boldly; he flies at them like an arrow. Beware of
+the brutes' tusks, Lieverl&eacute;, you rascal! It makes me tremble. Down on
+your back!" cried the huntsman; "down on your back!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The dog obeyed, presenting to us his flesh-colored thighs.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see that long, white line, without any hair on it, which extends
+from his thigh clear up to his chest? A boar did that. The noble chap
+did not let go of the brute's ear, in spite of the wound, and we tracked
+them by the blood. I came up with them first. Seeing my Lieverl&eacute;, I
+cried out, jumped to the ground, and lifting him in my arms, I wrapped
+him in my mantle and brought him home. I was beside myself with grief.
+Luckily, the vital parts were not injured, and I sewed up the wound.
+God! how he howled and suffered; but at the end of the third day he
+began to lick the place, and a dog who licks a wound is already saved.
+Ha, Lieverl&eacute;! you remember<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> it! And now we love each other, don't we?"</p>
+
+<p>I was much moved by the affection of the man for the dog, and the animal
+for his master. Lieverl&eacute; watched him and wagged his tail, while a tear
+stood in Sperver's eye. Soon he began again:</p>
+
+<p>"What strength! Do you see, Gaston, he has broken his cord to come to
+me,&mdash;a cord of six strands? He found my tracks, and that was enough.
+Here, Lieverl&eacute;! Catch!"</p>
+
+<p>He threw him the remains of the kid's leg. The dog went over and
+stretched himself in front of the fire with the bone between his
+fore-paws, and he slowly tore it into shreds. Sperver watched him from
+the corner of his eye with evident satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, Gaston," said the old steward,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> "if any one should order you to go
+and take that bone away, what would you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"That it was a matter which required delicate manipulation."</p>
+
+<p>We laughed heartily, and Sperver, who was stretched out in his
+red-leather armchair, with his left arm thrown over the back, one leg
+resting on a stool, and the other on a log that was dripping with sap
+and singing in the fierce flame, puffed blue rings of smoke to the
+ceiling with an air of supreme contentment. As for me, I was lazily
+watching the dog, when suddenly remembering our interrupted
+conversation, I began:</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Sperver! You haven't told me everything. Was it not because of
+the death of your worthy wife, my old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> nurse Gertrude, that you left the
+mountains to come here?"</p>
+
+<p>Gideon looked grave, and a tear dimmed his eye; he straightened up, and
+knocking the ashes from his pipe upon his thumb nail, he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my wife is dead, and that is what drove me from the woods. I could
+not see the valley of the Roche Creuse without sorrow, and so I have
+come hither. I hunt but little in the underbrush, and if the pack happen
+to go in that direction, I leave them to themselves and turn back again,
+trying to think of other things."</p>
+
+<p>Sperver had become melancholy. His head had fallen on his breast, and he
+remained silent. I regretted having recalled these sad images to his
+mind. Then, reflecting once more on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Black Plague crouching in the
+snow, I shivered. How singular that a single word had thrown us into a
+train of dismal recollections! A whole world of retrospection had been
+invoked by the merest accident.</p>
+
+<p>I know not how long our silence had lasted, when a deep, terrible
+growl, like the sound of distant thunder, made us tremble. We looked
+at the dog. He still held his half-eaten bone between his fore-paws,
+but with raised head, ears pricked up, and shining eyes, he was
+listening,&mdash;listening in the dead silence, and a tremor of rage ran
+along his back.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver and I looked at each other anxiously; not a sound, not a murmur,
+for the wind outside had fallen, and we could have heard the least
+noise; nothing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> save the deep, continued growl, which seemed to come
+from deep down in the dog's chest. Suddenly the animal sprang up and
+leaped against the wall, with a short, harsh, ominous bark that made the
+arches resound as if thunder were rolling away along the empty passages.
+Lieverl&eacute;, with his head low down, seemed to see through the granite, and
+his teeth, bared to their roots, glistened like snow. He still growled,
+pausing now and then for a moment to sniff along the bottom of the wall;
+then he sprang up again angrily, and seemed trying to tear away the
+stone with his fore-paws.</p>
+
+<p>We were watching him, unable to understand the cause of his excitement,
+when a second howl, more fearful than the first, brought us to our
+feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Lieverl&eacute;," cried Sperver, springing towards him, "for heaven's sake,
+what ails you? Are you going mad?"</p>
+
+<p>He seized a log, and began to sound the wall, which, however, gave forth
+only a dull, dense sound. There was apparently no hollow in it, but
+still the dog maintained the same posture.</p>
+
+<p>"Decidedly, Lieverl&eacute;," said the huntsman, "you have had a nightmare.
+Come, lie down, and don't set our nerves on edge any more."</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment we heard a sound outside. The door opened, and the
+big, fat face of honest Tobias Offenloch, with his round lantern in one
+hand and his stick in the other, and his three-cornered hat on one side
+of his head, appeared smiling and genial in the doorway.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Greeting, worthy company!" he exclaimed; "what the devil are you doing
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was this foolish Lieverl&eacute; who made all the racket," said Sperver;
+"he sprang against the wall and wouldn't be quieted. Can you tell us the
+reason of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"He probably heard the stumping of my wooden leg as I came up the tower
+stairs," replied the good-natured fellow with a laugh. Then setting his
+lantern on the table: "That will teach you, Master Gideon, to tie up
+your dogs. You have a weakness for dogs,&mdash;an absurd weakness. They will
+end by putting us all out of doors. Only a moment ago, as I was coming
+along the gallery, I met your Blitz; he snapped at my leg,&mdash;see, there
+are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> marks of his teeth. A new leg, too, confound the cur!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tie up my dogs? What an idea!" replied Sperver. "Dogs that are tied up
+are good for nothing; it makes them savage. Moreover, Lieverl&eacute; was
+fastened, and he has what was left of the cord around his neck still."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not on my account that I am speaking, for whenever I see them
+coming, I always raise my stick and put my wooden leg first. It is only
+for discipline. The dogs ought to be in the kennels, the cats on the
+gutters, and the people in the Castle, according to my way of thinking."</p>
+
+<p>Tobie sat down as he finished his sentence, and with his elbows resting
+on the table and his eyes beaming with satisfaction, he said in a
+confidential tone:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You should know, gentlemen, that I am a bachelor this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"How is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Marie Anne is sitting up with Gertrude in the Count's antechamber."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are in no hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"Not the least bit."</p>
+
+<p>"How unlucky you should have come so late," observed Sperver; "all the
+bottles are empty."</p>
+
+<p>The discomfited expression of the good fellow made me feel positively
+sorry. He would gladly have profited by his widowhood. In spite of my
+efforts to repress it, however, my mouth parted in a wide yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"We will put it over till another day," he said, getting up; "what is
+postponed is not lost."</p>
+
+<p>He took up his lantern.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Good night, gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a minute," said Gideon; "I see the doctor is sleepy; we will go
+down together."</p>
+
+<p>"Gladly, Sperver! We will have a word with Trumpf as we pass. He is
+down-stairs with the others, and Knapwurst is telling them stories."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good night, Gaston."</p>
+
+<p>"Good night, Sperver. Don't forget to call me if the Count grows worse."</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear. Lieverl&eacute;, come here."</p>
+
+<p>They went out, and as they were crossing the platform, I could hear the
+old Nideck clock striking eleven.</p>
+
+<p>I was completely exhausted with the day's experiences. Soon I threw
+myself on the bed, and straightway fell into a deep slumber, where all
+night long I was wandering beside a radiant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> creature with a halo of
+golden hair about her face, amid flower-strewn paths, and the song of
+birds, and above our heads the fairest of summer skies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>KNAPWURST ACQUAINTS ME WITH THE GENEALOGY OF THE NIDECKS.</h3>
+
+<p>The dawn was beginning to turn gray the only window of the donjon-tower,
+when I was awakened in my granite bed by the distant notes of a
+hunting-horn. I know of no sound more sad and melancholy than the
+vibrations of its tones, just at morning twilight, when all is still,
+and no breath, no whisper comes to disturb the perfect quiet of
+solitude; it is the final note, especially, that, spreading over the
+immense plain and awaking the far-off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> echoes of the mountain, stirs us
+to the heart with its pure, poetic quality.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning with my elbow on the bearskin, I listened to this plaintive cry,
+that seemed to be invoking memories of the Feudal Ages. The aspect of my
+chamber, with its low, ragged arch, and, further on, the little window
+with its panes set in lead, midway between the alcove and the corridor,
+the ceiling more wide than high, and deeply hollowed in the wall,&mdash;in
+short, every detail of this ancient den of the Wolf of Nideck served to
+realize my fancy.</p>
+
+<p>I rose quickly and threw the window wide open. There before me lay a
+spectacle that no mere language can describe,&mdash;the scene that the Alpine
+eagle surveys each morning, as the purple curtain of night lifts itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+from the horizon; range after range of mountains,&mdash;motionless billows
+that stretch away and become lost in the distant mists of the Vosges and
+the Jura,&mdash;immense forests, lakes, and towering peaks tracing their
+sharp outlines upon the steel-blue of the snow-clad valleys; beyond
+this, the infinite! What human skill could attain to the sublimity of
+such a picture? I stood overwhelmed with wonder and delight. At each
+glance some new detail was revealed to my eyes; hamlets, farms,
+villages, seemed to rise from every fold of the landscape, and as I
+gazed, these objects became more numerous.</p>
+
+<p>I had been standing thus for more than a quarter of an hour, when a hand
+was laid lightly upon my shoulder; I turned and met the calm face and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+quiet smile of my friend Gideon, who greeted me with:</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Gaston."</p>
+
+<p>Then he rested his elbows on the window-sill beside me, puffing clouds
+of smoke from his short pipe. Extending his arm towards the distant
+mountains, he said at length:</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that, Gaston; you should love it, for you are a son of the
+Black Forest. Look down there, way down; that is the Roche Creuse. Do
+you see it? You remember Gertrude? How far off those days seem!"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped and cleared his throat; I was at a loss what to reply. We
+stood for a long time in a contemplative mood, mute before the grandeur
+of the scene that rolled away beneath us. From time to time, the old
+steward,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> seeing my eyes rest on some point of the horizon, would
+explain:</p>
+
+<p>"That is the Wald Horn; this is the Tiefenthal. There you see the
+cascade of the Steinbach; it has stopped running now, and hangs like an
+ice cloak over the shoulder of the Harberg,&mdash;a cold garment for this
+season of the year. Down there is the path that leads to T&uuml;bingen; a
+fortnight more and we shall have difficulty in tracing it."</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed thus; I could not tear myself away from the scene.</p>
+
+<p>A few birds of prey, with gracefully hollowed wings, were sailing about
+the tower; a flock of herons flew above them, escaping their claws by
+reason of their loftier flight. Not a cloud was visible in the sky; all
+the snow had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> fallen to earth. The hunting-horn saluted the mountain for
+the last time.</p>
+
+<p>"That is my friend Sebalt mourning down there," said Sperver. "No one is
+a better judge of horses and dogs than he, and when it comes to sounding
+the horn, there is not his equal in all Germany. Just hear how mellow
+those notes are, Gaston. Poor Sebalt! he is pining away since our master
+became ill; he cannot hunt as he used to. His only consolation is to
+climb the Altenberg every morning just at daybreak, and play the Count's
+favorite airs. He thinks that may cure him."</p>
+
+<p>Sperver, with the tact of a man who himself loves beautiful things, had
+not interrupted my contemplation; but when, dazzled by the growing
+light, I turned back into the chamber, he said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gaston, things look more encouraging; the Count has had no return of
+the convulsions."</p>
+
+<p>These words brought me back to a more practical world.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I am glad to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"And it is your doing, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine? I haven't even prescribed anything yet."</p>
+
+<p>"What of that? You are here."</p>
+
+<p>"You're joking, Gideon; what could my mere presence accomplish?"</p>
+
+<p>"You bring him good luck."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at him closely; he was in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he repeated seriously; "you are a bringer of good luck. In past
+years, our master has had a second attack the day after the first, and
+then a third, and fourth; but you have prevented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> this and arrested the
+course of the malady. That is clear enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to my mind, Sperver. On the contrary, I find it exceedingly
+obscure."</p>
+
+<p>"We are never too old to learn," continued the worthy fellow. "There are
+forerunners of good fortune and harbingers of ill. Take that rascal
+Knapwurst, for example; he is a sure sign of bad luck. If ever I happen
+to run across him as I am going out hunting, I am sure to meet with some
+accident; my gun misses fire, I sprain my ankle, or a dog gets ripped
+open. Knowing this, I always take care to set off just at daybreak,
+before the scamp, who sleeps like a dormouse, has got his eyes open; or
+else I steal through the postern gate."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A wise precaution; but your ideas seem odd to me, Gideon."</p>
+
+<p>"But you, on the other hand," he continued without noticing my
+interruption, "are an open-hearted, honest lad. Heaven has bestowed many
+blessings upon you; just one glance at your good-natured face, your
+frank gaze, and your kindly smile, is enough to make any one happy. And
+you bring good luck; that is certain. Do you want a proof of what I
+say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly. I am not sorry to discover that I possess so many
+hitherto unknown virtues."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, seizing my wrist, "look down there!"</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to a hillock a couple of gunshots distant from the Castle.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see that rock half buried in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> the snow, with a bush to the left
+of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Distinctly."</p>
+
+<p>"And you see nothing near it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is easily accounted for; you have driven the Black Plague
+away. Every year, on the second day of the Count's illness, she was to
+be seen there, with her arms clasped around her skinny knees. At night,
+she lighted a fire, warmed herself, and cooked the roots of trees. She
+was a curse to every living thing. The first thing I did this morning
+was to climb up to the signal-tower and look around me. The old hag was
+nowhere to be seen. In vain did I shade my eyes with my hand and gaze to
+right and left, up and down, across the plain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> and over the
+mountain,&mdash;not a sign of her anywhere. She has scented you, sure
+enough!"</p>
+
+<p>Wringing my hand in his enthusiasm, the good fellow cried excitedly,
+"Oh, Gaston, Gaston! How lucky it was that I brought you here! How angry
+the old hag will be!"</p>
+
+<p>I must confess to a feeling of embarrassment at discovering so much
+merit in myself, which had hitherto escaped my observation.</p>
+
+<p>"So the Count has passed a comfortable night, Sperver?" I continued.</p>
+
+<p>"Very comfortable," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"That is welcome news. Let's go down-stairs."</p>
+
+<p>We once more crossed the little courtyard, and I was able to obtain a
+better view of our means of egress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> whose ramparts attained to a
+prodigious height,&mdash;continuing along the edge of the rock to the very
+bottom of the valley. It was a flight of precipices, so to speak,
+shelving one below another into the dizzy depths beneath. On looking
+down, I became giddy, and recoiling to the middle of the landing, I
+hastened down the passageway which led to the Castle.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver and I had already traversed several broad corridors, when a
+wide-open door blocked our passage. I glanced in and saw, at the top of
+a double ladder, the little gnome Knapwurst, whose grotesque physiognomy
+had struck me the night before. The hall itself attracted my attention
+by its imposing aspect. It was a storehouse for the archives of Nideck,
+a high, dark,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> dusty apartment, with long Gothic windows reaching from
+the ceiling to within three feet of the floor.</p>
+
+<p>There were to be found, ranged along the broad shelves by the careful
+abbots of olden times, not only all the documents, title-deeds, and
+genealogical trees of the families of Nideck, establishing their rights,
+alliances, and relations with the most illustrious nobles of Germany,
+but also the chronicles of the Black Forest, the collected remnants of
+the old Minnesingers, and the great folios from the presses of Gutenberg
+and Faust, no less venerable on account of their origin and the enduring
+solidity of their binding. The deep shadows of the alcoves, draping the
+cold walls with their grayish gloom, reminded you of the ancient
+cloisters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> of the Middle Ages; and in the midst of it all sat the dwarf
+at the top of his ladder, with a huge, red-edged volume lying open on
+his bony knees, his head buried to the ears in a fur cap; gray-eyed,
+flat-nosed, the corners of his mouth drawn down by long years of
+thought, with stooping shoulders and wasted limbs; a fitting
+<i>famulus</i>&mdash;the rat, as Sperver called him&mdash;to this last refuge of the
+learning of Nideck.</p>
+
+<p>That which gave to the place a unique interest, however, was the line of
+family portraits that covered one whole side of the ancient library.
+There they were, knights and ladies, from Hugh the Wolf down to Count
+Hermann, the present owner; from the crude daubs of barbarous days to
+the perfect work of the best painters of our own time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> My attention was
+naturally centred upon this part of the room. Hugh I., with a bald head,
+seemed watching you from his frame as a wolf glares at the traveller
+whom a sudden turn in the forest path discloses to view. His gray,
+blood-shot eyes, bristling beard, and large, hairy ears, gave him an air
+of singular ferocity.</p>
+
+<p>Next to him, like the lamb next the savage beast, was a young woman,
+with a gentle, sad expression, her hands clasped on her breast, her
+long, silken tresses of fair hair parted over the forehead and falling
+in thick waves about her face, which they encircled with a golden
+aureole. I was struck with her resemblance to Odile of Nideck. Nothing
+could have been more delicate and charming than this old painting on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+wood, a little stiff in its outline, but charmingly simple and
+ingenuous.</p>
+
+<p>I had been studying this portrait for some minutes, when another,
+hanging beside it, drew my attention in its turn. Here, too, was a
+woman, but of the true Visigothic type, with a broad, low forehead,
+yellow eyes, and prominent cheek-bones, red hair, and nose like an
+eagle's beak. "That woman must have been to Hugh's liking," I said to
+myself, and I began to study the costume, which was in perfect keeping
+with the energy expressed in the face, for the right hand clasped a
+sword, and the waist was encircled in a steel corselet.</p>
+
+<p>I know not how to describe the thoughts that succeeded one another in my
+mind as I gazed upon these three faces. My eye roamed from one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> to
+another with singular curiosity, and I found it impossible to terminate
+my study. Sperver, standing on the threshold of the library, gave a
+sharp whistle, seemingly to attract Knapwurst's attention, who looked
+down at him from the top of his ladder without stirring.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it me you are whistling to like a dog?" said the dwarf.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, you imp! None else."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me, Sperver," replied the gnome with supreme disdain; "you
+cannot spit so high as my shoe; I defy you!" and he stuck out his foot.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I should come up there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would squash you flat with this volume."</p>
+
+<p>Gideon laughed, and replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Knapwurst! Don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> get angry! I don't wish you any harm; on
+the contrary I have the greatest respect for your learning; but what the
+devil are you doing at this hour, seated over your lamp? Any one would
+think you had spent the night here."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have, reading!"</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't the days long enough for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! I am looking up an important question, and I shan't sleep till I
+have settled it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, by Jove; what is this interesting question?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is to find out under what circumstances Ludwig of Nideck discovered
+my ancestor, Otto the Dwarf, in the forests of Thuringia. You should
+know, Sperver, that my ancestor Otto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> was only an arm's length high;
+that is, about two feet and a half. He delighted the world with his
+wisdom, and figured honorably in the coronation of the Emperor Rodolph.
+Count Ludwig had him enclosed in a cold roast peacock, served up with
+all its plumage. During the feast, Otto spread out the peacock's tail,
+and all the nobles, courtiers, and great ladies were astonished at this
+ingenious piece of mechanism. At last Otto emerged, sword in hand, and
+cried in a thundering voice, 'Long live the Emperor, Rodolph of
+Hapsburg!' which was repeated on all sides with shouts and rejoicings.
+Bernard Hertzog mentions this circumstance, but fails to inform us as to
+the family origin of the dwarf, whether he was of noble descent, or of
+base extraction; the latter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> hypothesis being highly improbable, as the
+common herd are rarely possessed of so much wit."</p>
+
+<p>I was amazed at the conceit of this little creature, my curiosity,
+however, leading me to dissemble my feelings; for he alone could furnish
+me with the facts concerning the two portraits that hung on the right of
+Hugh the Wolf.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Knapwurst," I said, in a tone of profound respect, "would you
+have the kindness to enlighten me upon a certain subject?"</p>
+
+<p>Flattered by these words, the little fellow replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Speak, monsieur; if it is a question of family history, I shall be glad
+to inform you. In other subjects I take but little interest."</p>
+
+<p>"It is precisely that. I should like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> to learn something about the noble
+ladies whose pictures hang on the wall yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" cried Knapwurst, his face lighting up; "you mean Elfreda and
+Huldine, the two wives of Hugh, the founder of Nideck."</p>
+
+<p>Laying down his volume, he descended the ladder to talk more at his
+ease. His eyes glistened, and an air of gratification at this
+opportunity of displaying his learning shone out all over him.</p>
+
+<p>Having reached my side, he saluted me with a grave bow. Sperver stood
+behind us, seemingly well satisfied to see me admiring the dwarf of
+Nideck. In spite of the ill luck which he averred attached to the
+presence of the pigmy, he admired and boasted of his great learning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 314px;"><a name="ILL_004" id="ILL_004"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_004.jpg" width="314" height="500" alt="&quot;IN THE PORTRAIT GALLERY.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;IN THE PORTRAIT GALLERY.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," said Knapwurst, pointing with his long, yellow hand towards
+the portraits, "Hugh of Nideck, the founder of his race, married in 832<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+Elfreda of Lutzelbourg, who brought to him as dowry the counties of
+Giromani and Haut Barr, the Castles of Geroldsdeck and Teufelshorn, and
+others. Hugh had no children by his first wife, who died young in the
+year of our Lord 837. Thereupon, Hugh, now lord and master of the dowry,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+refused to yield possession of it, and there followed terrible battles
+between himself and his brothers-in-law. His second wife, Huldine, whom
+you see in the steel breastplate, aided him by her wise counsels. She
+was a woman of indomitable courage, but her origin remains a mystery.
+One thing is certain, however: she rescued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> her husband, who had been
+taken prisoner by Frantz of Lutzelbourg. He was to have been hanged that
+very day, and the iron bar had already been stretched across the
+battlements in preparation for the execution, when Huldine, at the head
+of a band of the Count's vassals whom she had inspired by her brave
+example, burst into the courtyard by a rear entrance, rescued Hugh, and
+had Frantz hung in his place. Hugh the Wolf married his second wife in
+842, and by her he had three children."</p>
+
+<p>"So," I resumed meditatively, "the first of these wives was called
+Elfreda, and the descendants of Nideck are not related to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of this?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can show you our genealogical tree. Elfreda had no children; Huldine,
+the second wife, had three."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very surprising!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I noticed a resemblance."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha! resemblances!" exclaimed the dwarf with a harsh laugh; "wait a
+moment. Just look at this wooden snuff-box that lies beside the plaster
+greyhound! It represents my ancestor, Hanswurst. He has a nose like an
+extinguisher, and a sharp chin, while I have a flat nose and an
+agreeable mouth; and yet this does not prevent my being his
+great-great-grandson."</p>
+
+<p>"No, certainly not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is the same with the Nidecks. They may have certain
+characteristics in common with Elfreda, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Huldine is the head of the
+line. Look at this genealogical tree, monsieur. Have I not informed you
+correctly?"</p>
+
+<p>Then we separated,&mdash;Knapwurst and I,&mdash;the best of friends.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>I BREAKFAST WITH ODILE.</h3>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," I said to myself, "the resemblance is there! Is it
+chance? Nonsense! What is chance, anyway, save that for which we fail to
+grasp the reason? No; there must be some other explanation of it!"</p>
+
+<p>Buried in these reflections, I followed my friend Sperver, who had
+resumed his walk down the corridor. The portrait of Elfreda, that pure,
+artless face, blended in my fancy with that of the young Countess.
+Suddenly Gideon stopped. I looked up; we were standing before the
+Count's room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go in, Gaston," he said; "I will see, meanwhile, if breakfast is ready,
+and be with you again in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>I entered noiselessly, and made out, in the dim light, the broad figure
+of Becker, the forester, sprawled out leisurely in his armchair beside
+the bed and drowsing over his vigil.</p>
+
+<p>The Count was sleeping quietly, with every indication that this
+desirable state of things would continue. Seeing no reason for remaining
+longer, I directed Becker to let me know at once if the master should
+wake, and I withdrew to the hall, where I met Sperver returning to get
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"The Countess is waiting for you in the dining-room. She is overjoyed at
+the news of her father. Poor woman! It has been a hard strain upon her,
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> she insists on remaining close beside the Count, and her strength
+is not equal to the task."</p>
+
+<p>"So it seemed to me," I replied; and I secretly regretted that I saw no
+way in which I could properly suggest to the Countess that she should
+share her watchfulness more with others.</p>
+
+<p>We reached the dining-room. Sperver announced me and departed.</p>
+
+<p>My eyes fell first upon Odile, seated at the head of the table in a
+high-backed oaken chair. She was dressed in a gown of gray stuff, simply
+fashioned, with a bodice of white velvet worked in gold. Her superb
+figure was perfectly set off by the almost severe outlines of the dress.</p>
+
+<p>"It is she," I thought: "Hugh's first wife. There is the noble
+forehead;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> there are the long lashes, the somewhat languid bearing, and
+the indescribable smile."</p>
+
+<p>And as I gazed, the dream of last night recurred to me in all its
+charming vividness, and I felt that, far from entering upon her world
+but a few hours since, I had known her&mdash;aye, and loved her, too!&mdash;for
+years.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, monsieur!" she said in answer to my salutation, as she
+rose and rested one hand on the chair-back. "It seems that your presence
+here has already worked a change for the better. Our good Sperver tells
+me that my father's condition is improved."</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to be able to assure you that it is so, mademoiselle. We
+must endeavor to confirm these bettered conditions."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am so thankful!" she exclaimed. "Who knows but it was Providence that
+brought you here?" and she indicated my seat at the end of the table
+opposite her.</p>
+
+<p>Bowing to the housekeeper, who sat before the broad fireplace, with her
+spectacles thrust back on her forehead, plying her busy needles, her lap
+filled with knitting-work which momentarily grew as she rocked back and
+forth in time to the ticking of the tall clock, I took the seat which
+Odile designated, experiencing a sense of rare contentment as I
+reflected upon my surroundings. Decidedly, my present employment
+combined pleasure with the exactions of duty.</p>
+
+<p>No further mention of the Count's condition was made during the repast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+Odile preferring apparently to confine herself to other subjects.</p>
+
+<p>"Sperver," she said presently, "has often spoken of you to us with much
+pride and affection. Your relationship with the old steward is a
+romantic one, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather," I replied. "It began some twenty years ago with his pulling me
+out of a swamp into which I got myself, through my desire to imitate his
+custom of roaming the forest."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as Odile smiled and seemed to be waiting for me to continue, I
+resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"I distinctly remember how, one morning, I escaped the vigilance of my
+old nurse, Gideon's wife Gertrude, and arming myself with my father's
+old sabre, I sallied into the forest with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> vague notion of performing
+some similar exploits to those which Gideon was never tired of telling
+me. I had not gone far when, finding the forest very dark and lonely,
+and quite unlike what I had fancied it, I began to repent of my
+resolution and to wish I was safely at home again. The sabre, too, had
+grown very heavy, and everything about the undertaking having fallen far
+short of my anticipation, I turned around and began to retrace my steps.
+Having only such knowledge of direction as a boy of eight would be
+likely to have, I soon lost my way, and in attempting to cross the swamp
+of the Losser by picking my path along the tufts of grass above its
+surface, I lost my footing and slipped into the mud. Fortunately Sperver
+happened to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> passing in the neighborhood. He heard my cries, and
+promptly coming to my aid, he pulled me out and carried me to safer
+ground. Meanwhile my absence from home had been discovered, and the men
+servants had been sent in all directions to search for me. My father was
+so delighted at seeing me again, unharmed, in Sperver's arms, that he
+rewarded his ranger with a brand-new carbine and a brace of his favorite
+hounds."</p>
+
+<p>I laughed as I recalled this incident, and the Countess joined me in it,
+continuing after a little:</p>
+
+<p>"And your old home?"</p>
+
+<p>"It has passed into other hands. On the death of both my parents, which
+occurred within a few years, I was left entirely without resources, save
+such as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> I could create for myself, and it became necessary to dispose
+of the estate in order to get the means which I required to pursue my
+studies."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed the most natural thing in the world to be thus confiding to
+Odile my intimate affairs, though ordinarily I guarded such matters with
+jealous care; but I felt, I know not why, that her expression of
+interest was more a wish to learn the real facts of my condition than
+merely to evince a civil concern in my interests. Such feelings are
+intangible; they cannot be explained.</p>
+
+<p>"You are living now in T&uuml;bingen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; after six years' study in Germany and France, I have returned to
+the scenes of earlier times to try what fortune may have in store for
+me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>. I feel that I never should be contented anywhere else; and I am
+better satisfied to remain here with a modest success than in the cities
+with, maybe, a more considerable one."</p>
+
+<p>"How well I can understand that feeling," replied the Countess musingly.
+"Long ago, when we used to visit the court each year, I remember that,
+in spite of all its gaieties and pleasures, so well calculated to charm
+young minds, I was always glad when the time came to return to the
+Castle; and that for a girl of eighteen is unusual, I think."</p>
+
+<p>I was silently musing upon the fair face opposite me, and the charming
+personality of my noble hostess, which piqued my curiosity and aroused
+in me a singular desire to learn more of it. The young Countess
+conducted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> the affairs of the table with captivating grace, and the
+ready Offenloch was ever on the watch for her slightest nod or glance.
+Truly, I felt myself under a spell no less potent than the companions of
+Ulysses of old.</p>
+
+<p>Rousing myself at length from these agreeable reflections, I resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"You too, mademoiselle, are fond of the hunt, I suppose? for the Count's
+devotion to it is proverbial."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" she replied, "when it is not a deer or fox that is being hunted.
+Somehow the wild boar claims less of my sympathy, for it is often a
+question which comes off the better, the man or the beast."</p>
+
+<p>The truth of this remark it was reserved for me to learn at a later
+day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As for me, I have never had any experience in the chase, as the years
+which I might have spent so were passed in foreign cities, but some time
+I hope to give it a thorough trial."</p>
+
+<p>A pause succeeded, during which Odile prepared the coffee. From time to
+time I glanced at Marie, whose admiration for my person expressed the
+evening before seemed in no way to have decreased, judging from the
+senile simper which invariably appeared on her face when she caught my
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>"This Castle has an indescribable charm for me," I continued after a
+little; "it has such a delightfully ancient air, and its old stones seem
+so full of romance;" and my eyes wandered to the two suits of armor at
+the further end of the room, which from their shadowy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> corners nodded at
+each other, gaunt and sightless, in the uncertain firelight.</p>
+
+<p>"I am fond of it," replied Odile; "indeed, I feel that I could never be
+happy anywhere else; but at times it is lonely, nevertheless."</p>
+
+<p>Then I began to reflect upon the singular vow which this charming young
+creature, so eminently lovable in every trait of character and person,
+had taken, it seemed almost wantonly and in a spirit of perversity; and
+yet I was satisfied that no such explanation could be sufficient, for I
+felt instinctively that no small or trivial thought could gain
+admittance to Odile's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," I thought, "some day the wanderer will come to implant the
+magic kiss, and she, like others of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> sisters, will be obliged to
+obey the inexorable laws of the little god."</p>
+
+<p>So I thought. It seemed to me that one might be happy here, could he
+continue forever, as I was then, in Odile's companionship, amid gay
+companies and festivals, hunting-parties and the like, which I felt
+would become immediately inaugurated, were the Count's recovery to
+become an established fact. Then my thoughts reverted once more to my
+patient, and, speculating for the fiftieth time on all that Sperver had
+told me of his master, I was recalled to a less alluring train of
+reflections, and I became grave as I realized the burden of duty which
+rested upon me.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed, the breakfast was finished. I rose and took leave of the
+Countess, who inclined her head with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> friendly smile. As I stepped
+into the hallway, I descried Sperver in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>"The Count has waked, and he wishes to see you," he said, as he reached
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"He is no worse?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Apparently not; he seems quiet enough."</p>
+
+<p>Still engrossed with the experience of the last hour passed in the
+dining-room, I moved along with Sperver down the corridor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COUNT UNSHEATHES HIS CLAWS.</h3>
+
+<p>I entered the Count's chamber. What was my surprise to perceive in the
+half-light of the alcove, the master of Nideck raised upon his elbow and
+studying me with profound attention. I had so little anticipated such a
+reception, that I paused in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, doctor," he said in a faint but steady voice, reaching out
+his hand. "My good Sperver has often spoken to me of you, and I have
+been anxious to make your acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hope, monsieur," I replied, "that it may be continued under
+more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> auspicious circumstances; a little patience, and all will be
+well!"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear not," he replied; "I feel that the end is drawing near."</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"No! Nature grants us, as a last favor, a presentiment of our
+approaching end."</p>
+
+<p>"How often have I seen such presentiments disproved!" I returned,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>He gazed fixedly at me, as sick people are wont to do when they are in
+doubt as to their true condition. It is a trying moment for the doctor;
+upon his expression depends the moral strength of the sufferer; if the
+sick man detect the suspicion of a doubt, all is lost; dissolution
+begins, the soul prepares to quit the body, and the malady holds full
+sway. I passed firmly through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> ordeal; the Count seemed reassured;
+he pressed my hand again, and released it, calmer and more confident.</p>
+
+<p>During the pause which followed, Odile and Marie Lagoutte entered the
+room. They must have followed close behind us. They seated themselves in
+the two chairs which occupied the embrasure of the window, and Marie
+resumed her knitting, while Odile spread open a portfolio on her lap and
+seemed to be studying it.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the Count's glance wandered from my face to that of his daughter,
+whom he continued to regard fixedly for a long time in silence.</p>
+
+<p>This somewhat oppressive quiet continued, broken only by the jarring of
+the casements, the monotone of the wind, and the sound of the snow as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+it swirled and whispered against the panes.</p>
+
+<p>After a half hour of this, the Count suddenly began to speak:</p>
+
+<p>"If my beloved child Odile would but grant my request, if she would only
+consent to let me hope that one day she would fulfil the desire of my
+heart, I believe that alone would accomplish my recovery!" I glanced
+quickly at Odile; she had closed her book, and her eyes were fastened on
+the floor. I noticed that she had become deathly pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," continued the sick man, "I should return to life and happiness!
+The prospect of seeing myself surrounded by a new branch of our family,
+of embracing my grandchildren, and of seeing the perpetuation of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+house ensured, would suffice to cure me."</p>
+
+<p>I felt moved at the mild and gentle pleading of the sufferer. The young
+woman made no reply. After a minute or two, the Count, who looked
+entreatingly at her, pursued:</p>
+
+<p>"Odile, you refuse to make your father happy. My God! I only ask for
+hope; I fix no time! I do not seek to control your choice! We will go to
+court, and choose from a hundred noble suitors. Who would not be proud
+to win my daughter's hand? You shall be free to decide for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>He paused. Nothing is more painful to a stranger than these family
+discussions. There are so many conflicting interests, deep emotions,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> sacred feelings involved, that our innate delicacy demands that we
+hold aloof from such scenes. I was pained, and would gladly have
+withdrawn, but the circumstances did not permit of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," said Odile, as if to evade further insistence on the sick
+man's part, "you will recover. Heaven will not take you from us who love
+you so dearly. If you only knew with what loving fervor I pray for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not answering my question," said the Count drily. "What
+objection have you to my proposal? Is it not just and natural? Must I be
+deprived of the consolations accorded the most wretched? Have I made use
+of force or trickery?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, father!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you refuse me?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My resolution is taken; I have consecrated myself to God."</p>
+
+<p>So much firmness in so frail a being astonished me. She stood there like
+the sculptured Madonna in Hugh's Tower,&mdash;fragile, calm, impassive.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the Count glowed with feverish brightness. I endeavored to
+prevail upon the Countess, as best I could by signs, to give him a grain
+of hope, that his growing agitation might be calmed; but she did not
+appear to see me.</p>
+
+<p>"So," he cried in a voice choked with emotion, "you will see your father
+perish! A single word would save his life,&mdash;a word from your lips,&mdash;and
+you will not pronounce it."</p>
+
+<p>"Life is not within the gift of man, but of God alone," she murmured;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+"a word from me could be of no avail."</p>
+
+<p>"These are nothing but pious maxims," cried the Count bitterly, "to ease
+your conscience in refusing to do your duty! Has not God commanded,
+'Honor thy father and thy mother'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do honor you, my father," she replied gently; "but it is my duty not
+to marry."</p>
+
+<p>I could hear the Count grind his teeth. He lay for a few moments,
+apparently calm, then he suddenly sprang up.</p>
+
+<p>"Out of my sight!" he screamed; "your presence is hideous to me!"</p>
+
+<p>Then turning to me:</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor," he cried with a savage smile, "have you a poison about you,&mdash;a
+poison that slays with the quickness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> of a lightning flash? It is only
+merciful to give it to me! Ah, God! If you knew how I suffer!"</p>
+
+<p>His features worked convulsively; he became livid. Odile had risen and
+moved towards the door.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="ILL_005" id="ILL_005"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_005.jpg" width="500" height="323" alt="&quot;&#39;STAY!&#39; HE HOWLED, &#39;I HAVE NOT CURSED YOU YET.&#39;&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;STAY!&#39; HE HOWLED, &#39;I HAVE NOT CURSED YOU YET.&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Stay!" he howled; "I have not cursed you yet!"</p>
+
+<p>Up to this point, I had restrained myself, not daring to interfere
+between the father and his child; but I could endure it no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," I exclaimed; "in the name of your own health, in the name of
+reason, calm yourself! Your life depends upon it!"</p>
+
+<p>"What matters my life? What matters the future? Oh, if I were only done
+with it all!"</p>
+
+<p>His excitement increased with every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> moment. I feared lest, crazed with
+passion, he might spring from the bed and destroy his own child. She,
+still calm, but with cheeks as pale as his, fell on her knees before the
+threshold. At this moment, I succeeded in getting the Count to swallow a
+few drops of laudanum. He fell back with a long sigh, and soon his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+irregular breathing gave way to deep and leaden slumber.</p>
+
+<p>Odile arose, and her old governess, who had remained silent throughout,
+left the room with her. Sperver and I watched them as they slowly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+withdrew. There was a calm grandeur in the step of the Countess that
+bespoke a consciousness of duty fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>When she had disappeared in the shadows of the corridor, Gideon turned
+to me: "Well, Gaston," he said gravely;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> "what do you think of this?"
+I bowed my head without replying. The unaccountable firmness of the
+young woman dumbfounded me.</p>
+
+<p>"Come Gaston!" exclaimed Sperver indignantly, "let's get a breath of
+fresh air! I'm strangling here!" and he pulled me out of the chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the happiness of high-born people!" he exclaimed, as we stepped
+into the hall. "What is the use of being master of Nideck, with its fine
+Castle, forests, and game-preserves, and all else, if your own daughter
+can blight your life,&mdash;even cause your death, perhaps, by a nod of her
+head or a mincing refusal to obey your will? It would be a thousand
+times better to come into the world the son of a humble woodcutter, and
+live in the quiet accomplishment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> of your labor. Come down to my den,
+and we will drink a glass and have a pipe. I know nothing better to put
+care to flight than a good stiff glass."</p>
+
+<p>It was then about nine o'clock. The sky, so clear at daybreak, had
+become overcast; the north wind was whirling the flakes against the
+window-panes, and I could hardly distinguish the peaks of the
+neighboring mountains. We were descending the staircase which led to the
+main courtyard, when, at a turn of the corridor, we came face to face
+with Tobias Offenloch. The worthy majordomo was puffing like a porpoise.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo!" said Gideon; "where are you going in such a hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>"To tell the Countess that the Baron Zimmer begs the privilege of
+paying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> his respects to her before quitting the Castle."</p>
+
+<p>"Baron Zimmer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the stranger who came in last night at midnight."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," replied Sperver; "I was forgetting."</p>
+
+<p>We went along. A moment later we reached our destination. My companion
+pushed open the door and we went in.</p>
+
+<p>We sat down before the hearth. Gideon possessed himself of a corkscrew
+and two bottles, and soon our glasses were filled and pipes aglow. We
+were about to begin a discussion of the singular scene of a few moments
+before, when Offenloch appeared, but not alone, for to our astonishment
+we saw the Baron Zimmer and his valet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> following at his heels. We rose.
+The young Baron approached to greet us with uncovered head, and I
+studied with interest his handsome face, pale and haughty, with long,
+black locks falling about it. He paused before Sperver.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," he said, with that pure Saxon accent that no dialect can
+imitate, "I come to ask you about the country hereabouts. Mademoiselle
+the Countess of Nideck assures me that no one can inform me as well as
+yourself in regard to the passes of the Wald Horn."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that is true, monsieur," replied Sperver with a low bow; "and
+I am entirely at your service."</p>
+
+<p>"Imperative reasons compel me to set out in the midst of this storm,"
+resumed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> the Baron, pointing to the eddying flakes outside; "I must
+reach the Wald Horn, six leagues from here, before nightfall."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be a difficult matter, monsieur, for all the roads are
+blocked with snow."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, but it must be done."</p>
+
+<p>"A guide will be indispensable in that case. I will go with you if you
+like, monsieur, or Sebalt Kraft, the master of the hounds; he knows
+every inch of the mountain from Unterwalden to the Hunsdruck."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for your obliging offer; I appreciate it most fully, but I
+cannot accept it; your instructions will be sufficient."</p>
+
+<p>Sperver bowed again, and going over to a window, threw it wide open. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+quick gust of wind whirled the snow clear across the room and closed the
+door with a crash. I remained standing with one hand resting on the back
+of my chair; Tobias took refuge from the cold draught in a corner of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+chamber. The Baron and his servant approached the window.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 317px;"><a name="ILL_006" id="ILL_006"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_006.jpg" width="317" height="500" alt="&quot;YONDER YOU SEE THE PEAK OF THE ALTENBERG.&#39;&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;YONDER YOU SEE THE PEAK OF THE ALTENBERG.&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Messieurs," said Sperver, trying to make himself heard above the noise
+of the storm, and pointing towards the horizon, "this is the lay of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+country. If the day were clear, I would take you up to the signal-tower,
+where we could see the whole of the Black Forest, until it becomes lost
+to view in the distance; but as it is, I will do my best from here.
+Yonder you see the peak of the Altenberg, and further off, in the same
+line, just back of that white ridge, the Wald<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> Horn, swept by the
+tempest. You must go straight towards the Wald Horn. There, if the snow
+permits, you will see from the top of the mitre-shaped rock that is
+called the Roche Fendue, three peaks: the Behrenkopf, the Geierstein,
+and the Triefels. It is by the last one, the furthest to the right, that
+you must make your way. A torrent divides the valley of the Rhethal, but
+it must be frozen over now. However, if it is impossible to proceed
+further, you will find on your left, as you climb the summit, a cavern
+half-way to the top, known as the Roche Creuse. You can pass the night
+there, and to-morrow, in all probability, when the wind has fallen, you
+will see the Wald Horn."</p>
+
+<p>"Many thanks for your kindness."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If you are fortunate enough to meet with a charcoal burner," continued
+Sperver, "he may be able to show you where the torrent can be forded,
+but I doubt if there is any such place at this season. Have a special
+care to keep around the base of the Behrenkopf, for if you get much to
+either side of it, the descent is impossible; there are precipices
+everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>During these observations, I was watching Sperver, whose clear, ready
+speech accentuated each sentence with great precision, and I glanced
+occasionally at the Baron, who was listening with singular attention. No
+obstacle seemed to daunt him. His old servant appeared no less resolute
+than he.</p>
+
+<p>Just as they were leaving the window, a ray of light broke through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+clouds as the tempest seized the masses of snow and whirled them for an
+instant back upon each other like a floating drapery, and during this
+instant the three peaks behind the Altenberg were disclosed to view,
+serving to illustrate the details which Sperver had just given. Then the
+blizzard once more closed in.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said the Baron; "I have seen my destination, and thanks to your
+instructions, I hope to reach it."</p>
+
+<p>Sperver bowed without replying, and the young man and his servant,
+together with Offenloch, having saluted us, silently withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Gideon closed the window, and addressing himself to me: "The Old Nick
+must possess a man," he said, laughing, "to set out in such weather!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> I
+shouldn't have the heart to turn a wolf outdoors. I believe I have seen
+the young man's face before, and the old one's, too, if I could only
+think where. Let us drink! Your health, Gaston!"</p>
+
+<p>I had gone over to the window, and as the Baron Zimmer and his servant
+climbed into their saddles in the middle of the courtyard, I saw, in
+spite of the snow that filled the air, a curtain slightly raised in the
+tower opposite, and the pale face of the Countess appear, glancing long
+and furtively at the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, Gaston, what are you doing?" cried Sperver.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing. I am only looking at the strangers' horses."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, the Wallachians! I saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> them in the stable this morning. They
+are fine creatures."</p>
+
+<p>The horsemen departed at full speed. The curtain in the tower window
+dropped.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MARIE LAGOUTTE RELATES HER EXPERIENCE.</h3>
+
+<p>When I again saw Odile her expression was one of complete wretchedness;
+her swollen eyes told me that she had been weeping long, and her extreme
+pallor and weariness cut me to the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear mademoiselle," I said to her, with forced cheerfulness, "we
+must not be despondent. The turning-point of the malady must soon
+arrive, and this crisis safely passed, we may expect to see the Count in
+as good health as before."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She looked at me with an expression of gratitude for my wish to console
+her, but underlying it, I felt there was a quiet conviction to the
+contrary, and I realized the weakness of my position when I reflected
+that she might very probably be possessed of facts, unknown to me, which
+entirely disproved my words.</p>
+
+<p>"At all events," she replied, after a pause of some moments, "it is
+grateful to know that there is some one who shares our anxieties and has
+the desire really at heart to mitigate them."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak truly, mademoiselle," I returned. "I desire nothing so much
+as to see peace and contentment restored to this house, and I only wish
+that I possessed a thousandfold more power to accomplish it than I do.
+But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> whatever my skill is, it shall be devoted to this one end; and I
+shall not despair of success until all my efforts have proved
+unavailing."</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised at my own warmth a moment after; but Odile's glance
+satisfied me that I had not transgressed the limits of that reserve with
+which she surrounded herself.</p>
+
+<p>"And furthermore," I continued, encouraged by this fact to speak what I
+had for some time meditated, "if I might add the advice of a friend to
+that of the doctor, I should beg of you to spare yourself as much as
+possible in the matter of night watches and too unremitting a care of
+the Count, for a true woman's strength is exhausted long before her
+will, and you owe it to your friends as well as to yourself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> to preserve
+the life which God has entrusted to you."</p>
+
+<p>Odile lowered her eyes, then raised them; and as I approached and lifted
+to my lips the hand which she gave me, I surprised there a look which
+opened up to me a world of speculation.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to my chamber, where I found an hour none too long to calm in
+a measure the exuberance of feeling to which my moments with Odile
+invariably gave rise.</p>
+
+<p>Inclination made me quite as much concerned to spare Odile the suffering
+which her father's revolting harshness in his moments of delirium caused
+her, as to restore the Count to health, for after the morning's
+experience I felt that my pity for the sick man had, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> spite of
+myself, largely given place to loathing; and I felt too, with Sperver,
+that I could throttle him as he continued to heap injuries upon his
+daughter's defenceless head.</p>
+
+<p>However, there was but one way to alter the present condition of things
+and to establish a better one; namely, to effect the Count's cure, and I
+resolved that the best effort of my life should be expended here.
+Meanwhile I knew not where to begin. Medicines used otherwise than as
+opiates seemed lacking in the smallest efficacy. I saw nothing for it
+but to await developments.</p>
+
+<p>To remonstrate with Odile in the matter of the vow which she had taken
+was clearly out of the question, though I was curious to see if any
+yielding on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> her part would effect the change in her father's condition
+which he averred it would.</p>
+
+<p>And the reason of her absolute refusal to entertain even the thought of
+marriage? What could it be? She was not without feeling, a fact
+sufficiently demonstrated by her unswerving devotion to the Count. Nor
+did it seem to me that she could regard with disdain the fulfilment of
+that position which is the noblest aim and achievement of womankind, and
+which she was so eminently fitted by every circumstance of fortune to
+occupy and adorn. It could not be that there was any lack of
+understanding; for at times, when I surprised her glance resting upon
+me, I read in it a depth of sensibility that seemed almost
+unfathomable;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> and that its possessor was all kindness, in the strongest
+and best sense of the term, I was convinced. Of the answer to this
+riddle, it seemed then, I must forever remain in ignorance; but while
+any chance remained to solve it, I was determined to do so at all costs.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Count's illness continued its course. All that Sperver had
+told me verified itself. Sometimes the Count, starting up and leaning on
+his elbow with outstretched neck and staring eyes, would mutter, "She is
+coming! She is coming!" Then Gideon would shake his head and climb the
+signal-tower; but in vain did he look to right and left: the Black
+Plague was nowhere to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>After long reflection upon this strange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> malady, I had finally persuaded
+myself that the Count was deranged. The singular influence which the old
+creature exerted upon his mind, his alternate periods of delirium and
+calm, all served to strengthen me in this opinion. "Unknown chains unite
+his fate with that of the Black Plague," I said to myself. "That woman
+may have been young and beautiful in the past; who knows?" and my
+imagination, once launched in this direction, soon built up a romance;
+but I was careful to mention nothing of my thoughts,&mdash;Sperver would
+never have forgiven me for entertaining suspicions of a relationship
+between his master and the hag.</p>
+
+<p>During these anxious days, the one bright thing in my life was Odile's
+presence. Had it not been for this, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> doubt if I should longer have
+preserved any degree of hope.</p>
+
+<p>I know not if I myself quite realized the extent of my growing affection
+for Odile, but certain it is that with each day her image became more
+and more identified with all that I held dearest in the world, and as I
+moved about the old Castle halls and chambers, the library, the
+drawing-room, the chapel, her fair figure and light step accompanied me
+in fancy, and I likened her to the delicate, fragrant rose, which in
+summer blossomed and waved from the rough interstices of the Castle's
+battlements.</p>
+
+<p>Things were in this pass when one morning, at about eight o'clock, I was
+walking up and down in Hugh's Tower thinking of the Count's malady, the
+outcome of which I could foresee<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> no more clearly than before, and
+cudgelling my wits to determine what was next to be done. Suddenly I was
+roused from these cheerless reflections by three discreet taps on my
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in!"</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and Marie Lagoutte entered, dropping a low courtesy.
+The worthy woman's arrival annoyed me a good deal; I was on the point of
+asking her to leave me for the present, when an expression of unusual
+seriousness on her face aroused my curiosity. She had thrown a large
+red-and-green shawl over her shoulders, and stood with her lips pursed
+up and her eyes on the floor. It surprised me not a little to see her,
+after a moment, approach the door and open it again, apparently to make
+sure that no one had followed her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What does she want of me?" I asked myself. "What do all these
+precautions mean?" I was puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she said at length, drawing nearer me, "I beg your pardon
+for disturbing you so early in the morning, but I have something
+important to tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray go on! What is it about?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is about the Count."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur; you probably know that I sat up with him last night."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you did. Pray sit down!"</p>
+
+<p>She seated herself in a chair opposite me, a big, leather-covered
+armchair, and I remarked with interest the energetic character of the
+face which had seemed to me only grotesque on the evening of my arrival
+at the Castle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she went on after a brief pause, fixing her dark eyes on me,
+"I must tell you first of all that I am not a timid woman. I have seen
+many things in my life,&mdash;things so terrible that nothing astonishes me
+any more. When any one has passed through Rossbach, Leuthen, and
+Zorndorf, he has left fear behind him on the road."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak truly, madame!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't tell you this from a desire to boast, but only to convince you
+that I don't lose my wits at nothing, and that you may depend upon what
+I say when I tell you I have seen something."</p>
+
+<p>"What the deuce can she have to tell me?" I said to myself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" she continued; "last night, between nine and ten, just as I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+starting up to bed, Offenloch came in and said to me:</p>
+
+<p>"'Marie, you must sit up with the Count to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was surprised at this, and replied:</p>
+
+<p>"'What! sit up with the Count! Isn't madame going to sit up with him
+herself?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No; our mistress is ill, and you must take her place.'</p>
+
+<p>"Ill, poor child! I was sure it would end that way, and I told her so a
+hundred times; but what can you do, monsieur? Young people never have
+any thought for the future,&mdash;and then, it was her own father, too. So I
+took my knitting, said good night to Toby, and went to the master's
+room. Sperver, who was waiting for me, went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> off to bed as soon as I
+came in, and I was left all alone."</p>
+
+<p>Here the good woman paused, slowly breathed up a pinch of snuff, and
+seemed to be brushing up her memory. I had become attentive.</p>
+
+<p>"At about half past ten," she continued, "I was knitting away beside the
+bed, and every now and then I raised the curtain to see how the Count
+was doing; he never stirred; he was sleeping like a child. All went well
+up to eleven o'clock; then I began to feel tired; when you are old,
+monsieur, do what you will, you fall asleep in spite of yourself; and
+then, too, I didn't think anything was going to happen. I said to
+myself, 'He will sleep like a top till morning!'</p>
+
+<p>"Towards midnight the wind died<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> down, and the big windows that had been
+rattling all the evening were quiet. I got up to see if anything was
+going on outside. The night was as black as a bottle of ink, and I went
+back to my armchair. I took another look at the sick man and I saw that
+he hadn't stirred; then I went on knitting. After a few minutes, I fell
+slowly, slowly to sleep. My chair was as soft as down and the room was
+very warm; I couldn't keep awake.</p>
+
+<p>"I had been asleep about an hour, when a draught of cold air woke me. I
+opened my eyes, and what did I see? The long, middle window was wide
+open, the curtains were drawn, and the Count was standing upright on the
+window-sill!"</p>
+
+<p>"The Count?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! He cannot move!"</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't believe my eyes; but, nevertheless, I saw him as plainly as
+I see you this minute. He held a torch in his hand, and the air was so
+still that its flame never wavered."</p>
+
+<p>I stared at Marie Lagoutte, stupefied.</p>
+
+<p>"At first," she went on, "when I saw the master in this extraordinary
+position, it made such an effect on me that I wanted to scream; but then
+I thought, 'Perhaps he is walking in his sleep; if you cry out and wake
+him he will fall and be dashed to pieces.' So I kept still and watched
+him, as you can fancy. He raised his torch slowly, and then he lowered
+it, and he did this three times, like a man making signals to some one;
+then he threw it down on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> to the ramparts, closed the window, and drew
+the curtains; he passed before me without appearing to see me, and got
+into bed again muttering Heaven knows what."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you certain you saw all this, madame?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know it, but it is true! Goodness, how astonished I was for a
+moment! Then, when I saw him go back to bed again and cross his hands
+over his breast as if nothing had happened, I said to myself, 'Marie
+Anne, you have had a bad dream; that is the only explanation of it!' and
+I went over to the window. But the torch was still burning; it had
+fallen into a bush a little to the left of the third gate, and you
+could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> see it glowing like a spark. There was no denying it!"</p>
+
+<p>Marie Lagoutte looked at me for some minutes without speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"You can imagine, monsieur, that there was no more sleep for me that
+night. I was on tenter-hooks; every moment I thought I heard something
+behind my chair. I wasn't afraid, but I was uneasy; it worried me. This
+morning, at the first signs of day, I ran to wake up Offenloch, and I
+sent him to the Count's bedside. As I went along the corridor I noticed
+that the first torch on the right was missing from its ring. I went down
+the stairs, and I found it in the little path that leads to the Black
+Forest. See! here it is!"</p>
+
+<p>And she took from under her apron the end of a torch, which she laid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> on
+the table. I was thunderstruck. How could this man, whom but the night
+before I had seen so weak and exhausted, have risen from his bed, walked
+to the window, and opened and closed the heavy sash? What did this
+midnight signal mean? Wide awake as I was, it seemed to me as if I, too,
+had witnessed the strange scene, and my thoughts reverted involuntarily
+to the Black Plague. I roused myself at last from introspection, and I
+saw Marie Lagoutte had risen and was about to depart.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I said, as I moved with her to the door, "you have acted
+wisely in telling me this, and I thank you heartily for doing so. You
+have told no one else of this adventure?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one, monsieur. Such things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> are only to be confided to the priest
+and doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see you are a very sensible person."</p>
+
+<p>These words were exchanged on my threshold. At this moment, Sperver
+appeared at the end of the gallery, followed by his friend Sebalt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, Gaston!" he cried, hurrying up; "I have news for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well!" I exclaimed; "more news. The Old Harry is most certainly
+taking a hand in our affairs."</p>
+
+<p>Marie Lagoutte had disappeared. The steward and his comrade entered the
+Tower.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>SEBALT TRACKS THE PLAGUE.</h3>
+
+<p>Sperver's face wore a look of supreme indignation; Sebalt's one of
+bitter irony. The master of the hounds, whose melancholy appearance had
+struck me during my first days at Nideck, was as thin as a rail; he wore
+a leather jacket fastened at the waist by a belt, from which hung a
+hunting-knife with a bone handle; long leather gaiters reached above his
+knees, and his horn hung at his elbow from a shoulder belt that went
+from right to left across his chest. On his head was a broad-brimmed hat
+with a heron's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> plume in the band, and his profile, terminating in a
+yellowish beard, suggested that of a goat.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," continued Sperver; "I have some news for you!"</p>
+
+<p>He threw himself into a chair, burying his face in his hands, while
+Sebalt quietly drew his trumpet over his head and laid it on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Sebalt," cried Gideon, "speak out!"</p>
+
+<p>"The witch is roaming about the Castle."</p>
+
+<p>This information would have failed to interest me had it not been for
+the interview with Marie Lagoutte; but now it made a deep impression
+upon me. There was some mysterious connection between the Lord of Nideck
+and this horrid creature, the nature of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> which was an enigma to me. I
+felt that I must solve it at all costs.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment, gentlemen! one moment!" I said to Sperver and his comrade;
+"first of all, I want to know where this Black Plague comes from."</p>
+
+<p>Sperver stared at me in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven only knows!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"At precisely what time does she come within sight of Nideck?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told you before! Just a week before Christmas every year."</p>
+
+<p>"And she stays?"</p>
+
+<p>"From a fortnight to three weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she ever seen except at that time, either going or coming?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we shall have to catch her!" I exclaimed. "This is not natural!
+We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> must find out what she wants, who she is, and where she comes from."</p>
+
+<p>"Catch her!" said the master of the hounds, with an odd smile. "Catch
+her, indeed!" and he shook his head meaningly.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Gaston," began Sperver, "your suggestion is all well enough,
+but it is easier said than done. If I could send a bullet after her,
+that would be another matter, for I can always come within gunshot of
+her, but this the Count forbids; and as to taking her otherwise, you
+might as well try to catch a squirrel by the tail. Listen to Sebalt's
+story, and you shall see for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The person thus addressed, sitting on the end of the table with his legs
+crossed, looked at me and began:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This morning, as I was coming down the Altenberg, I followed the hollow
+Nideck road. The snow was on a level with its edges. I was going along,
+thinking of nothing in particular, when a foot-track caught my eye; it
+was deep, and went straight across the path; the creature had come down
+one side of the bank and gone up on the other. It wasn't a hare's foot,
+for that makes hardly any mark in the snow; nor the cloven hoof of the
+wild boar, nor a wolf's paw either; it was a deep hole. I stopped and
+brushed away the snow that was collecting round it. It was the Black
+Plague's track!"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know it? I know the old hag's footprint better than her
+figure, for I always go along with my eyes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> on the ground. I can
+recognize any one in the country around by his foot-tracks, and a child
+couldn't have mistaken this one."</p>
+
+<p>"What was there about it so very different from any other?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is no larger than your hand; it is finely shaped, the heel a trifle
+long, the outline clean, and the great toe lies close to the others, as
+if they were pressed into a slipper. It is a beautiful foot. Twenty
+years ago, monsieur, I should have fallen in love with such a foot!
+Every time I come across one like it, it makes a great impression on me.
+Heavens! how can such a foot belong to the Black Plague?" And the good
+fellow fixed his eyes on the floor with a dismal air.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Sebalt, go on!" said Sperver impatiently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"To be sure! Well, I recognized the track, and I set out to follow it. I
+was in hopes of catching the witch in her den, but you shall hear what a
+dance she led me. I climbed up the roadside, only two gunshots from
+Nideck, and struck off into the bushes, keeping the trail always on my
+right; it ran along the edge of the Rhethal. Suddenly it jumped over the
+ditch into the woods. I kept on, but happening to glance a little to the
+left of it, I discovered another track that had been following the Black
+Plague's. I stopped; 'Could it be Sperver's? or Kasper Trumpf's? or any
+of the other people's?' I asked myself. I stooped over and examined it
+closely, and you can fancy my surprise when I saw that it belonged to
+nobody in this part of the country. I know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> every footprint from here to
+T&uuml;bingen, and it was none of these. The owner must have come from a
+distance. The boot&mdash;for it was a kind of soft, well-made boot, with a
+spur that left a little rowelled line in the snow behind it&mdash;instead of
+being rounded at the end, was square; the sole, thin and without nails,
+bent at every step. The pace was short and hurried, like that of a man
+from twenty to twenty-five. I noticed the stitches in the leather at
+this glance, and I have never seen finer."</p>
+
+<p>"Who could it have been?"</p>
+
+<p>Sperver shrugged his shoulders and remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Who can have any object in following the old woman?" I asked, turning
+to Sperver.</p>
+
+<p>"The devil himself, perhaps," he replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We sat for some minutes, each one busied with his own reflections.</p>
+
+<p>"I started on again," pursued Sebalt finally; "the tracks led up the
+mountain side amongst the fir-trees, and then turned off around the base
+of the Roche Fendue. When I saw this, I said to myself, 'Ah! you old
+hag! If there was much game of your sort, the sport of hunting would go
+to the dogs. It would be better to work as a galley slave!' We came&mdash;the
+two tracks and I&mdash;to the top of the Schneeberg. The wind had swept here
+and the snow was up to my waist, but I must get on! I reached the banks
+of the Steinbach torrent and there the Black Plague's foot-prints
+ceased. I stopped, and saw that after having tried up and down, the
+gentleman's boots had taken the direction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> of the Tiefenbach. This was a
+bad sign. I looked at the opposite bank, but there was no sign of a
+track there. The witch had waded either up or down the stream, to break
+the scent. Where should I go? To right or left? In my uncertainty, by
+Jove, I came back to Nideck."</p>
+
+<p>"You have forgotten to tell the doctor about her breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, monsieur! At the foot of the Roche Fendue, I saw she had
+lighted a fire; the snow was black around it; and I laid my hand on the
+spot, thinking that if it were still warm the Plague could not be far
+away, but it was as cold as ice. I noticed a snare in the bushes close
+by."</p>
+
+<p>"A snare?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it seems the old creature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> knows how to manage traps. A hare had
+been caught in it; the impression of his body was still there where he
+had lain stretched out. The witch had lighted the fire to cook him; she
+knows a thing or two, you see!"</p>
+
+<p>"Just to think," cried Sperver angrily, "that this old wretch should
+find meat to feed on, when so many honest people of our villages are
+starving for the want of a bit of bread! It infuriates me! If I only had
+her in my clutches&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>He had no time to finish his sentence. The next moment, we were staring
+into each other's ashy faces, speechless and immovable. A howl&mdash;the howl
+of a wolf on a bitter winter's night&mdash;a cry that you must have heard to
+comprehend in the least, the agonized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> plaint of the savage beast,&mdash;was
+echoing through the Castle, and seemed not far from us. It rose from
+below, so fearfully distinct that we fancied the wild animal just
+outside our door.</p>
+
+<p>We often hear quoted, as the most terrible of sounds, the roar of the
+lion, as he rends the silence of approaching night in the immensity of
+the desert. But if the parched and burning sands of Africa have their
+voice, like the sound of the autumn tempest growling among the crags of
+the forest, so, too, have the vast, snowy plains of the North their
+characteristic cry, that accords so well with the dreary winter
+landscape, where all is sleeping, and not even a dead leaf rustles to
+disturb the perfect stillness; and this cry,&mdash;it is the howl of the
+wolf!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rousing himself with difficulty, Sperver sprang from his chair, rushed
+to the window, and stared down at the foot of the Tower.</p>
+
+<p>"Can a wolf have fallen into the moat?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>But the howls came from within the Castle. Then turning to us:</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston! Sebalt!" he cried, "come on!"</p>
+
+<p>We flew down the stairs four steps at a time, and rushed into the
+armory. Sperver drew his hunting-knife, and Sebalt followed his example;
+they preceded me along the gallery. The cries were guiding us towards
+the chamber of the sick man. Sperver spoke no more, and hurried his
+steps. I felt a shudder pass over me; something forewarned us that an
+abominable scene<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> was about to transpire before our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the Count's apartment, we found the whole household
+afoot&mdash;hunters, kennel-keepers, and scullions, running this way and
+that, and asking each other, "What is the matter? where are the cries
+coming from?" Without waiting for anything, we dashed into the corridor
+which led to the Count's chamber, and in the vestibule we encountered
+the good Marie Lagoutte, who alone had had the courage to proceed there
+before us. She was holding in her arms the young Countess, who had
+fainted, and was hurrying her away as rapidly as she could. So agitated
+was I at this pathetic sight that for the moment I forgot the Count, and
+I sprang forward to Odile's aid;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> but Marie Lagoutte begged me to hurry
+to the Count, as her mistress was only in a faint and would soon revive,
+when she would be terribly distressed if I were not at her father's
+bedside. Realizing that in spite of my preferences my first duty was to
+my patient, I reluctantly quitted them, and hastened to overtake my
+companions.</p>
+
+<p>We reached the Count's room. The howls were coming from within.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 322px;"><a name="ILL_007" id="ILL_007"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_007.jpg" width="322" height="500" alt="&quot;THEN HE WOULD RESUME HIS FRIGHTFUL CRIES.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;THEN HE WOULD RESUME HIS FRIGHTFUL CRIES.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We stared at one another, trying in vain to explain the presence of such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+a guest. Our ideas were in utter confusion. Sperver threw open the door,
+and with his hunting-knife tightly grasped, started to enter the room;
+but he paused on the threshold, motionless as a stone. I glanced over
+his shoulder, and the sight that presented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> itself to my gaze froze
+the blood in my veins. The Count of Nideck, crouching on all-fours on
+the bed, his head bent forward and his eyes glowing fiercely, was
+uttering these terrible howls. He was the wolf! That low forehead, that
+long, pointed face, that bristling beard, that long, thin body, and
+those wasted limbs,&mdash;the expression, the cry, the attitude,&mdash;all bespoke
+the savage beast beneath a human mask. At times he would stop for a
+second to listen, and the tall curtains of the bed would tremble like
+leaves. Then he would resume his frightful cries.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver, Sebalt, and I stood nailed to the floor; we held our breath.
+Suddenly the Count stopped; like the hunted animal that sniffs the
+breeze, he raised his head and listened. Far,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> far away beneath the
+lofty arches of the snow-clad pines, a cry was heard; feeble at first,
+it seemed to grow louder as it was prolonged, and soon it rose clear and
+strong above the roaring of the storm. It was the she-wolf answering its
+mate.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver, turning towards me with livid face, his arm pointing to the
+mountain, cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, it is the witch!"</p>
+
+<p>The Count, motionless, with raised head and extended neck, his mouth
+wide open, and eyeballs glowing like coals, seemed to understand the
+meaning of the distant voice, lost in the midst of the deserted gorges
+of the Black Forest, and a certain savage joy gleamed in his face. At
+this moment Sperver cried in a broken voice:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Count of Nideck! What are you doing?"</p>
+
+<p>The Count fell backwards as if thunderstruck. We rushed into the room to
+his assistance. The third attack had begun, and it was terrible to
+witness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PLAGUE IN MY CHAMBER.&mdash;THE MIDNIGHT SCENE ON THE ALTENBERG.</h3>
+
+<p>The Count of Nideck was in a dying condition. All that art might
+accomplish I had tried without avail, and at that moment, when life and
+death were struggling for the mastery, I was compelled to stand idly by
+and watch the sands of Time's hour-glass run out. Towards midnight, the
+Count seemed almost gone; his pulse beat feebly, and at times seemed to
+stop. Sometimes I thought the end was but the question of a few moments.
+At length, worn out with exhaustion and anxiety, I bid the weeping
+Sperver remain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> with his master while I repaired to the Tower to snatch
+a few moments' sleep.</p>
+
+<p>A bright fire was burning in my chamber. I threw myself on the bed
+without removing my clothes, and soon fell into a heavy, troubled
+slumber. I slept thus, with my face turned towards the fire, whose rays
+danced upon the polished flagstones. After an hour, the fire suddenly
+started up, and as it often happens, the flame, rising and falling
+momentarily, beat upon the walls its great red wings and tired my
+eyelids. Lost in a vague slumber, I half opened my eyes to see whence
+came these alternate lights and shadows, when I was brought wide awake
+by an appalling sight.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 322px;"><a name="ILL_008" id="ILL_008"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_008.jpg" width="322" height="500" alt="&quot;I RAISED MYSELF ON MY ELBOW AND STARED FEARFULLY IN THE DIRECTION.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;I RAISED MYSELF ON MY ELBOW AND STARED FEARFULLY IN THE DIRECTION.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the further end of the hearth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> hardly revealed by the light of a few
+glowing embers, a dark profile was dimly visible,&mdash;the profile of the
+Black Plague. At first, I thought it an hallucination, the natural
+offspring of my feverish thoughts. I raised myself on my elbow, and
+stared fearfully in the direction, real or fancied, of the image. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>
+she indeed! Calm and motionless she sat, her hands clasped about her
+knees, just as I had seen her in the snow, with her long, thin neck,
+sharp, hooked nose, and thin lips tightly closed,&mdash;and she was warming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+herself before the fire.</p>
+
+<p>I was horrified. How could the creature have got into my room? How could
+she have climbed the Tower, beneath which precipices yawned on every
+side? Everything that Sperver had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> told me concerning her mysterious
+power seemed no whit exaggerated. The vision of Lieverl&eacute; growling
+against the wall passed before me like a flash. I huddled close in the
+alcove, hardly daring to breathe, and watching this immovable silhouette
+as a mouse watches a cat from the bottom of its hole. The old woman
+stirred no more than the chimney-breast cut in the solid rock, and her
+lips moved as she mumbled inarticulate words.</p>
+
+<p>My heart beat painfully fast, and my fear increased from moment to
+moment, as I gazed on the motionless figure amid the perfect silence.
+This lasted perhaps a quarter of an hour, when the fire catching a pine
+splinter, the flame leaped up and a few rays penetrated to the end of
+the room. This flash sufficed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> to show me the aged woman dressed in an
+old gown of purple brocade that shimmered violet and red in different
+lights, with a heavy bracelet on her left wrist and a gold arrow stuck
+through her thick, gray hair, which was coiled up on the back of her
+head. It was like an apparition of past ages.</p>
+
+<p>Still, the Plague could have no hostile designs upon me, or she would
+have profited by my slumber to execute them. This thought was beginning
+to reassure me, when she suddenly got up and moved slowly towards my
+bed, holding in her hand a torch which she had just lighted at the fire.
+I now observed that her eyes were fixed and haggard. I made an effort to
+rise and cry out, but not a muscle of my body would obey my will, not a
+sound passed my lips,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> and the old witch, bending over me between the
+parted curtains, fixed her eyes on me with a strange smile. I tried to
+spring upon her and cry for help, but her glance paralyzed me as the
+snake's look charms the tiny bird. During this dumb contemplation, each
+second seemed to me an eternity. What was she about to do? I was
+prepared for anything. Suddenly she turned her head, listened, and then
+crossing the room with a rapid step, she opened the door. At last I had
+recovered a little courage; an effort of the will brought me to my feet,
+as if acted upon by an invisible spring, and I followed on the heels of
+the old woman, who with one hand was holding her torch above her head,
+and with the other kept the hall-door wide open.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I was about to seize her by the hair when, at the end of the long
+gallery, beneath the oval archway that opened upon the ramparts, I
+saw&mdash;the Count of Nideck! The Count of Nideck, whom I thought dying,
+clad in a huge wolf-skin, with its upper jaw projecting like a visor
+over his eyebrows, the claws resting on his shoulders, and the tail
+dragging behind him over the flagstones. He wore heavy boots, a silver
+clasp fastened the wolf-skin at his throat, and his expression, except
+for the dull, icy look in his eyes, bespoke the strong man born to
+command,&mdash;the master.</p>
+
+<p>In the presence of such a personage my ideas became vague and confused.
+Flight was impossible. I had presence of mind enough left, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> to
+throw myself into an embrasure of the window.</p>
+
+<p>The Count entered the chamber and fixed upon the old woman a rigid
+stare. They held a whispered conversation, of which I was able to hear
+nothing, but their gestures were full of meaning. The old hag pointed to
+the bed. They moved to the fireplace on tiptoe, and there in the shadow
+of the triforium the Black Plague unrolled a large bundle, grinning
+hideously meanwhile. Hardly had the Count caught sight of the sack,
+before he sprang to the bedside and disappeared between the curtains,
+which stirred in a strange fashion. I could only see one leg still
+resting on the floor, and the wolf's tail moving back and forth. They
+seemed to be enacting a mock murder scene.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nothing could have been more horrible than this mute representation of
+such an act. The old creature approached the bed in turn, and spread out
+her sack on the floor beside it. The curtains still moved, and their
+shadows danced upon the walls. Then a great movement succeeded. The old
+creature and the Count together crowded the bed clothes into the sack,
+stamping them down with the haste of a dog scratching a hole in the
+earth, and the Lord of Nideck, throwing the shapeless bundle over his
+shoulder, started for the door. A sheet dragged behind him, and the old
+woman followed him with her torch. They crossed the court.</p>
+
+<p>My knees trembled and almost refused to support my weight; a prayer rose
+involuntarily to my lips. Two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> minutes had not passed before I was on
+their footsteps, dragged along by a subtle, irresistible curiosity. I
+crossed the court at a run, and was about to enter the Gothic Tower,
+when I perceived a deep, narrow pit at my feet, and into its depths
+wound a staircase, down which I saw the hag's torch turning, turning
+about the stone baluster like a firefly, until it became lost in the
+distance.</p>
+
+<p>I descended in turn the first steps of the staircase, guiding my course
+by the distant glimmer, when it suddenly disappeared. The old woman and
+the Count had reached the bottom of the precipice. Soon the steps
+ceased. I looked around me and discovered on my left hand a ray of
+moonlight that found its way into the pit through a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> low door, across
+the nettles and brambles laden with hoar-frost. I put aside these
+bushes, clearing away the snow with my feet, and found myself at the
+foot of Hugh's donjon-tower. Who would have supposed that such a hole
+led up to the Castle? Who had shown it to the old woman? I did not stop
+to answer these questions. The vast plain lay before me, flooded with a
+light almost equal to that of day. To the right stretched the dark
+extent of the Black Forest, with its perpendicular rocks, its gorges and
+ravines. The night air was still and bitter cold; I felt exalted by the
+keen atmosphere. My first glance was to discover the direction which the
+old woman and the Count had taken. Their tall, dark forms were moving
+slowly up the mountain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> side some two hundred paces in advance of me,
+and stood out against the background of the heavens studded with
+innumerable stars. I came close up to them at the bottom of the next
+ravine. The Count moved slowly on, the winding-sheet still dragging
+behind him. His attitude and movements, like those of his companion,
+were automatic in their precision.</p>
+
+<p>On they went, some twenty paces before me, following the hollow road to
+the Altenberg, now in the shadow, now in the full light, for the moon
+was shining with surprising brilliancy. A few clouds followed her, and
+seemed as if stretching out their great arms to seize her; but she
+evaded them, and her rays, cold as a blade of steel, cut me to the
+heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I would gladly have turned back, but an invisible power impelled me to
+follow this funeral procession. Even to this hour, I still see in fancy
+the path that winds beneath the colonnades of the Black Forest. I hear
+the snow crunching beneath my step, and the fallen leaves rustling in
+the gently stirring north wind. I still see myself following those two
+silent figures, and I try in vain to explain to myself the mysterious
+impulse which caused me to dog their footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>At last we reached the forest and proceeded amongst the naked beeches,
+the dark shadows of whose higher boughs intersected the lower branches
+and traced their outlines on the snow-covered path. Sometimes I fancied
+I heard some one behind me; I would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> turn quickly around, but could see
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>We gained at length the line of crags on the summit of the Altenberg,
+behind which the torrent of the Schneeberg rushes earlier in the year,
+but now there was only a mere thread of water slowly trickling beneath
+its thick covering of ice. The vast solitude no longer had its murmurs,
+its warblings, and its thunder; its oppressive stillness inspired fear.
+The Count and the old woman found a gap in the rocks, up which they
+mounted quickly and apparently without effort, while I was obliged to
+scramble up, clinging to the bushes in order to follow them.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had I reached the top of the rock which forms a corner of the
+precipice, when I found myself within three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> yards of them, and before
+me I saw a bottomless abyss. On the left hung the falls of the
+Schneeberg in sheets of ice. This resemblance to a wave leaping into the
+precipice, and bearing with it the neighboring trees, sucking up the
+underbrush and cleaving the ivys that follow on its crest without
+becoming uprooted; this appearance of mighty movement in the
+immovableness of death, and those two silent forms proceeding with their
+sinister work, all inspired me with indescribable terror. Nature herself
+seemed to share in my feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The Count had laid down his burden; the old woman and he swung it for a
+moment above the precipice, then the long shroud floated over the edge,
+and the actors in this awful drama bent over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> to watch it as it fell.
+The long, white sheet, swelling upwards as it met the rising breath of
+the chasm, and then falling slowly and disappearing from sight, still
+floats before my eyes. I see it sinking like the swan shot far up in the
+sky, her wings spread out and head thrown back, falling to earth in the
+agony of death.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a cloud which had long been approaching the moon slowly
+veiled her in its bluish folds; complete darkness succeeded. After a
+little the moon appeared again through a rift in the clouds, and I saw
+the old woman seize the Count's hand and drag him along with dangerous
+speed down the mountain side. Then it became dark again, and I dared not
+risk a step lest I should fall headlong into an abyss.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> Once more the
+clouds parted. I looked about me and found myself alone on the high
+rock, knee-deep in snow. Seized with horror, I made my way cautiously
+down the steep declivity, and once on the plain I started to run towards
+the Castle, as much stunned as if I had shared in some dark crime.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Lord of Nideck and the old woman, I had lost sight of them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>I LOSE MY WAY AND PASS THE NIGHT IN THE DWARF'S LODGE.</h3>
+
+<p>I wandered around the Castle, unable to find the opening through which I
+had come out on to the plain. So much anxiety and emotion began to tell
+upon my mind; I moved aimlessly along, asking myself with dread if
+madness were not playing a part in my fancies, unable to believe what I
+had seen, and yet alarmed at the clearness of my perceptions. The image
+of the master of Nideck waving his torch in the darkness, howling like a
+wolf, coolly accomplishing an imaginary crime, without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> omitting a
+gesture, a circumstance, not even the smallest detail, then escaping and
+committing to the abyss the secret of the murder, harassed my mind and
+hung over me like a nightmare. I ran breathless and distracted through
+the snow, not knowing in what direction to guide my steps.</p>
+
+<p>As day approached, the cold became more intense. At last, exhausted, my
+legs feeling like lead, and my ears half frozen, I succeeded in
+discovering the iron grating, and I rang the bell with all my might. It
+was then about four o'clock in the morning. Knapwurst kept me waiting a
+terribly long time. His little lodge, built against the rock, just
+within the principal gate, remained quite silent; it seemed to me that
+the dwarf would never finish dressing, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> I had fancied him in bed and
+soundly sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>I rang again, and this time his grotesque figure emerged abruptly from
+his doorway, and he cried furiously:</p>
+
+<p>"Who's there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I! The Doctor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that is another matter! I'll see whether you are telling the
+truth."</p>
+
+<p>He went back into his lodge to get a lantern, crossed the outer court
+with the snow up to his middle, and staring at me through the grating:</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, monsieur the doctor," he said; "I thought you were
+asleep up-stairs in Hugh's Tower. It was you ringing! Now I see why
+Sperver came to me at midnight to ask if any one had gone out. I said
+no, for I never saw you go out."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But for Heaven's sake, Knapwurst, open the door! You can tell me all
+this later."</p>
+
+<p>"Be patient for a moment, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>And the dwarf deliberately turned the lock and drew back the bolts,
+while I stood with my teeth chattering, and shivering from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>"You are cold, Doctor," observed the diminutive porter, "and you cannot
+get into the Castle. Sperver has fastened the inside door, I don't know
+why; he doesn't ordinarily; the grating is enough. Come into the lodge
+and warm yourself. You won't find my room much to boast of; properly
+speaking, it is nothing but a sty, but when you are cold you don't spend
+much time in looking about."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Without replying to his chatter I followed him as rapidly as possible,
+burning with impatience to learn what things were passing in the Castle,
+but seeing nothing for it but to wait till dawn.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the lodge, and in spite of my state of complete frigidity, I
+could not help admiring the picturesque disorder of this species of
+nest. The slate roof leaned against the rock on one side, and on the
+other against a wall six to seven feet high, disclosing to view the
+blackened beams propped up against each other. The lodge consisted of a
+single room, furnished with a bed which the gnome did not take the
+trouble to make up very often, and two small dusty windows with
+hexagonal panes which the moon turned to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> mother-of-pearl with its pale
+rays. A large, square table occupied the middle of the room. How this
+massive oak table had ever been brought through the narrow doorway, it
+would have been difficult to explain. Upon a few shelves were arranged
+some old volumes and rolls of parchment, and on the table lay open an
+enormous tome with illuminated initial letters, bound in vellum, with a
+silver clasp and corners; it looked to me like a collection of old
+chronicles. Lastly, two armchairs, one covered with red leather and the
+other upholstered with a down cushion, and bearing the unmistakable
+impression of the dwarf's body, completed the furniture of the place.</p>
+
+<p>I will not stop to describe the desk with its five or six pens, the
+tobacco<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> jar, the pipes scattered variously about, the little, low, iron
+stove in one corner of the room, with its door standing open, red hot,
+and sending a shower of sparks from time to time on to the stone floor,
+and the spitting cat with her back arched and her paw lifted in defiance
+of me.</p>
+
+<p>All these objects were veiled in that smoky amber light which rests the
+eye, and of which the old Flemish masters alone possessed the secret.</p>
+
+<p>"So you went out last night, monsieur the doctor," Knapwurst said to me
+when we were comfortably seated, he before his volume and I with my
+hands stretched out before the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, rather early. A woodcutter of the Black Forest needed my services;
+he had cut his left foot with an axe stroke."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This explanation appeared to satisfy the dwarf; he lighted his black
+pipe, which hung down over his chin.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't smoke, monsieur?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, help yourself to a pipe! I was just here," he said, stretching
+his long, yellow hand over the page, "reading the chronicles of Hertzog
+when you rang."</p>
+
+<p>I now understood why he had kept me standing so long in the cold.</p>
+
+<p>"You waited to finish your chapter," I said smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur," he admitted; and we laughed together.</p>
+
+<p>"However, if I had known it was you, I should have put it off till
+another time," he added.</p>
+
+<p>A silence of some minutes followed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> during which I studied the truly
+remarkable physiognomy of the dwarf: those deep wrinkles at the corners
+of his mouth, those little squinting eyes, the broad, unshapely nose
+rounded at the end, and especially his swelling, double-storied
+forehead. I noticed in his face something of the expression of Socrates,
+and as I warmed myself before the crackling blaze, I reflected upon the
+strange fortunes of certain of us.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is this dwarf," I said to myself, "this unsightly, stunted
+creature, exiled into a corner of Nideck like the cricket that sings
+beneath the hearthstone; this Knapwurst, who, in the midst of all these
+excitements, hunting-parties and gay cavalcades going and coming, the
+baying of hounds, stamping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> of horses, and winding of the hunters' horn,
+lives quietly alone, buried in his books, and thinking only of times
+long past, indifferent whether all is in songs or tears around him,
+whether it is spring, summer, or autumn that comes to peep in at him
+through his little dusty window panes, reanimating, warming or chilling
+the breast of Nature outside. While others are living, blessed with the
+hope and magic of love, striving to gratify ambition or avarice,
+plotting, coveting, and longing, he hopes for nothing, covets nothing,
+wishes nothing. He sits and smokes his pipe, and with his eyes fixed on
+the old parchment before him, he dreams and revels in things that no
+longer exist, perhaps never had any existence&mdash;what matters it to
+him&mdash;'Hertzog says this,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> 'such a one has it differently,'&mdash;and he is
+happy. His parchment skin gets more and more wrinkled, his sharp elbows
+dig holes in the table, while his long fingers bury themselves in his
+cheeks, and his little gray eyes roam over Latin, Greek, and Etruscan
+characters. He goes into ecstasies, he licks his lips like a cat who has
+just lapped up a saucer of cream, and then he lies down on his cot, with
+his knees drawn up under the coverlid, and thinks he has passed the best
+possible kind of a day. O God of Heaven! Is it at the top or at the
+bottom of the ladder that we find the true application of your laws, and
+the accomplishment of the duties you have imposed?"</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the snow was melting from my legs, and the grateful warmth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> of
+the stove restored my spirits. I felt reanimated in this atmosphere of
+tobacco smoke and resinous pine. Knapwurst laid his pipe on the table,
+and passing his hand once more across the folio:</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur de la Roche," he said in a grave tone that seemed to come from
+the bottom of his conscience, or if you prefer, from the depths of a
+twenty-five gallon cask, "here is the law and the prophets."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean, Knapwurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"Parchment, old parchment, is what I love. These old yellow leaves,
+eaten by worms, are all that is left us of times long gone by, from
+Charlemagne to our own day. The ancient families have disappeared, but
+the old parchments remain. Where would be the glory of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> the
+Hohenstauferns, the Liningens, the Nidecks, and so many other noble
+families, were it not for these? Where would be the fame of their
+title-rights, their deeds of arms, their heroic actions, their distant
+expeditions to the Holy Land, their ancient alliances and claims, and
+their conquests, did they not stand in these chronicles? These lofty
+barons, dukes, and princes would be as if they never existed&mdash;they and
+everything relating to them far and near.</p>
+
+<p>"Their great castles, fortunes, and palaces crumble and fall, and their
+ruins serve as vague reminders. Of all this a single memorial
+remains,&mdash;the chronicles, the history, the songs of bards and
+minnesingers,&mdash;parchment alone is left to us!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A brief silence followed, then Knapwurst resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"And in those distant times, when brave knights went forth to war,
+disputing and fighting over a bit of forest, title, or a lesser matter
+yet, with what contempt did they look upon this wretched little scribe,
+this man of letters and mystery, clad in ratteen, his only weapon an ink
+bottle dangling at his belt, and the handle of his pen for a plume. How
+often they jeered him, crying, 'That fellow is an atom, a flea; he is
+good for nothing; he cannot even collect our taxes or manage our
+estates, while we fine chaps go out on our mounts with lance in hand,
+ready for anything that comes in our way!' Thus they talked when they
+saw the poor devil dragging along behind them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> shivering in winter,
+sweating in summer, and growing feeble in his old age. Ah, well! this
+atom, this flea, has caused them to survive long after their castles
+have turned to dust and their arms have rusted away, and for my part I
+love these old parchments; I respect and revere them. Like ivy, they
+clothe the ruins and prevent the old walls from crumbling away and
+becoming entirely effaced."</p>
+
+<p>Having given such expression to his thoughts, Knapwurst seemed grave,
+and reflecting upon these things his eyes filled with the tears of
+affectionate remembrance. The dwarf loved those who had tolerated and
+protected his ancestors. After all, he spoke the truth; there was
+profound good sense in his words. His warmth surprised me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Have you learned Latin, Knapwurst?" I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur," he replied, "I taught myself Latin and Greek. Old
+grammars were enough,&mdash;some of the Count's thrown into the ash-barrel;
+they fell into my hands and I devoured them. Some time after, the Lord
+of Nideck having chanced to hear me make some Latin quotation was
+surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"'Who taught you Latin, Knapwurst?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'I taught myself, monseigneur.'</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me some questions, which I answered pretty well.</p>
+
+<p>"'By Jove!' he cried, 'Knapwurst knows more than I do! He shall keep my
+archives.'</p>
+
+<p>"And he gave me the key to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> archive chamber. During the thirty years
+since then, I have read every page. Sometimes the Count, seeing me on my
+ladder, stops a minute and says to me:</p>
+
+<p>"'Ha! ha! What are you doing up there, Knapwurst?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I am reading the family records, monseigneur.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And you enjoy it?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Very much, monseigneur.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, well! I am glad to hear it; if it weren't for you, Knapwurst,
+who would know of the glory of the Nidecks?' and he goes off laughing. I
+do as I please here!"</p>
+
+<p>"He is a good master then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, monsieur, what a heart, and what kindness!" exclaimed the dwarf,
+clasping his hands. "He has but one fault."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And what is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has no ambition."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he could have attained to anything. A Nideck! One of the most
+illustrious families of Germany! Think of that, monsieur! He had only to
+choose; he might have been a minister or a field-marshal. But no! In his
+youth he retired from political life. With the exception of a campaign
+that he conducted in France, at the head of a regiment which he raised
+by his own exertions&mdash;with this exception, he has always lived far from
+noise and strife, simple and almost unknown, only interesting himself in
+his hunting."</p>
+
+<p>These details were of the greatest interest to me. The conversation was
+taking, of its own accord, the direction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> that I most wished, and I
+resolved to profit by my opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>"The Count has never had any great passions in his life, then?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"None, monsieur; and that is the pity, for noble passions make the
+renown of great families. It is a misfortune for the member of a noble
+race to be devoid of ambition. He allows his family to degenerate. I
+could cite many examples in proof of what I say. That which would be the
+pride of the tradesman's family, would be the ruin of the illustrious."</p>
+
+<p>I was amazed; all my speculations regarding the Count's past life were
+fast being disproved.</p>
+
+<p>"However, the Count has met with many reverses, has he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of what nature?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He has lost his wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you are right; his wife was an angel. He married her for love; she
+was a daughter of one the oldest and noblest families of Alsace, but
+ruined by the Revolution. The Countess Odette was her husband's sole
+happiness. She died of a lingering illness that lasted over the space of
+five years; every means was resorted to to save her life. They travelled
+together in Italy, but she returned worse than she went, and succumbed
+some three weeks after their return. The Count came near dying himself
+of a broken heart. For two years he shut himself up and would see
+nobody. His dogs and horses were neglected. Time at length calmed his
+grief, but there has ever been something here." (The dwarf laid his
+finger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> on his heart.) "You understand; it is a bleeding wound. Old
+wounds pain us in change of weather, and old griefs, too, when the
+flowers spring up above the tomb, and in autumn when the dead leaves
+cover the ground. The Count has never wished to marry again; his
+daughter is the sole object of his affection."</p>
+
+<p>"So this marriage was always a happy one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Happy? It was a blessing for everybody!"</p>
+
+<p>I was silent. Evidently the Count had not committed, could not have
+committed, a crime. I was obliged to yield to the weight of evidence;
+but then that nocturnal scene, these strange relations with the Black
+Plague, that horrible pantomime and the remorse in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> a dream which forced
+the couple to betray their past&mdash;what did it all mean? I became lost in
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>Knapwurst relighted his pipe and reached me one, which I accepted. The
+chill which had seized me had by this time passed away. I was
+experiencing that delicious period of inaction which follows the fatigue
+caused by unusual exertions, when, sprawled out in a big armchair in the
+chimney-corner and enveloped in a cloud of smoke, you abandon yourself
+to the pleasure of repose and listen to the blending of the cricket's
+chant with the unearthly singing of the green log on the hearth. We sat
+thus for a quarter of an hour.</p>
+
+<p>"The Count sometimes gets angry with his daughter," I ventured to
+remark. Knapwurst started, and fixing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> on me a suspicious, almost
+hostile look, replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know!"</p>
+
+<p>I watched him with a sidelong glance, thinking that I might learn
+something new, but he added ironically:</p>
+
+<p>"The towers of Nideck are high, and slander flies too low to reach
+them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly; but it is a fact, nevertheless, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but this is a mere crotchet, an effect of his malady. Once the
+crisis is passed, all his affection for the Countess Odile returns. It
+is curious, monsieur, a lover of twenty years could not be more devoted,
+more affectionate than he. This young woman is his one joy and pride.
+Only fancy, no less than a dozen times I have seen him ride off to get
+her a dress, or flowers, or some like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> trifle. He would not entrust this
+commission to any one, not even to his faithful Sperver. The Countess
+does not even dare to express a wish in his presence, lest he should
+commit some new extravagance. In a word, monsieur, I assure you that the
+Count of Nideck is the worthiest of men, the tenderest of fathers, and
+the best of masters. As for the poachers who ravaged his forests, the
+old Count Ludwig would have hanged them without mercy; but our Count
+tolerates them; he even makes them his gamekeepers. Take Sperver, for
+instance! If Count Ludwig was still alive, Sperver's bones would be
+clicking together like castanets, at the end of a rope, while as it is,
+he is the steward and man-of-affairs at the Castle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My theories were fast falling to the ground. I rested my head between my
+hands and thought for a long time. Knapwurst, supposing that I was
+asleep, had resumed his reading. The gray dawn appeared through the tiny
+panes; the lamplight paled, and vague murmurs arose within the Castle.
+Suddenly footsteps sounded outside, some one passed before the window,
+the door opened abruptly, and Gideon appeared on the threshold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>I AM SUMMONED TO THE COUNTESS' CHAMBER, AND MAKE A CONFESSION.</h3>
+
+<p>Sperver's pale face and rapid glance intimated that something unusual
+was happening; nevertheless, he was calm and did not appear surprised at
+my presence in Knapwurst's room.</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston," he said briefly, "I have come to get you!"</p>
+
+<p>I rose without replying and followed him. No sooner had we left the
+lodge than he seized me by the arm and drew me hastily towards the
+Castle.</p>
+
+<p>"The Countess Odile wants to speak to you," he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"The Countess! Is she ill?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, she is quite recovered, but something unusual is going on. This
+morning at about one o'clock, thinking that the Count was about to
+breathe his last, I went to wake the Countess, but as I was on the point
+of ringing, my heart failed me. 'Why should I fill her with despair?' I
+asked myself. 'She will learn of her misfortune soon enough; and then to
+wake her up in the middle of the night, when she is so frail and broken
+by so much sorrow, might prove her own death-blow.' I stood some minutes
+reflecting what course to pursue, and at last I decided to take the
+responsibility upon myself, and I returned to the Count's room. I looked
+about; no one was there. Impossible! the man was in his last agonies! I
+ran along the corridor like a madman; no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> one was to be seen! I entered
+the gallery; no one there! Then I lost my head and rushed again to the
+Countess Odile's chamber. This time I rang. She appeared in tears.</p>
+
+<p>"'My father is dead?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No, madame!'</p>
+
+<p>"'He has disappeared?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes; I left the room for a moment, and when I returned&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'And Monsieur de la Roche; where is he?'</p>
+
+<p>"'In Hugh's Tower.'</p>
+
+<p>"'In the Tower!'</p>
+
+<p>"She threw on a dressing-gown, seized a lamp and hurried out. I remained
+behind. A quarter of an hour afterwards she returned, her feet covered
+with snow, and very pale; it was pitiful to see. She set the lamp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> on
+the mantelpiece, and looking steadily at me, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"'Was it you who put the doctor in the Tower?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, madame.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Unhappy man! you will never know the harm that you have done!'</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to reply, but she stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>"'That is enough! Go and fasten all the doors and lie down. I will sit
+up myself. To-morrow morning you will go and find the doctor in
+Knapwurst's lodge, and you will bring him to me. Breathe no word of this
+to anybody! Remember you have seen nothing and know nothing!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all, Sperver?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"And the Count?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He has come back again; he seems better."</p>
+
+<p>We had reached the antechamber. Gideon knocked gently on the door, then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+opened it, announcing, "Monsieur the doctor."</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 317px;"><a name="ILL_009" id="ILL_009"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_009.jpg" width="317" height="500" alt="&quot;I STEPPED FORWARD AND FOUND MYSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF ODILE.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;I STEPPED FORWARD AND FOUND MYSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF ODILE.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I stepped forward and found myself in the presence of Odile. Sperver
+withdrew, closing the door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>A strange impression was produced upon my mind by the appearance of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+young Countess, robed in a long gown of black velvet, and standing pale
+and firm with her hand resting on the back of an armchair, her eyes
+glistening with a feverish light.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she said, pointing to a chair; "pray be seated. I wish to
+speak with you upon a very grave subject."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I obeyed silently. She seated herself in turn, and seemed trying to
+arrange her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Chance, monsieur," she continued after a moment, fixing her large blue
+eyes upon me&mdash;"chance or Providence, I know not which to call it&mdash;has
+made you the witness of a mystery in which is involved the honor of our
+family."</p>
+
+<p>She knew everything, then. I was astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us call it Providence!" I cried. "Who knows but that through me the
+spell that has so long overhung the Castle is destined to be broken?"</p>
+
+<p>"All this is frightful!" she continued; then in a despairing tone, "My
+father is not guilty of this crime!"</p>
+
+<p>I sprang up, and stretching out my hands deprecatingly, I exclaimed:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know it, mademoiselle; I know of the Count's past life, and it is one
+of the purest that it would be possible to conceive!"</p>
+
+<p>Odile half rose from her chair as if to protest against any harsh
+judgment of her father, but seeing me myself undertake his defence, she
+sank back, and covering her face with her hands, burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, monsieur," she murmured; "had you entertained a
+suspicion of my father, it would have killed me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, mademoiselle! Who could mistake for realities the unreasoning
+actions of the somnambulist?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, monsieur. I had reflected upon this myself&mdash;but
+appearances&mdash;I feared&mdash;pardon me&mdash;but I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> should have remembered that you
+are a man of honor."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, dear Countess, calm yourself!" I exclaimed, feeling myself on the
+verge of losing my composure, so deeply was I moved by the grief of my
+beloved mistress.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she cried; "let me weep. These tears are a relief. I have suffered
+so for the past ten years! This secret, so long locked in my breast, was
+killing me, and I should have died at last like my dear mother! God has
+taken pity on me, and he has sent you to share the burden with me. Let
+me tell you all, monsieur, let me&mdash;" She could not continue; her voice
+was stifled in sobs. Her proud and high-strung nature, after having
+conquered grief so long, had succumbed to the fateful happening of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> the
+night before; the seal once broken and her secret betrayed, her
+vanquished nature, still struggling to shield its sacred trust, sought a
+grateful relief in unrestrained tears.</p>
+
+<p>My one sentiment of love and sympathy, repressed until that moment, now
+demanded expression with a power which I was unable to gainsay. I cast
+all prudence to the winds, and dropping on one knee beside Odile, I
+seized the delicate hands that covered her face and drew them gently
+away until her sorrowing glance rested on my face.</p>
+
+<p>"Odile!" I said, as her name rose naturally to my lips, in a voice so
+choked with emotion as to be hardly more than a whisper, "forgive my
+rashness, but it no longer rests with me to speak or not as I choose! I
+might never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> have said anything of this, at least not now, but your
+suffering affects me so powerfully that to be silent longer is not
+within my power. It must have been evident to you, had you cared to read
+it, that I love you and have loved you, far, far dearer than life
+itself, ever since my eyes first rested upon you in the Count's chamber,
+that first night when I came to the Castle. I cannot ask pardon for it!
+No! For I am convinced that no man could be near you for even this brief
+time and experience the wonderful charm of your being, to say nothing of
+witnessing your present sorrow, without feeling himself moved to the
+depths of his own nature. Odile, I love you! I see no goal in life but
+you, no future but one passed in your divine companionship; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> though
+you might well reproach me for choosing such a moment to tell you so,
+believe me, it is through no wish to take advantage of your confidence.
+Did I feel myself guilty of such baseness, I should despise myself more
+than you could possibly do. Odile, my darling, I could not choose but
+speak. I must tell you this, even though it should be at the cost of
+your further favor!"</p>
+
+<p>As I spoke, Odile's eyes were fastened on my face with an expression of
+surprise, indeed, but in it there was no trace of disfavor, and her
+hands were not withdrawn from mine. A bright flush that, for the first
+time since I knew her, had succeeded to her usual pallor, mounted to her
+cheeks and served to increase her matchless beauty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She remained silent for some moments still, and I could perceive the
+agitation which my words had caused her, by the slight tremor of her
+frame and her quickened breathing.</p>
+
+<p>At length she began, with her clear, frank gaze fastened on my face:</p>
+
+<p>"I am deeply sensible of the honor you do me in expressing yourself as
+you have done, and I am convinced that no woman can do otherwise than
+feel a sense of the greatest satisfaction in knowing that she is so
+regarded by an honorable man. I must confess," she continued after a
+moment of hesitation, "that your words are far from being indifferent or
+unwelcome to me! Oh, how strange are the circumstances of my life! I
+know not how to reply to you! I know not&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And she paused, at a loss how to continue.</p>
+
+<p>I was happy. Odile had confessed enough to make me feel that I could
+bide my time for the present without endangering my future hopes;
+indeed, I felt that it might be wisdom to grant her time more fully to
+determine her sentiments, before pursuing the victory already won. I was
+now about to share in the secret of her life at her own request; and I
+resolved, if the reason of her vow should be explained, as I felt it
+must, to controvert it by any honorable means.</p>
+
+<p>"You have said enough to make me supremely happy!" I exclaimed. "You
+have not denied me the happiness of hope, and I shall not despair!
+Meanwhile, whatever I may win is fairly mine, is it not?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," murmured Odile, with just the slightest smile, in which I fancied
+there was less sorrow than before.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, dear one, I fear I have been selfish in intruding my own
+feelings where so much grief is present! Pray forgive me, and continue
+your story."</p>
+
+<p>I pressed her hands once more, and as she gently disengaged them I
+resumed my chair.</p>
+
+<p>Odile dried her tear-stained cheeks, and resting her face on her fair
+hand she began:</p>
+
+<p>"When I go back into the past, and return to my earliest dreams, I see
+again my mother. She was a stately woman, pale and silent, and still
+young at the time of which I am now speaking. She was scarcely thirty
+years, and you would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> have thought her at least fifty. White locks
+veiled her thoughtful forehead; her thin cheeks and severe profile, and
+her lips ever firmly closed with an expression of pain, gave to her
+features a strange character, in which grief and pride were blended.
+There was nothing that suggested youth in this old woman of thirty;
+nothing but her upright, haughty bearing, her brilliant eyes, and her
+voice, pure and sweet as the dreams of childhood. She often walked up
+and down for hours together in this very chamber, with her head bowed
+down, and I ran happily along by her side, little knowing that my mother
+was deep in sorrow, too young to comprehend the grief that was preying
+upon her heart. I knew nothing of the past; the present alone possessed
+any reality for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> me; this was happiness, and the future was but
+to-morrow's play." Odile smiled sadly, and resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes it happened that in the midst of my dancing about her, I
+would interrupt my mother's walk, and she would stop, and seeing me at
+her feet, bend down and kiss me on the forehead with a far-off smile;
+then she would resume her interrupted walk. Since then, when I have
+wished to search my memory for remembrances of those early days, this
+tall, pale woman has appeared before me like the image of melancholy
+itself. There she is," she exclaimed, pointing to a picture on the wall;
+"not such as illness made her, as my father believed, but that terrible
+and fatal secret. Look!"</p>
+
+<p>I turned, and my glance falling suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> upon the portrait which the
+young girl indicated, I shuddered. It was a long, thin, pale face,
+stamped with the cold rigidity of death, and with dark hollows under the
+eyes, which looked at you with a fixed, burning gaze of terrible
+intensity. There was a moment's silence.</p>
+
+<p>"How she must have suffered!" I exclaimed, with a sinking of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I know not how my mother made this frightful discovery," continued
+Odile; "but she knew of the mysterious attraction of the Black Plague,
+and of their meetings in Hugh's Tower,&mdash;all, in short,&mdash;but she never
+suspected my father. No! only she slowly pined away, as I am doing now."</p>
+
+<p>I hid my face in my hands, and the tears started involuntarily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"One winter night," she went on, "when I was only ten years old, my
+mother, whose energy alone sustained her,&mdash;for she was in the last
+stages of a decline,&mdash;came to my room. I was sleeping, when suddenly a
+cold, nervous hand seized my wrist. I opened my eyes, and opposite me
+stood a woman; with one hand she held a torch, and with the other she
+held my arm, which felt as if clasped in a chill vise. Her dress was
+covered with snow, a convulsive trembling agitated her limbs, and her
+eyes burned with a dark fire through the white, disordered locks that
+hung about her face. It was my mother.</p>
+
+<p>"'Odile, my child, rise and come with me! You must know everything!' she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"I dressed myself tremblingly, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> leading me along the lonely
+corridors to Hugh's Tower, she showed me the staircase that led down to
+the chasm.</p>
+
+<p>"'Your father will come out this way,' she said, pointing to the tower;
+'he will come out with the she-wolf. Fear nothing! He cannot see you.'</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly had she finished speaking, when my father appeared with the old
+woman, carrying his funereal burden. Taking me in her arms, my mother
+followed them, and I witnessed the scene on the Altenberg.</p>
+
+<p>"'Look, child!' she cried; 'you must, for I am going to die, and you
+shall keep the secret! You shall watch over your father alone&mdash;all
+alone! The honor of our family depends upon it!'</p>
+
+<p>"We returned. A fortnight later my mother died, leaving to me the
+accomplishment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> of her vow and the lesson of her example. I have
+faithfully discharged my trust, but oh, at what a cost! You have seen
+it! I have been obliged to disobey my father and make him wretched. My
+marriage could have accomplished nothing, though he does not know it,
+and to marry would have been to bring a stranger into our midst and
+betray the family secret. I resisted. No one in the Castle knows the
+nature of my father's malady, and had it not been for yesterday's
+crisis, which broke down my strength and prevented me from watching by
+my father, I should still have been the sole depositary of the secret.
+God has willed otherwise; he has placed in your keeping the honor of our
+family.</p>
+
+<p>"Such is my story, and in view of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> what you told me a few moments ago
+(and she colored charmingly), I feel that I need hardly ask you if you
+will share with me my burden, for my strength is unequal to it&mdash;I am
+bending beneath its weight."</p>
+
+<p>She had risen as she finished speaking. For all answer, I sprang
+forward, and throwing my arms about her I drew her close to me and
+covered her upturned face and forehead with passionate kisses, and she
+rested, a delicious burden in my arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Odile," I cried, "I will be all this and a thousand times more, if you
+will only consent to let me. I am the petitioner, not you; and in
+allowing me to share with you even the least of your trials, you make me
+forever your debtor. You have told me the reason of your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> vow, and in
+doing so you have removed the necessity for its further existence. Oh,
+Odile, may I hope&mdash;may I hope, I say, that if I can raise the spell
+which overhangs the Castle, and restore your father's health,&mdash;as the
+price of it, I may have your love?"</p>
+
+<p>After a moment, she replied softly, as she gently disengaged herself
+from my arms:</p>
+
+<p>"You may;" and she added, "until then my first duty is ever to my
+father."</p>
+
+<p>I pressed the hand which she yielded to me to my lips, exclaiming with a
+smile, "This seals the promise!"</p>
+
+<p>Then I continued:</p>
+
+<p>"And one thing more. We must seize this creature known as the Black
+Plague, and find out what she is, whence she comes, and what she wants
+here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she exclaimed, with a motion of her beautiful head, "I fear that
+is impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who can say that?" I replied. "I want only your permission, and I will
+undertake to seize the Plague at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Do as your judgment dictates. I consent to everything beforehand."</p>
+
+<p>I took a long and reluctant leave of Odile, and hurried jubilantly to
+Sperver's room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WE CHASE THE PLAGUE.&mdash;HER DEATH.</h3>
+
+<p>An hour after my conversation with Odile, Sperver and I were galloping
+hard over the plain from Nideck. The huntsman, bending over his horse's
+neck, set spurs to her from time to time, and the tall Mecklenberg, with
+flying mane and foaming lips, literally cleaved the air in her flight.
+As for my mount, I believe he took the bit in his teeth, and ran away
+with me. Lieverl&eacute; accompanied us, bounding along beside us like an
+arrow. We seemed to be borne along on the wings of the wind.</p>
+
+<p>The towers of Nideck were far behind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> us, and Sperver was leading the
+way, as usual, when I shouted to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, comrade! Pull up! Before we go any further, let us deliberate a
+little."</p>
+
+<p>He wheeled about.</p>
+
+<p>"Only tell me, Gaston, is it to right or left?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Come here. You must first know why I have started off this
+morning. In a word, we are going to catch the hag!"</p>
+
+<p>An expression of supreme satisfaction lighted up the long, bronzed face
+of the old steward; his eyes sparkled.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha!" he exclaimed; "I knew it would come to that sooner or later."</p>
+
+<p>With a movement of his shoulder, he slipped his rifle into his hand.
+This significant movement opened my eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"One moment, Sperver. We are not going to kill the Black Plague; we are
+going to take her alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Alive!"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely; and to spare you future regrets, I warn you that the destiny
+of the old creature is identified with our master's. The ball that
+strikes her down kills the Count."</p>
+
+<p>Sperver sat open-mouthed with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this really so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Positively."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence; our horses tossing their heads at each other
+as if in salute, pawed the snow impatiently. Lieverl&eacute; yawned expectantly
+and stretched out his long, snake-like body, and Sperver sat motionless,
+with his hand resting on his rifle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, we will try to take her living," he said at length; "we
+will handle her with kid gloves, since it must needs be so; but it is
+not such an easy matter as you think, Gaston."</p>
+
+<p>Pointing with his extended hand to the mountains which lay unrolled
+about us in the form of a great amphitheatre, he added:</p>
+
+<p>"You see before us the Altenberg, the Birkenwald, the Schneeberg, the
+Oxenhorn, the Rhethal, and the Behrenkopf, and if we were up a little
+higher, we could see fifty other peaks, extending clear into the plain
+of the Palatinate. Within this distance are rocks, ravines, defiles,
+torrents, and endless forests, and the old woman wanders everywhere
+through this wilderness. She has a sure foot and a good eye, and can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>
+scent you a good league away; so you see we shall have a pretty chase
+before us."</p>
+
+<p>"If it were an easy thing to do, I shouldn't have chosen you out of all
+the people of the Castle."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds all very well. Still, if we can once get on her trail, I
+don't deny that with courage and patience&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"As for her trail, don't worry about that; I will put you on it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"You, able to follow up a trail?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, since you are so confident and know so much more about it
+than I do, that's another thing; go ahead. I'll follow."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was easy to see that the old huntsman was vexed at my venturing to
+encroach upon his particular field of operations. Therefore, laughing
+inwardly, I waited for no second invitation and turned to the left, sure
+of coming upon the traces of the old woman, who, after having left the
+Count in the subterranean passage, must have recrossed the plain to gain
+the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>Sperver followed on behind me whistling with assumed indifference, and I
+could hear him muttering:</p>
+
+<p>"The idea of looking for the she-wolf's tracks in the middle of the
+plain. Any one should know that she would follow along the edge of the
+forest, as she always does; but it seems she walks about now with her
+hands in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> her pockets, like a well-to-do citizen of T&uuml;bingen."</p>
+
+<p>I turned a deaf ear to all this, and kept on my way. Suddenly he gave an
+exclamation of surprise, and looking at me sharply:</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston," he said, "you know more than you are willing to admit."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean, Gideon?"</p>
+
+<p>"The track that it would have taken me a week to find, you have got at
+once. There is something behind this."</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you see it, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, don't pretend to be looking at your feet," and pointing to a
+scarcely perceptible white streak at some distance ahead of us, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"There it is."</p>
+
+<p>He started off at a gallop. I followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> him, and a moment later we
+leaped from our saddles. It was indeed the Black Plague's track.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know," said Sperver, folding his arms, "how the devil
+that trace came to be here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let that trouble you."</p>
+
+<p>"You're right, Gaston. Don't mind what I say. I talk nonsense sometimes.
+The principal thing now is to find out where this track leads."</p>
+
+<p>The huntsman knelt on the snow. I was all ears, he all attention.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a fresh track," he said at the first glance; "last night's. As I
+thought, Gaston, during the Count's last attack the hag was prowling
+about the Castle."</p>
+
+<p>Then examining it more carefully:</p>
+
+<p>"She passed here at about four o'clock this morning."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"The track is fresh, but there is sleet around it. Last night at twelve
+o'clock I went out to lock the doors, and sleet was falling then; there
+is none on this footprint, and therefore it must have been made since
+then."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, Sperver; but it may have been made later, at nine or ten
+o'clock for instance."</p>
+
+<p>"No; look! It is covered with frost. There is no mist to freeze except
+at daybreak; the old woman passed here after the sleet and before the
+frost; that is to say, between three and four this morning."</p>
+
+<p>I was astonished at the accuracy of Sperver's reasoning. He got up,
+slapping his hands together to shake off the snow, and looking at me
+thoughtfully,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> he added, as if speaking to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us call it, at the latest, five o'clock! It is now twelve, isn't
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quarter to twelve."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good; the hag has seven hours' start of us. We must follow her
+step by step wherever she may lead us. On horseback we can come up with
+her in from one hour to two, and if she is still moving, by seven or
+eight this evening she ought to be in our clutches. Come on, Gaston;
+there is no time to lose!"</p>
+
+<p>We started on again, following the traces which led us straight towards
+the mountain. As we galloped along, Sperver called out:</p>
+
+<p>"If good luck would have it that this cursed Plague had gone into a hole
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> the rocks somewhere to lie down for an hour or two, we might catch
+her before nightfall."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hope so, Gideon."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fool yourself that way. The old she-wolf is always moving; she
+never grows tired; she roams through all the hollow roads of the Black
+Forest. We mustn't indulge vain hopes. If she should happen to have
+stopped somewhere along the road, so much the better for us, and if she
+is still going, we have no reason to be discouraged. Come! hurry along!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange occupation; that of a man engaged in hunting down one
+of his own kind; for, after all, this unfortunate woman was a fellow
+creature, endowed like us with an immortal soul, and feeling, thinking,
+and reflecting like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> ourselves. It is true that perverted instincts had
+brought her near the level of the wolf, and that some great mystery
+overhung her destiny. Her prowling life had doubtless obliterated her
+moral being, and even effaced her human character; but granted all this,
+it is, nevertheless, an incontrovertible truth that nothing in God's
+universe gave us the right to exercise over her the despotism of man
+over the brute creation.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding, a savage ardor hurried us on in pursuit; for my part,
+my blood boiled, and I was determined to stop at nothing which would
+enable me to get this strange being into my power. The wide waste of
+snow flew past us, and the fragments of crust, thrown up by our horses'
+hoofs, whizzed past our ears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sperver, sometimes with his head thrown back, and his long mustache
+blowing in the wind, and always with his gray eye on the trail, reminded
+me of the famous horsemen of the steppes, whom I had seen passing
+through Germany in my childhood; his tall, sinewy horse, with full mane
+and body tapering like a greyhound's, completed the illusion. Lieverl&eacute;,
+in his enthusiasm, bounded sometimes as high as our horses' backs, and I
+could not help trembling at the thought that, should he come upon the
+Black Plague, he might tear her to pieces before we could make a
+movement to prevent him.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman led us a terrible chase; on every hill she had doubled,
+and at every hillock we found a false scent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is easy enough along here," said Sperver, "for you can see a long
+distance ahead, but when we get into the woods, it will be another
+matter; we shall have to keep our eyes open there. Do you see how the
+cursed beast has confused her tracks? There she has amused herself
+sweeping the trail, and from that rising ground that is exposed to the
+wind she has slipped down to the stream and crept through the cresses to
+reach the thicket yonder. If it weren't for these two foot-prints, she
+would have tricked us completely."</p>
+
+<p>We had just reached the border of a fir forest. In these forests, the
+snow never penetrates between the branches of a tree. It was a difficult
+way. Sperver dismounted to watch the tracks closer, and placed me on the
+left, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> my shadow might not come between him and the ground. There
+were large open spots covered with dead leaves and pine-needles, which
+take no imprint. Thus it was only in the unsheltered places, where the
+snow lay on the ground, that Sperver could recover the trail.</p>
+
+<p>It took us an hour to get through this patch of woods. The old poacher
+gnawed his mustache with vexation, and his long nose almost touched his
+chin. When I tried to speak, he interrupted me shortly, crying:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk; it bothers me!"</p>
+
+<p>At last we descended into a valley to the left, and Gideon, pointing to
+the she-wolf's steps, running parallel with the edge of the undergrowth,
+remarked:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This is no false sortie; we can follow it confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the Black Plague has a habit, whenever she doubles on her
+tracks, of going three steps to one side, then, retracing them, taking
+four, five or six in the other direction, and finally jumping into a
+clear space. But when she thinks she has covered the trail, she strikes
+out without troubling herself about false scents. Look! what did I tell
+you? She is burrowing now into the brushwood like a wild boar; it will
+be easy enough to follow her here. So much for that; and now, let's keep
+the tracks between us and light a pipe!"</p>
+
+<p>We halted, and the good fellow, whose face was beginning to brighten up,
+looked at me with enthusiasm, crying:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gaston, this promises to be one of the finest days in my life. If we
+take the old creature, I will fasten her to the saddle behind me like a
+bundle of old rags. Only one thing troubles me."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Having forgot my horn. I should like to have sounded the return as we
+were approaching Nideck. Ha! Ha! Ha!"</p>
+
+<p>He lighted his stub of a pipe, and we started on again. The track of the
+she-wolf now led up a wooded slope so steep that we were obliged many
+times to dismount and lead our horses by the bridle.</p>
+
+<p>"There it goes to the right," said Sperver; "in this direction the
+mountains go up like the side of a house. One of us may have to lead
+both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> horses while the other scrambles along after the trail, and as the
+devil will have it, it's getting so dark we can't see anything much
+longer."</p>
+
+<p>The landscape was at this point assuming a grander aspect. Enormous
+boulders, covered with icicles, raised one beyond another their angular
+peaks, like breakers in a sea of snow.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that imparts a more melancholy sense to the beholder
+than a winter scene among these mountains. The irregular line of crests,
+the dark ravines, the denuded trees and bushes sparkling with a tracery
+of hoar frost, all assume before your eyes a look of indescribable
+desolation and still sadness; and the silence, so profound that you can
+hear a dead leaf rustle on the snow-crust, or a pine-needle swirl from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>
+its branch,&mdash;this silence oppresses you; it forces upon you the
+realization of man's littleness in the scale of Nature's vast economy.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes we felt a need of speaking, if only to break the stillness:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, we are getting nearer the end of this business! How beastly cold it
+is! Lieverl&eacute;, what have you got there?" or some like insignificant
+phrase.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, our horses were beginning to tire; they sank up to their
+bellies in the snow, and no longer whinnied as they did on setting out.
+The inextricable defiles of the Black Forest stretched out indefinitely.
+The old woman loved these solitudes; here she had passed around a
+deserted charcoal-burner's hut; further on she had torn up the tender
+roots which overspread<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> the surface of the rocks; and here again she had
+sat down at the foot of a tree to rest, and that recently,&mdash;at most two
+hours before, for the marks in the snow were fresh. At sight of this,
+our hopes and enthusiasm were redoubled; but the daylight was fast
+fading out. Strangely enough, ever since our departure from Nideck, we
+had met neither woodcutters, charcoal-burners, nor log-haulers; the
+solitude was as complete as in the Siberian steppes. At five o'clock the
+night had so far closed in that Sperver halted and said to me:</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston, we have started a couple of hours too late. The Plague has got
+too long a start of us. In ten minutes the woods will be as dark as an
+oven. Our best plan will be to reach the Roche Creuse, twenty minutes
+from here, light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> a good fire, and eat our provisions and empty our
+goat-skins. When the moon comes up we will take up the trail again, and
+if the old hag is not the devil himself, ten to one we shall come upon
+her frozen stiff at the foot of some tree, for no human creature could
+live through such a tramp in such weather as this. Sebalt himself, who
+is the best walker in all the Black Forest, could not have stood it.
+What do you say, my boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should be mad to think otherwise, and, moreover, I am perishing with
+hunger!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let's be off!"</p>
+
+<p>He took the lead, and we pressed into a narrow gorge between two walls
+of precipitous rock. The fir-trees formed an arch above our heads;
+beneath our feet trickled what the frost had left of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> a mighty torrent,
+and from time to time a wandering ray penetrated the obscurity, and
+reflected the dull, lead-colored ice mantle. The darkness had become
+such that I deemed it wise to let my bridle fall on the horse's neck.
+The steps of our horses on the slippery pebbles re&euml;choed with an odd
+noise like the laughing and chattering of monkeys through the narrow
+glen. The rocks took up and repeated every sound, and in the distance a
+blue point seemed to grow as we advanced. It was the outlet of the
+gorge.</p>
+
+<p>"Gaston," said Sperver, "we are now in the bed of the Tunkelbach. It is
+the wildest pass in all the Black Forest, and it terminates in a cave
+called La Marmite du Grand Guelard. In the spring, when the snow is
+melting, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> Tunkelbach pours all its torrents into it to a depth of
+two hundred feet. It makes a tremendous roar; the waters leap over the
+edge, and their spray falls upon the neighboring mountains. Sometimes
+they even flood the cavern of the Roche Creuse, but just now it must be
+as dry as a powder-flask, and we can build a big fire there."</p>
+
+<p>As I listened to Sperver's observations, I was at the same time
+considering this ominous defile, and reflecting that the instinct of the
+savage beasts, which seek such retreats far from the light of day and
+from all that gladdens the soul, must be akin to remorse. The creatures
+that live in the sunshine,&mdash;the goat on the open crag, the horse running
+free on the plain, the dog frisking about his master, the bird basking
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> the sunshine,&mdash;all breathe in joy and happiness with their gambols
+and their songs. The kid, browsing in the shade of the great trees on
+the green hillside, is as poetic an object as the retreat that he
+prefers; the wild boar, as fierce and savage as the trackless brakes
+through which he roams; the eagle as proud and lofty as the towering
+peaks where he rests in his sweeping flight; the lion as majestic as the
+mighty arches of his den,&mdash;but the wolf, the fox, and the ferret seek
+the darkness, with fear their only companion; aye, this instinct is
+closely related to remorse.</p>
+
+<p>I was still reflecting upon these things and already felt the keen air
+blowing against my face&mdash;for we were approaching the opening of the
+gorge&mdash;when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> suddenly we perceived a reddish reflection dancing upon the
+rock a hundred feet above us, turning to purple the dark green of the
+firs, and making the frost wreaths on the tree trunks glitter.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" whispered Sperver hoarsely, "we've got the witch!"</p>
+
+<p>My heart leaped; we moved along pressed close against each other. The
+dog growled warningly.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't she escape us?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; she is caught like a rat in a trap. La Marmite du Grand Guelard has
+but one outlet, and we are barring it. Everywhere else the rocks rise
+sheer two hundred feet. Ha! you Satan's hag, I've got you!"</p>
+
+<p>He sprang from his horse into the ice-cold water of the Tunkelbach,
+handing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> me his bridle. I shivered. The click of his rifle as he cocked
+it sounded with fearful distinctness, and the sound sent a nervous wave
+clear to my finger-tips.</p>
+
+<p>"Sperver, what are you doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear; it is only to frighten her."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good; but no blood! Remember what I have already told you. The
+ball that strikes the Plague kills the Count!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rest easy on that score!"</p>
+
+<p>He moved forward, without stopping further to listen to me. I could hear
+the splash of his feet in the water; then I saw his tall figure appear
+at the outlet of the glen, black against the bluish background. He stood
+full five minutes motionless. Meanwhile, I was slowly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> approaching him,
+and when he at last turned around, I was within three paces of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh!" he said mysteriously; "look there!"</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the open gorge, now revealed to us, which was dug out like
+a quarry in the mountainside, I saw a bright fire unrolling its golden
+spires before the mouth of a cave, and in front of the fire sat a man
+with his hands clasped about his knees, whom I recognized by his
+clothing as the Baron Zimmer. He sat motionless, with his eyes fixed on
+the fire, and seemed lost in thought. Behind him a dark form lay
+stretched upon the ground, and further in the distance, his horse, half
+lost in the shadows, gazed upon us with fixed eyes, ears pricked up, and
+distended nostrils.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I stood stupefied. How came the Baron Zimmer to be in this dense,
+terrifying wilderness at such an hour and such a time,&mdash;what was he
+doing here? Had he lost his way? The most contradictory conjectures
+succeeded each other in my brain, and I knew not where to pause, when
+the Baron's horse began to neigh. At the sound, the master raised his
+head:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rappel, what now?"</p>
+
+<p>Then, in his turn, he gazed in our direction, straining his eyes to make
+us out in the darkness. That pale face, with its clear-cut features,
+delicate lips, and heavy black eyebrows, gathered in a frown, would have
+struck me with admiration under any other circumstances, but now an
+indefinable feeling of apprehension took possession of me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> and I was
+filled with vague anxiety. Suddenly, the young man cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Who goes there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I, monsieur," replied Sperver quickly, at the same time advancing
+towards him; "I, Sperver, steward of the Count of Nideck!"</p>
+
+<p>A strange expression passed across the Baron's features, but not a
+muscle of his face quivered. He rose to his feet, gathering the folds of
+his cloak more closely about him. I drew towards me the horses and the
+hound, who suddenly began to howl as he had done on the night of my
+arrival at the Castle.</p>
+
+<p>Who of us is not subject in some degree to superstitious fears? At the
+sound of Lieverl&eacute;'s menacing growls, I felt a dread of I know not what,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> I shuddered instinctively. Sperver and the Baron stood at a
+distance of fifty yards from each other; the first immovable in the
+middle of the gorge, with his rifle resting against his shoulder; the
+other, standing erect before the entrance of the cave, holding his head
+high, and surveying us with a haughty glance.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want here?" he asked defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"We are looking for a woman," replied the huntsman; "a woman who comes
+each year prowling about the Castle of Nideck, and we have orders to
+seize her."</p>
+
+<p>"Has she robbed?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Has she committed murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, monsieur."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then what do you want of her? What right have you to pursue her?"</p>
+
+<p>Sperver straightened up, and fixing his gray eye on the Baron:</p>
+
+<p>"And you? What right have you over her?" he asked with a strange smile;
+"for she is there. I can see her at the back of the cavern. By whose
+authority do you meddle with our affairs? Do you not know that we are at
+this moment within the domains of Nideck, and that we administer all
+forms of justice at our pleasure?"</p>
+
+<p>The young man grew paler yet, and replied shortly:</p>
+
+<p>"I am not accountable to you for any act of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Take care," replied Sperver; "I am acting in the name of my master, the
+Count of Nideck, and am but doing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> my duty. You will have to answer for
+any interference on your part."</p>
+
+<p>"Your duty!" exclaimed the young man, with a bitter smile; "if you speak
+of your duty, you may force me to tell you mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hear it," cried the old steward, whose face was becoming
+discomposed with anger.</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned the Baron, "I will tell you nothing, nor shall you set
+foot inside this cave."</p>
+
+<p>"We will see about that," said Sperver, advancing towards the cavern.</p>
+
+<p>The young man drew his hunting-knife. Seeing this, I tried to spring
+between them, when the hound, which I was holding by a leash, shook
+himself free, throwing me to the ground with the force of the shock. I
+thought that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> the Baron was lost; but at the same moment a savage cry
+rose from the back of the cavern, and as I rose to my feet, I saw the
+old woman standing upright before the fire, her clothing in rags, her
+head run forward, and her gray locks scattered about her shoulders, with
+her long, skinny arms raised towards heaven, and uttering dismal howls,
+like the cries of the wolf in the cold winter nights, when hunger is
+gnawing at his entrails.</p>
+
+<p>Never in my life had I witnessed such a frightful spectacle. Sperver,
+motionless, with his eyes fixed on the strange scene before him, seemed
+turned to stone. The dog, surprised himself at this unexpected
+apparition, stood still for a moment, then suddenly arching his
+bristling back, he flew at the hag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> with a low growl of fury that made
+me shudder. The entrance to the cavern was some eight or ten feet above
+the spot where we stood, or he would have reached it with a single
+bound. I can hear him still, as he crashes through the frost-laden
+bushes, and see the Baron fling himself before the old woman with the
+heart-rending cry:</p>
+
+<p>"My mother!"</p>
+
+<p>Then, as the dog takes his final spring, Sperver, quick as lightning,
+raises his rifle, and brings down the noble animal dead at the young
+man's feet. All this was the work of an instant. The gorge was
+momentarily lighted by the rifle flash, and the echoes, taking up the
+noise of the explosion, carried it roaring and tumbling to the infinite
+depths of the neighboring crags.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When the smoke cleared away, I saw Lieverl&eacute; lying stretched out at the
+foot of the rock, and the old woman fainting in the arms of the young
+man. Sperver eyed the Baron gloomily, as he dropped the butt of his
+rifle to the ground, his features working with rage and grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Baron," he said, pointing to the cave, "I have killed my best friend to
+save the woman whom you call your mother. You may thank God that her
+destiny was bound up with that of my master. Take her away from here.
+Take her far away, and let her never return; for, if she does, I cannot
+answer for myself."</p>
+
+<p>Then, glancing at his dog:</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Lieverl&eacute;!" he cried; "was this to be the outcome of our long
+years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> of friendship? Come, Gaston, let us hurry away from this accursed
+spot. I might do something I should regret afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>Seizing his horse's mane, he started to throw himself into his saddle,
+but suddenly his heart swelled to bursting, and dropping his head on his
+horse's neck, he wept like a child.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BARON'S STORY.&mdash;HE DISAPPEARS.</h3>
+
+<p>Sperver set out, carrying the body of Lieverl&eacute; in his cloak. I had
+refused to follow him, for I felt that duty compelled me to remain near
+this unhappy woman, and I could not have abandoned her without violating
+my conscience. Moreover, I am obliged to confess I was curious to
+examine more closely this mysterious being, and hardly had Sperver
+disappeared in the darkness of the defile before I began climbing the
+path to the cavern. A strange sight awaited me there. Upon a large fur
+cloak with green facings lay the old woman in a long purple robe, with
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> golden arrow stuck through her gray hair, her withered hands
+clutching her breast.</p>
+
+<p>Time will never efface the image of this woman from my mind. Her
+vulture-like face, distorted by the last agonies of death, her staring
+eyes and half-opened mouth, were appalling to look upon. Such might have
+been the last hour of the terrible Queen Fr&eacute;d&eacute;gonde. The Baron, on his
+knees beside her, tried to restore her to animation, but at the first
+glance it was evident to me that the unfortunate creature was dying, and
+it was not without a sentiment of profound pity that I kneeled to raise
+her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave her alone! How dare you touch her?" cried the young man
+bitterly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am a doctor, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, pardon me!"</p>
+
+<p>He was deathly pale, and his lips trembled nervously. After a moment, he
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"What is your opinion, monsieur?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is over. She is dead."</p>
+
+<p>Without replying, he leaned back against the wall of the cavern, his
+forehead resting in his hands, and staring straight before him,
+motionless as marble. I sat near the fire, watching the flames as they
+climbed to the arched top of the cave, casting their vivid reflections
+upon the rigid features of the Black Plague.</p>
+
+<p>We had been sitting thus for a full hour without stirring, when suddenly
+lifting his head, the Baron said to me:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur, all this confounds me. Here is my mother,&mdash;for twenty-six
+years I thought I knew her, and now a whole world of mystery and horror
+opens itself before my eyes. You are a doctor; tell me if you have ever
+known anything like it before."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," I replied, "the Count of Nideck is afflicted with a malady
+that bears a striking resemblance to that of which your mother has been
+the victim. If you have confidence enough in me to relate to me the
+facts which you yourself must have witnessed, I will gladly tell you
+what I know of the matter, for this exchange may be the means of saving
+my patient."</p>
+
+<p>As I began to speak the Baron started, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"What? the Count of Nideck visited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> thus? This is more than a
+coincidence."</p>
+
+<p>And without further parley he informed me that the Baroness Zimmer,
+belonging to one of the noblest families in Saxony, and being a blood
+relation of the Count of Nideck (to whom he should have made himself
+known had not circumstances required that he should maintain the
+strictest secrecy as to his identity), had been accustomed for many
+years to make a journey into Italy towards Christmas, accompanied by an
+old man servant, who alone possessed her entire confidence; that this
+man, being at the point of death, had desired a private interview with
+her son, and that at the last hour, tormented no doubt by remorse, he
+had told the young man that his mother's journey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> into Italy was only a
+pretext to furnish her a means of making an excursion into the Black
+Forest, of the object of which he himself was in ignorance, but which
+must have been of some fearful nature, since the Baroness invariably
+returned haggard, in rags, and almost dead, and that it required weeks
+of rest to repair the terrible fatigues of these few days.</p>
+
+<p>This is what the old servant had related to the young Baron, thinking
+that in so doing he was only fulfilling his duty. The son, wishing to
+learn the truth of his story, whatever the cost to himself, had this
+very year verified the incomprehensible fact by following his mother
+first to Baden, and then pursuing her step by step into the gorges of
+the Black Forest. The tracks which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> Sebalt had discovered on the
+Altenberg were his.</p>
+
+<p>When the Baron had finished his confidence, I thought that I ought no
+longer to conceal from him the singular influence which the advent of
+the old woman exercised upon the Count's health, nor indeed any of the
+attendant circumstances, and accordingly, I imparted to him even the
+slightest details.</p>
+
+<p>The Baron was amazed by the coincidence of these facts; the mysterious
+attraction which these two beings exercised over one another without
+knowing it, the ghastly drama which they had enacted without
+consciousness, the acquaintance which the old woman had shown with the
+Castle and its most secret passages, without ever having seen them
+before; the costume which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> she had discovered in which to carry out the
+murder in pantomime, and which could only have been discovered in some
+mysterious retreat which magnetic clairvoyance had revealed to her.</p>
+
+<p>When I had ended the recital of my experiences, the Baron relapsed into
+his former gloomy silence, nor did he again rouse from it while I
+remained near him. I fancied I could read in his face and attitude the
+one wish to distance himself forever from the scene of this bitter
+revelation.</p>
+
+<p>While we were still sitting, each one buried in his own reflections, the
+darkness of night began to fade. An owl, far off in the shadows, sounded
+the retreat of darkness with its strange note, like the gurgling of
+liquid from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> a bottle. Presently we heard a whinnying in the depths of
+the defile, and then, in the first rays of dawn, we saw a sledge
+approaching, driven by the Baron's servant. It was covered with straw,
+and upon it rested a litter, on which we laid the body of the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>I mounted my horse, who did not seem sorry to stretch his legs again,
+having stood half the night in the snow, and I accompanied the sledge as
+far as the outlet of the glen. There, having gravely saluted one another
+for the last time, they proceeded in the direction of Hirschland, and I
+on my way towards the Castle of Nideck.</p>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock I was again in Odile's presence.</p>
+
+<p>"The Plague is dead!" I cried, "and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> the spell is raised forever from
+the Castle. Henceforth we may look for the olden days at Nideck."</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 318px;"><a name="ILL_010" id="ILL_010"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_010.jpg" width="318" height="500" alt="&quot;ODILE DROPPED HER EYES.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;ODILE DROPPED HER EYES.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>And I related the extraordinary experiences of the last twenty-four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>
+hours, exulting in our victory over the hag. When I had finished, and
+recalled to my now happy love her promise of the day before, Odile
+dropped her eyes, flushed charmingly, and returned the pressure of my
+hand with averted head.</p>
+
+<p>After some precious moments passed in the indulgence of our new-found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>
+happiness, I proceeded to the Count's chamber. I found him in a very
+satisfactory condition. He was naturally in a state of complete
+exhaustion after the terrible crises that he had been through, but was
+entirely himself, and the fever had disappeared the evening before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>
+Everything pointed towards a speedy recovery.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," I said, as he greeted me with a warm grasp of my hand, "your
+restored health is assured, and it is but the matter of a few days when
+you will be able to indulge in your favorite pastime again."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you, monsieur! I feel that myself as I have never done
+before, and I am bound that you shall remain at Nideck and accompany me
+on my first boar hunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, monsieur," I replied. "Though
+an entire novice in the art, I shall doubtless gain much by employing my
+powers of observation."</p>
+
+<p>"And furthermore," continued the Count, "your reward for this greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>
+of all services which you have performed for me shall be whatever you
+may require that lies within my gift!"</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," I replied, bowing low, "your generosity overwhelms me.
+However, we will discuss the matter of compensation at a future time,
+when your strength will better admit of it. At present let me say that
+the existing state of affairs is an ample reward for anything I may have
+been able to accomplish in your behalf." And meanwhile I wondered if the
+Count realized the significance of his promise as I reflected upon the
+recompense I was presently to seek at his hands.</p>
+
+<p>As his malady left him, I found the master of Nideck a changed man. His
+features, which had at first aroused only a sentiment of repugnance in
+me, slowly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> resumed their natural expression, and became dignified and
+even handsome. His generosity and kindness exceeded anything I had
+before experienced, and everything that Knapwurst had declared in his
+master's favor was realized to the utmost. From liking I grew to loving
+him, as I felt indeed I must have done if only as the author of Odile's
+being.</p>
+
+<p>The fortnight that followed was one of rejoicing throughout Nideck. The
+Count gained with wonderful rapidity, and for a week past he had moved
+about the Castle with a buoyancy and contentment of demeanor which only
+Odile and the old steward could recall having seen in him long years
+before, ere the dead witch had yet entwined him in the meshes of her
+baneful spell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Even the grim, melancholy Sebalt had become grotesquely gay, and he
+discontinued his matinal post on the Altenberg, feeling, no doubt, that
+he had contributed not a little to his master's recovery. As for
+Sperver, he was radiant, and he would come to my chamber late at night,
+after I had left Odile, and as we sat over our bottles we would discuss
+for the fiftieth time the circumstances of my stay within the Castle.</p>
+
+<p>During the earlier stages of the Count's convalescence I repaired each
+morning to his chamber, where I invariably found Odile arrived before
+me, and as the Count was fond of reading, which served to wear away the
+period of his enforced inactivity, Odile and I would share for hours
+together the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> reading of "Garin the Lorrainer," which was one of his
+favorite romances.</p>
+
+<p>The extent of my contentment may be imagined. Whenever I glanced up from
+my book as it became necessary to turn a page, I invariably met Odile's
+eyes fastened upon my face, and speaking the whole language of love and
+contentment, and when she in turn assumed the reading, I found myself
+lost in a world of reverie and speculation as I continued to study her
+beautiful face, which was always a revelation to me, no matter how long
+it remained before my gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the delight of all this! How I pity you crabbed misanthropes who
+know not the richness of a loving woman's endearments!</p>
+
+<p>I had determined, with Odile's sanction,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> to broach the subject of our
+betrothal to the Count as soon as his health would permit it.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, our hours at table were spent in laying plans for our future.
+I was sanguine of success in my avowal, for added to the Count's desire
+of seeing his line perpetuated,&mdash;which lay nearest his heart,&mdash;I knew
+that he felt, though how deservedly I leave it to the reader to
+determine, that I had been instrumental in restoring him to health.
+These considerations, combined with his invariable desire to secure to
+his daughter her slightest wish or whim, I believed would be sufficient
+to ensure the consummation of my desire. Moreover, with my beloved
+champion beside me, I felt strong enough to overcome the opposition of
+the universe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the future still held something in store, and as it often happens
+when we fancy ourselves beyond the reach of an adverse Fate, we may in
+reality be standing within the shadows of the Valley of Darkness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BOAR HUNT.</h3>
+
+<p>"You must be ready to start with the Count in an hour," exclaimed
+Sperver, as he stood on my threshold before the sun had yet risen.
+"Sebalt and Becker came in late last night, famished, and covered with
+mud, and they have reported a wild boar's tracks near the Leidenthal. I
+will lend you whatever clothes you need, but be quick, for there's only
+breakfast between us and the start."</p>
+
+<p>I got up, and taking a hasty plunge in the icy water beside my bed,
+which served to drive the vapors from my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> brain, I half dressed myself,
+and followed Sperver to his room.</p>
+
+<p>"The beaters found game worthy of our powder," continued Gideon. "They
+brought back a dried clump of bog-mud with an enormous hoof-print in the
+middle of it. If the Count's carbine misses fire, we must stand in well
+beside him this time, though he always grudges the fatal shot to any arm
+but his own."</p>
+
+<p>I paid little heed to his words, busied as I was in accommodating myself
+to my borrowed garments, and I presently emerged from the chamber
+dressed in a leather hunting-jacket, cap, and long gaiters which reached
+to my hips; a carbine and long hunting-knife completed my outfit.</p>
+
+<p>"If I only had you for a couple of weeks on the forest patrol, I would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>
+make a first-class shot out of you," said Sperver with a grin. "As it
+is, I suppose you know as much about a gun as a pike does of mountain
+climbing."</p>
+
+<p>"Just about!" I laughed. "However, I'm fortunately in such good company
+that it will make little difference whether I can tell the muzzle from
+the stock, or not."</p>
+
+<p>"There's something in that," he returned; "and as there are to be ladies
+in the party you may find other employment as agreeable as the killing
+of animals," and he looked at me with a dry twitching of his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply to this beyond rather a grim smile, and a moment later
+we reached the dining-room. I found the Count dressed in
+hunting-costume, seated at the table, on which Tobias<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> was placing the
+last dishes for the breakfast. He complimented me on my professional
+appearance, and added that, judging from externals, a little practice
+was all that was necessary to make me an accomplished huntsman.</p>
+
+<p>I looked in vain for Odile as I entered the room, but she presently
+appeared in a close-fitting habit which became her marvellously well,
+sparkling with health and freshness, and bearing in one hand her long
+skirt, and in the other a pearl-handled crop. A pistol with a heavy
+barrel was thrust beneath her belt, more for ornament, I fancied, than
+for service.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! Odile!" cried her father, as she greeted us and took her seat at
+the table, "the mere sight of your rosy cheeks and lithe step puts new
+life into me! It's a pleasure to look at you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> Isn't it so, Monsieur
+Gaston?" then, as Odile grew crimson with confusion, the Count perceived
+his blunder, and began to busy himself with the dishes before him. The
+next moment I caught Odile's eye, as she stole an amused glance at me,
+and I nodded a quick affirmative, without violence to my conscience.</p>
+
+<p>The meal passed with narratives of hunting exploits by the Count, who
+delighted in recalling his past experiences, often discontinuing his
+meal to illustrate by attitudes and gestures his combats with the
+different animals of the regions round about. Odile and I proved good
+listeners, though, perhaps, as one sometimes hearkens to a strain of
+music, the better to indulge his own reflections.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Breakfast finished, we went down into the courtyard. A dozen horses
+stood saddled just inside the principal gate. Sebalt, in his leather
+dress, with his double-coiled horn strapped across his back, and a heavy
+cowhide whip in his hand ready to strike, held a score of dogs in leash,
+that were baying and tugging at their bonds in excited anticipation of
+the part they were to play in the day's sport. Joy gleamed in every line
+of his goat's face as his long deferred desire was now about to be
+realized. Gideon, who held the Count's horse, looked more himself than I
+had seen him since the death of poor Lieverl&eacute;; he seemed to have
+recovered much of his wonted good spirits.</p>
+
+<p>I pushed aside the groom who stood beside Odile's horse, and she sprang<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
+from my hand into the saddle. Then I, in turn, mounted my horse, and
+moved abreast of Odile and the Count.</p>
+
+<p>When all was in readiness, Sebalt raised his horn and sounded the
+departure as, according to Sperver, he alone could sound it.</p>
+
+<p>The neighboring hillsides took up the sound, and threw it back in tones
+of purest silver, and all the echoes of the valleys were awakened and
+fled away towards the rising sun. This warm February sun had done its
+work, and the snow had disappeared to a level of but a few inches,
+covered with a hard crust. We started off at a gallop. Sebalt and
+Sperver rode first, with Odile, the Count, and myself close behind them.
+Becker and the under-keepers came on in the rear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sebalt led the pack along the base of the Gaisenberg, and skirting the
+falls of the Lauterbach, he followed along the defile at its further
+side, from which point the trail diverged in the direction of the
+Leidenthal. The weather was superb, not a cloud in the heavens, and the
+frosty air clear as crystal. The bare oaks creaked their gaunt branches,
+and the singing pines waved their lofty tops in the fresh south wind.
+The yelping of the pack could have been heard for a mile around, and
+Gideon, turning from time to time, called to them:</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your noise, you rascals; you'll have reason enough to howl before
+long, I'll warrant."</p>
+
+<p>There was little chance for conversation at the furious pace which we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>
+were following, and I contented myself with frequent glances at Odile,
+whose superb beauty was enhanced by the bright color in her cheeks,
+which excitement, exercise and happiness called forth. As for the Count,
+I could no longer recognize in him the dying patient of my first night
+at Nideck. All trace of his terrible illness had vanished, and he rode
+like a youth of twenty years, vigorous, calm, confident.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of an hour we emerged from the defile into the dazzling
+sunlight beyond. The dogs came upon the trail of the boar, and their
+long, full cries changed to exultant yappings; they glided along to
+right and left among the rocks, their noses to the ground, and they ran
+and leaped along the trail. Not one of them followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> the other's lead,
+until he had verified the scent for himself; like all true hunting dogs,
+they relied only upon themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the blast of the horn, the short, savage yelps of the pack,
+and the noise of our horses' hoofs as they pierced the sparkling snow
+crust, made music of an exciting, bewildering sort. I galloped on imbued
+to the finger-tips with the contagious anticipation everywhere around
+me.</p>
+
+<p>For some little time past the order of the hunt had been broken up. The
+Count, seemingly lost in the one object of the chase and oblivious to
+all else, had ridden far ahead, and had almost overtaken Sebalt and
+Sperver, who were at such a distance from us that the sound of their
+trumpets grew feebler<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> and feebler, and at length were entirely lost,
+save that at rare intervals they reached our ears like the sigh of the
+passing breeze. The mounts of Becker and his comrades, though chosen for
+endurance and strength, were not the equal of ours in speed; and thus it
+was that Odile and I now found ourselves alone, as it were, midway in
+the plain.</p>
+
+<p>On we went. Every now and then Odile would turn her head and smile at
+me; then she would whisper to her horse, and we bounded along yet
+faster. From the less frequent pauses of the pack, that glided, no
+larger than rabbits now, up the distant slopes, and their straight-ahead
+course, I fancied that the foremost of the party were approaching the
+whereabouts of the game.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was now that a belt of dense woods became visible on the rising
+ground before us. The Count had by this time gained so far upon us that
+we presently saw him disappear, together with his followers, within its
+borders.</p>
+
+<p>"We must be in at the death!" cried Odile breathlessly; "let's make
+haste!" and she urged her horse still further, while I clapped spurs to
+mine. Twenty minutes later we had covered the intervening distance, and
+dashed into the shadows of the wood.</p>
+
+<p>We had not proceeded above a mile further, when we found that our road
+forked, and running over an extensive ledge of rock, swept bare of snow
+and pine-needles by the wind, we were at a loss which path to follow,
+for there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> no tracks of horses nor dogs, and the direction of both
+paths being apparently the same, the noise of the pack growing
+momentarily fainter, afforded us no clue to our proper course.</p>
+
+<p>We reined up, impatient at this vexatious occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>"Which way now?" I cried to Odile.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go to the right!" she replied. "There's a new blaze on that
+beech-tree yonder. Perhaps one of the men's guns bruised the bark as he
+passed it!" and without waiting for me to reply, she started on again.</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to me a few moments later that we might now be left entirely
+alone if, perchance, we had chosen the wrong path, and if our followers,
+who would inevitably meet with the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> question of direction on
+reaching the fork in the road, should decide upon the one to the left.</p>
+
+<p>I felt little apprehension in being thus deserted, as it were, but let
+it not be understood by this that fearlessness formed any part of my
+character; it was to the more ignoble trait of ignorance that my present
+equanimity was due. I did, however, feel that Odile should be reminded
+of the fact, and I proceeded to communicate it to her; but whether it
+was that her attention was so much engrossed by the business in hand
+that she had no thought for anything else, or whether she considered my
+apprehensions groundless, her only reply was a smile and a motion of her
+head, as her horse carried her away from me, which I interpreted as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>
+meant to reassure me, and I gave my horse his head.</p>
+
+<p>From time to time we heard, far over on the mountainside, the sound of
+the woodcutter's axe, falling against the oak with measured
+stroke,&mdash;that slow, heavy stroke that is taken up and exaggerated by the
+echoes,&mdash;then the creaking of the falling tree, the shout of warning,
+and the thud of the giant as it measured its length upon the earth,
+crashing among the underbrush. Owing to the frequent windings of the
+woodland path, and the uncertain character of the ground, we were
+obliged to moderate our speed, and as we came upon the open land between
+the hills, the barking of the dogs reached us, loud for a moment, then
+faint again, as some intervening object came between us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You hear the dogs!" cried Odile; "we are on the right path after all!"</p>
+
+<p>And as the sounds became more distinct with each moment, I was satisfied
+that she was right.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there, as we entered a dark defile, we saw the fire of the
+charcoal-burner beneath the shadowy boughs, spreading its purple ring
+over the snow-crust and even to the tops of the swaying firs, then
+drawing its uncertain rays the closer until it was no longer but a
+spark, only to spread them out again yet wider than before. The outline
+of the charcoal-burner, stooping over the flame, with his broad-brimmed
+hat flattened on his shoulders, smoking his short, black pipe, and
+turning potatoes in the embers, reminded me at a distance of the trolls
+that are said to quarry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> gems of untold value in the centre of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>The noise of the dogs, forming a discordant, frenzied concert, grew
+nearer every moment. At length a sharp turn to the left, as we emerged
+from the deep, narrow glen which we had been traversing for some minutes
+past, brought us, it almost seemed, right upon the game, so startling
+was the uproar that greeted us.</p>
+
+<p>I was now convinced that we had happened upon the right path, and I
+expected momentarily to come upon the Count's party engaged in securing
+the game. I glanced back to see if Becker and his comrades were near us,
+but our frequent windings through the forest would have concealed them
+completely from our view, even had they followed us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Up to this point I had been vaguely regretting my inexperience in the
+hunt, though I still had little realization of the danger that might
+threaten us. But now, as I heard the loud blare of Sebalt's horn not
+above a quarter of a mile before us, I felt entirely reassured, and both
+Odile and I were looking expectantly for the forms of the Count and his
+huntsmen among the trees.</p>
+
+<p>A few rods further on we came upon a brake, half swamp, half stubble,
+beyond which, as far as the eye could reach, the sun once more shone
+brightly. We advanced at a walk, which the treacherous nature of the
+ground made necessary. The din of the maddened dogs, and a strange,
+ominous snarl, the like of which I had never before heard, told us that
+the beast was run, or nearly run, to earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Whose hand will the slaying fall to to-day?" I exclaimed laughingly to
+Odile.</p>
+
+<p>"To my father's, if his aim is true," replied Odile excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>She had hardly finished these words when a sudden parting of the bushes
+before us brought us into a crescent-shaped clearing some fifty yards in
+extent, and entered at its opposite side by the other forest path.
+Directly in the centre of this clearing, surrounded by a score of dogs
+that had seized him by the ears and neck, and were vainly endeavoring to
+bear him down, regardless of those of their number who had succumbed to
+his savage tusks,&mdash;was a huge wild boar!</p>
+
+<p>I confess to a sensation of horror at the sight. I glanced involuntarily
+at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> Odile, whom I would have given anything in the gift of man to see
+removed as far as possible from the spot. She, apparently undaunted
+still, though with a shade less color in her fair cheeks, turned hastily
+towards me and motioned me to hand her my rifle. I complied with
+misgiving, silently cursing my ignorance of the weapon's use, and in
+another moment Odile was gazing along its glistening barrel.</p>
+
+<p>There was a report, and though the aim was true it failed of its effect.
+And now the raging brute, infuriated by the pain of the wound, charged
+directly upon Odile, heedless of the sharp fangs which lacerated him,
+unchecked by the combined strength of the pack.</p>
+
+<p>My dismay was complete when, the next moment, the frightened animal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>
+which Odile rode, rearing up at the boar's furious onslaught, lost its
+footing in the treacherous bog-land and fell on its side,&mdash;happily upon
+its right side.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="ILL_011" id="ILL_011"></a>
+<img src="images/ill_011.jpg" width="500" height="325" alt="&quot;I FELL UPON MY KNEE BEFORE THE BRUTE.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;I FELL UPON MY KNEE BEFORE THE BRUTE.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Leaping to the ground, I had only time to seize my love about the waist
+and swing her beyond the reach of the horse's flying hoofs, when the
+boar was upon me. There was no time for reflection. I fell upon my knees
+before the brute, my hunting-knife extended straight before me, and held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>
+with all the strength of my arm.</p>
+
+<p>So quickly works the eye sometimes, in moments of danger, that in this
+instant I saw the Count, or rather, perhaps, he came within my range of
+vision, pale as death, and riding at the highest speed along the
+opposite path, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> close behind him followed Gideon and Kraft.</p>
+
+<p>The knife in my hand never swerved, for the love I bore Odile steadied
+my arm as I fancy that alone could have done. The mad rush of the boar
+was but the means of his surer destruction. He came straight upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>
+knife, and the momentum of his ponderous body drove the steel deep
+through his heart. I felt the gush of his life's blood pour over my arm
+and chest; then I heard a cry from Odile's lips and a shout of wild
+triumph from the Count and his huntsmen; then I fell backwards, my
+consciousness half crushed out by the enormous weight of the brute's
+body as it struck against me in its swaying fall to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Odile, oblivious to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> all around her, had thrown herself
+into my arms and burst into uncontrollable tears. The crisis of the
+moment just passed had completely unnerved her and robbed her of her
+usual calm control.</p>
+
+<p>We stood thus when the Count reined up before us.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! is it so?" he exclaimed, endeavoring to hide his emotion beneath a
+joking exterior. "And why not? Who deserves better of a woman than the
+lad who has saved her life and her father's too!" And as Sebalt and
+Gideon rode up, all three jumped from their saddles and wrung my hands,
+while good old Sperver beamed with gratified pride, and pulled the brim
+of his hat down over his eyes to screen them from the glare of the sun.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These words of the Count had filled our cup of happiness to the brim.
+Though I had dared to hope for little exception on his part when I
+should determine to impart to him my wishes, yet this complete and
+cordial acceptance of the relationship existing between Odile and myself
+filled me with unwonted exultation. Nor was the Count's satisfaction any
+less, I believe, as he realized that the fulfilment of that desire which
+lay nearest his heart was now assured him. It seemed, moreover, that he
+had guessed something of the truth during the hours which we had passed
+together in his sick-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," said he, in speaking of it afterwards, "did you think I had not
+weighed my words, Gaston, when I promised you any reward you should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>
+require of me? And was I wrong in believing that such a spirited lad as
+you, and one after my own heart, might find his happiness in Odile; for
+she is lovely, is she not, though she is my child?"</p>
+
+<p>For all answer, I drew Odile closer to me, and kissed the fair face that
+rested on my shoulder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BANQUET.&mdash;THE DWARF EXPLAINS THE MYSTERY OF THE NIDECK HOUSE.</h3>
+
+<p>The body of the boar was strapped across the backs of the two horses
+which the beaters, Wilhelm M&ouml;lz and Yeri Scharf, relinquished for the
+purpose, themselves returning on foot to the Castle.</p>
+
+<p>I looked with strange fascination at the shaggy brute that had so nearly
+put an end to all my cherished prospects. The bristling, wiry hair
+running over head and shoulders and extending half-way to the haunches;
+the broad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> yellow tusks that forced up the black, leathery upper lip;
+the small, savage eyes now glazed and half-closed in death, all inspired
+me with reluctant curiosity and loathing.</p>
+
+<p>We retraced our road to the Castle, walking our jaded mounts. The dogs
+followed close behind us, their tongues lolling from their mouths, and
+eyeing at intervals their fallen foe, as if not yet sure that he was
+beyond renewing the combat.</p>
+
+<p>As we reached the eventful fork in the forest path, the Count drew up:</p>
+
+<p>"Here's where you went astray," he said; "you didn't see the bit of red
+flannel, torn from the lining of Sebalt's jacket, that we pinned to the
+tree, just here, within the left-hand path? By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> Jove, it's gone! This
+stiff breeze must have drawn it against the knife's edge and cut it
+through. Look! There it is, caught in the thicket."</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, a long strip of red flannel was fluttering in the twigs of
+the underbrush a few feet away.</p>
+
+<p>"I shudder when I think how we might be returning now!" exclaimed the
+Count, and a look of gloom settled for a moment upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>Gideon rode up to the tree, and pulling out his hunting-knife, restored
+it to his belt. We looked thoughtfully along the fateful path for
+several minutes still. Then we resumed our homeward course.</p>
+
+<p>It was towards two o'clock when we trooped into the courtyard. We
+presented a somewhat less spirited appearance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> than at our setting out
+at daybreak, but we were victorious and happy, nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>While the huntsmen and hostlers were busy in removing the boar and
+caring for the dogs and horses, the Count continued to the lodge gate,
+and Odile and I followed him leisurely, along the rugged path.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed the lodge room, wherein we could descry the dwarf and a
+half-dozen other figures seated about the fireplace, Offenloch stepped
+out, and bowing to the Count, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Some musicians from the Forest, monsieur! They ask permission to play
+in the Castle this evening in return for food and a night's lodging."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said the Count; "music is just what we want, and such as these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>
+fellows play! For I was just sending for you, Offenloch, to bid you
+prepare a feast to-night worthy of the triple event to be celebrated.
+Tell all the people of the Castle to be present in the dining-room at
+eight o'clock, and see that no one of them all is missing. These players
+shall furnish us music. Let nothing be wanting to every one's pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>The delighted butler smiled expectantly, and withdrew to carry out his
+master's instructions.</p>
+
+<p>We continued to the drawing-room, where we took leave of one another to
+prepare for the evening's festivities. A few minutes later I found
+myself in my chamber. I was pretty thoroughly used up with the unusual
+experiences of the morning, and throwing off my borrowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> clothes, I lay
+down on my bed, where I presently fell into a leaden slumber.</p>
+
+<p>I woke some hours later, much refreshed, to find the sun set and my
+tower chamber dark. After five minutes of yawning and stretching, I got
+up, and striking a light, I set about to prepare myself for the feast.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I reflected&mdash;in that state of complete happiness which life
+cannot offer twice, and which it does not often fall to our lot that
+first time to embrace&mdash;upon the circumstances of my present. It seemed
+like the touch of the genie's hand that I should now find myself
+installed for all time at Nideck, the accepted lover of its mistress,
+and beloved by its master, the Count.</p>
+
+<p>I was still reflecting in this wise as I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> went down the stairs to the
+dining-room. I found a gay company assembled there. Many of the faces
+were new to me, as I had never penetrated to the remoter parts of the
+Castle; but all were gay and laughing, and bespoke impatient expectation
+of the amusement in store for them. The arrangements for the repast were
+elaborate and complete, and worthy of their projector, Offenloch.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had the members of the household finished greeting me, when Odile
+appeared on the Count's arm, her exquisite beauty well set off by a rich
+gown of black brocade that made her complexion dazzling by contrast, and
+in her hair a single band of jewels.</p>
+
+<p>They proceeded to the head of the table, and the Count motioned me to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>
+him. Then, with Odile on his right hand and I at his left, he addressed
+the gathering:</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," said he, "you shall now know the purpose of your being
+called hither to-night. It is to celebrate the greatest of all events in
+the lives of three of us; namely, the saving of your mistress's life
+this morning, as you have doubtless already heard, and the restoration
+of your master's health, both the work of Monsieur de la Roche beside me
+here" (I experienced much more embarrassment than gratification at this
+unexpected eulogy), "and lastly, that which is fraught with like
+significance for us all, the betrothal of your mistress and our
+benefactor!"</p>
+
+<p>At this point the Count was interrupted by a chorus of cheers that were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>
+prolonged for several moments. As the noise subsided he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"It is well known to you all how dear to me the thought has been of
+feeling that the ancient line of Nideck, which has held an honorable
+place in the history of Alsace for many centuries, should continue to
+flourish long after I, Count Hermann, shall have passed away. That time
+is not far distant, and when it comes it rejoices me to think that I
+shall hand over to these young people beside me here the future of my
+race. Your young master has endeared himself already to your hearts, and
+he will continue to do so during the years which are to come. Your
+devotion to me in the past has been complete, and the memory of it is
+one of the proudest of my possessions; and now I ask you to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> extend this
+devotion to those who shall succeed me when I in turn pass on the Castle
+and its lands. And now but one more word. This night shall be devoted to
+revelry, and there should be no downcast eye among us! He who rejoices
+most shall best prove his loyalty to his house. Eat, drink, and be
+merry! The Count of Nideck requires it of you!"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, and a chorus of shouts greeted his message of good-will. The
+old housekeeper wiped her eyes with a corner of her apron, while some of
+the younger maids were reduced even to whimpering; the men maintained a
+sturdy silence, but it was evident that all, especially the old steward,
+the dwarf, and the master of the hounds, were no less affected than the
+women.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ere we resumed our seats, the ancient wassail-bowl of the Nidecks,
+blackened by centuries past, was filled to overflowing with sparkling
+wine from the Drachenfels, and went the round of the table, each one
+draining all he could at a breath. The generous draught served to
+increase the already growing hilarity. The happy eyes and faces sparkled
+more brightly under its magic spell. Then, in response to a signal from
+the Count, we seated ourselves about the board.</p>
+
+<p>The table fairly groaned beneath its burden of dishes ranged everywhere
+with lavish profusion. Bottles of all shapes and sizes, cobwebbed and
+redolent of the Castle's earthen vaults, were dotted all about, with
+glasses of as various patterns beside them, and long-stemmed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> pipes lay
+beside the plate of each smoker, while an army of small dishes, the
+contents of which I could not even guess, were ranged the length of the
+board. Directly in the centre of it all, in an enormous platter of
+flowered china, rested the head of the ill-favored boar, swimming in a
+lake of white wine sauce.</p>
+
+<p>The meal progressed; the merriment increased. To-night there was license
+everywhere, and each one enjoyed himself after his own manner. Healths
+were emptied with marvellous rapidity till I felt my head reeling with
+the fumes of the wine and the intoxication of happiness.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed. The Count, Odile, and I, were toasted at intervals of
+every few minutes. I wondered how long this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> state of things could
+continue successfully. I looked about me.</p>
+
+<p>There was Sperver, a little distance down the table, with his thin
+forehead and bristling gray head, his eyes shining and his mustache wet
+with wine; at his right sat Knapwurst and on his left Marie Lagoutte.
+His cheeks were a good deal flushed, and on his breast sparkled the
+badge of his office; it was a pleasure to see his honest, happy face.
+Marie Lagoutte was even more loquacious than was her wont; her large,
+cotton cap was pushed very much to one side, and she drank first with
+one and then with another with the greatest impartiality.</p>
+
+<p>Knapwurst, squatting in his armchair, his head on a level with Sperver's
+elbow, looked like an enormous cabbage. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> came Tobias Offenloch, so
+red that he looked as though he had dipped his face in the wine before
+him. His wig rested against the chair-back, and his wooden leg was stuck
+straight out before him under the table. Further on, Sebalt's long,
+melancholy face stood out in grotesque relief, smiling faintly into his
+glass.</p>
+
+<p>There were, besides the musicians, the serving-men and women, domestics
+and hangers-on,&mdash;all that little world, in short, which lives and
+flourishes around great families as the moss, the ivy, and the
+convolvulus cling about the forest oak. Their eyes were moist with
+wine-begotten tears. The Vine of Bacchus wept freely everywhere. The
+light of the great bronze lamp shed over all its beautiful amber tint
+and left in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> shadows the old gray walls where hung in wreaths the
+trumpets, bugles, and horns of the former lords of the Castle. The scene
+was like a glimpse from ages past.</p>
+
+<p>The roof rang with songs and shouts, and ballads long lain dormant in
+the minds of the singers now came forth and woke the startled echoes of
+the Castle.</p>
+
+<p>For my part, I did little else but listen and occupy myself with the
+faces about me; for thanks to the exercise of the morning and my long
+inhaling of the old wine, smelling of vervain and cypress, that mounted
+to my brain, and clothed all things for me in vague, unreal beauty, I
+was in that wholly receptive mood which disaffects even the semblance of
+effort.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So I listened with entire complacency to the singularly successful
+efforts of the entertainers, who were elated to an unusual degree by
+every circumstance of the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The evening wore on. The boar's head had disappeared; the array of small
+dishes was reduced to a mass of indistinguishable d&eacute;bris; one set of
+bottles had been emptied and replaced by another, and our pipe-bowls
+were aglow.</p>
+
+<p>At this point the Count suggested that we should have music. The
+musicians, having enjoyed their fill of food and wine, and burned out a
+generous pipe, hastened to comply.</p>
+
+<p>Taking up their instruments, they moved over before the hearth, where
+seats had been arranged for them in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> the form of a semicircle. They
+seated themselves, and began to put their instruments in tune.</p>
+
+<p>It was a picturesque sight, these sons of the Black Forest seated in the
+dim light of the hall,&mdash;the old harper, bent with years, leaning over
+his instrument; next him a short, thick-set fellow, whom his comrades
+called Black Pierre, passively supporting his 'cello, and gazing about
+him curiously at the unfamiliar objects in the room; at his side the
+handsome, jovial-looking flute player, a picture of rugged health and
+careless good humor; while next in line came a man of medium stature,
+whose indistinctive features were rendered more so by the large creases
+in his cheeks, made by supporting his violin, which he held firmly
+beneath his square chin,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> while he tightened the horse-hair of his bow;
+and finally, to complete the semicircle, the clarinet player, a slight,
+sunburned boy, scarce turned eighteen, unmistakably a member of one of
+those numerous Gypsy bands whose camps are always to be found in the
+plateau of the Rothalps between Alsace and Lorraine.</p>
+
+<p>The music began, and in justice to the vagabond players it must be said
+that it was of no ordinary degree of excellence. All the fire and pathos
+of their lawless natures was blended in the melody; now low and sad and
+tender as the reveries of old age itself; then rising and swelling into
+a burst of passion and longing that bewildered and electrified you; then
+in the midst of all this followed a lively measure,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> persuasive and
+careless, that in turn gave way to a waltz, foolish, palpitating,
+wanton.</p>
+
+<p>I sat enchanted, my eyes roving over the faces of those around me.
+Odile, too, seemed to find the strains a fitting accompaniment to her
+thoughts, for she nodded approvingly at me from time to time, and once I
+thought I saw a tear hang on her eyelash. However, that may have been
+mere imagination, as I invariably become sentimental with my third
+bottle.</p>
+
+<p>After a little the music began again. This time it was Schiller's
+"Brigands," and this more ambitious undertaking was rendered with a
+spirit and understanding hardly to be looked for in those who rarely
+aspired higher than the audiences of the inns, or the woodcutter's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>
+gatherings in the shambles of the forest.</p>
+
+<p>I glanced once more about me. Everyone's eyes were fastened on the
+flooring. Even the frowzy scullion, who winced as he became conscious of
+my gaze, and passed the back of his hand across his nose apologetically,
+seemed lifted for the moment from his pots and kettles to loftier
+thoughts. Other pieces followed; there were those to suit every mood and
+fancy. The Count was enthusiastic in his applause at the end of each
+number, and demanded more, while the others expressed their satisfaction
+with clapping and stamps on the stone floor.</p>
+
+<p>When at last the music came to an end, the players were rewarded with
+generous gold pieces by the master, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> returned well satisfied to the
+table to wear away what little was left of the night, in wine and
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was late. The old clock ticked on in the chimney-corner, and
+groaned in its casing as its heavy weights ran out their length. The
+fire fell on the hearth; the great yule logs of the early evening had
+given out their substance, and now were crumbling away into ruddy embers
+and soft, flaky ashes. And still the merriment continued, still glasses
+were filled and drained, and still the call for songs and stories went
+on.</p>
+
+<p>At length, at that hour when fatigue begins to assert itself over
+inclination, when vitality is low, and the shadows become deeper,
+colder, and the night more mysterious, then it was that the Count
+exclaimed:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Each one shall sing a final song except Knapwurst, for he has a voice
+like a bull-frog, but he is first in story-telling in all Alsace! When
+it comes his turn he shall tell us a story. Sperver, you shall begin
+with the song of Black Hatto the Burgrave!</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"I am the king of these mountains of mine."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>And the steward, rising and standing like the figure of the wild
+huntsman in the heather, thundered forth the song with wonderful effect.
+The entire room joined in the chorus, and the old suits of mail fairly
+creaked and trembled with the sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo!" cried the Count. "Nobly done, Sperver! It is your turn now,
+Becker! Sing what you like!"</p>
+
+<p>Becker, whose arm had stolen unperceived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> around Gretchen's waist, got
+up hastily, in some embarrassment, and steadying himself against the
+table, complied with a species of madrigal, proclaiming the virtues of
+lasses of the present, and claiming in a loud refrain that they were
+quite the equal of those of the olden times. And in truth they were,
+judging from the fair faces at intervals about the board, sitting with
+their eyes veiled by long, drooping lashes, as sleep and the wine were
+now stealing over them. The kennel-keeper's tribute to their charms
+served to arouse them, however, and they stole shy and gratified glances
+at each other as he sang.</p>
+
+<p>After Becker, the Gypsy youth followed with a herdsman's jodel, and so
+the round was gradually completed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The clock struck two from its niche in the corner. The last embers
+flared up and fell. The lamp burned low.</p>
+
+<p>"A story from Knapwurst now!" exclaimed the Count; "and then the day is
+done!"</p>
+
+<p>A complete silence succeeded; Knapwurst's quaint relations were
+favorites, it seemed.</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf, half-tipsy as a result of his liberal potations, rested his
+elbows on the table, and with his fists dug into his hollow cheeks, and
+his eyes staring out of his head, he began in a harsh, monotonous voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Bernhard Hertzog relates that the Burgrave Hugh, surnamed the Wolf, the
+founder of Nideck, having become old, used to cover his head with a sort
+of hood that fell down about his shoulders,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> which he wore over his
+steel helmet when engaged in combat; when he wished to breathe more
+easily, he removed the helmet and covered his head with the hood alone,
+the scallops of which hung down about his waist. Up to the age of
+eighty-two, Hugh still wore his armor, though he could hardly breathe in
+it. Then he sent for Otto of Burlach, his chaplain; Hugh, his eldest
+son; Berthold, his second son; and his daughter, Bertha, of the red
+hair, the wife of a Saxon chief named Zaan, and said to them, 'Your
+mother, the she-wolf, has bequeathed to you her claws; her blood is
+mixed with mine, and it will be born again among you from century to
+century, and weep among the snows of the Black Forest. Some will say,
+'It is the moaning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> of the wind!' Others, 'Hark! The owl hoots!' But it
+is your blood, mine, and the blood of the she-wolf who made me to murder
+Elfreda, my first wife before God and the Holy Church! Yes, she has
+perished by my hand. Cursed be the she-wolf, for it is written, 'I will
+visit the crime of the father upon the children, unto the third and
+fourth generations;' aye, until justice be done.' And old Hugh died.
+From that day the north wind has sobbed, and the owl has hooted, and the
+lost traveller by night knows not that it is the blood of the she-wolf
+bemoaning her crime. 'And she will bemoan it,' says Hertzog, 'from
+century to century, until that day when Hugh's first wife, Elfreda,
+shall reappear in the form of an angel at Nideck, to pardon and
+console.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The dwarf paused, and silence succeeded, which lasted for a full minute;
+then he continued, with drunken gravity, pointing his long forefinger at
+Odile:</p>
+
+<p>"There is she who was to return to pardon and console. She has returned.
+At this moment she is sitting beside the Count, our master! Look, sirs!
+Do you not recognize her? Is it not she? Henceforth the lords of Nideck
+may rest in peace, for justice is done, and the good angel of this noble
+house has returned."</p>
+
+<h4>THE END.</h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Count of Nideck, by Ralph Browning Fiske
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,5498 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Count of Nideck, by Ralph Browning Fiske
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Count of Nideck
+       adapted from the French of Erckmann-Chartrian
+
+Author: Ralph Browning Fiske
+
+Illustrator: Victor A. Searles
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2011 [EBook #34999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNT OF NIDECK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from
+scanned images of public domain material from the Google
+Print archive.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Cover]
+
+
+
+
+THE COUNT OF NIDECK
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "AND THE COUNT WAS STANDING UPRIGHT ON THE
+WINDOW-SILL."]
+
+
+
+
+THE COUNT OF NIDECK
+
+ADAPTED FROM THE FRENCH
+OF
+ERCKMANN: CHARTRIAN
+
+BY
+RALPH BROWNING FISKE
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+BY
+VICTOR A. SEARLES
+
+
+BOSTON
+L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+INCORPORATED
+1897
+
+
+
+
+_Copyright, 1897_
+BY L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
+     I. THE SUMMONS TO THE CASTLE                                      9
+    II. I MEET THE COUNTESS                                           37
+   III. MY FIRST NIGHT IN HUGH'S TOWER                                69
+    IV. KNAPWURST ACQUAINTS ME WITH THE GENEALOGY OF THE NIDECKS      93
+     V. I BREAKFAST WITH ODILE                                       120
+    VI. THE COUNT UNSHEATHES HIS CLAWS                               135
+   VII. MARIE LAGOUTTE RELATES HER EXPERIENCE                        160
+  VIII. SEBALT TRACKS THE PLAGUE                                     180
+    IX. THE PLAGUE IN MY CHAMBER.--THE MIDNIGHT SCENE ON THE
+          ALTENBERG                                                  200
+     X. I LOSE MY WAY AND PASS THE NIGHT IN THE DWARF'S LODGE        219
+    XI. I AM SUMMONED TO THE COUNTESS'S CHAMBER, AND MAKE A
+          CONFESSION                                                 244
+   XII. WE CHASE THE PLAGUE.--HER DEATH                              269
+  XIII. THE BARON'S STORY.--HE DISAPPEARS                            305
+   XIV. THE BOAR HUNT                                                324
+    XV. THE BANQUET.--THE DWARF EXPLAINS THE MYSTERY OF THE
+          NIDECK HOUSE                                               351
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+  "AND THE COUNT WAS STANDING UPRIGHT ON THE WINDOW-SILL"   Frontispiece
+  "POINTING TO A DARK OBJECT CROUCHING IN THE SNOW"                   25
+  IN THE PORTRAIT GALLERY                                            115
+  "'STAY!' HE HOWLED, 'I HAVE NOT CURSED YOU YET'"                   145
+  "'YONDER YOU SEE THE PEAK OF THE ALTENBERG'"                       153
+  "THEN HE WOULD RESUME HIS FRIGHTFUL CRIES"                         195
+  "I RAISED MYSELF ON MY ELBOW AND STARED FEARFULLY IN
+      THE DIRECTION"                                                 203
+  "I STEPPED FORWARD, AND FOUND MYSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF ODILE"     248
+  "ODILE DROPPED HER EYES"                                           315
+  "I FELL UPON MY KNEE BEFORE THE BRUTE"                             345
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SUMMONS TO THE CASTLE.
+
+
+Towards Christmas time, in the year 1780, as I lay soundly sleeping in
+my room at the Swan Tavern, in Tuebingen, old Gideon Sperver burst
+suddenly into my room, crying, "Gaston, my boy, I have come to take you
+back with me to the Castle! You know Nideck, twenty miles from
+here,--the estate of my master, the Count of Nideck!"
+
+My failure to respond was perhaps due to the fact that I had not seen my
+worthy foster-father for twenty years, that in this time he had grown a
+full beard, and that now, in my half-aroused condition, he appeared
+before me thus, with a huge fur cap pulled down over his ears, and
+holding an ill-smelling lantern just under my nose.
+
+"In the first place," I replied, "let's take up things in their proper
+order. Who are you?"
+
+"Who am I?" repeated the good fellow, with such genuine surprise and
+distress in his tones that I felt a somewhat embarrassing sense of
+ingratitude. "What! Don't you remember your foster-father, Gideon
+Sperver, the General's old ranger who saved your life as a child, in the
+swamp of the Losser?" And his voice became so husky that he stopped and
+cleared his throat.
+
+"Ah, my dear Gideon, I know you now, indeed! Give me your hand!" We
+gripped each other's hands, and Sperver, passing his sleeve across his
+eyes, continued, "You know Nideck?"
+
+"Of course, by reputation. What are you doing there?"
+
+"I am the Count's steward."
+
+"And how did you happen to come hither?"
+
+"The young Countess Odile sent me to fetch you."
+
+"Very good. When are we to start?"
+
+"At once. It is an urgent matter; the old Count is very ill, and his
+daughter begged me to lose no time. The horses are waiting for us
+below."
+
+"But, my dear Gideon, just look at the weather; it has been snowing for
+three days!"
+
+"Pshaw! We are not starting on a boar hunt. Put on your fur coat, fasten
+on your spurs, and we are off! Meanwhile, I will order a bite for you to
+eat."
+
+He disappeared, and, as I never could refuse the chosen companion of my
+childhood anything from my youngest days, I hurriedly dressed myself,
+and lost no time in following him into the dining-room.
+
+"Ah, I knew you would not let me go back alone!" he cried delightedly.
+"Swallow down this slice of ham and drink a stirrup-cup, for the horses
+are growing impatient. I have strapped your valise to the saddle."
+
+"What is that for?"
+
+"You will be needed for some days at Nideck; that is indispensable. I
+will explain everything to you on the way."
+
+We went down into the inn yard. At that moment two horsemen arrived.
+They seemed exhausted, and their horses were white with lather.
+
+Sperver, who was a great lover of horses, exclaimed in surprise, "What
+beautiful animals! They are Wallachians; fine and swift as deer. Come,
+make haste and throw a blanket over them, my lad," he continued,
+addressing the hostler, "or they may take cold!"
+
+The travellers, enveloped in white astrakhan greatcoats, passed close to
+us just as were putting foot in the stirrup. I could only distinguish
+the long brown moustache of one, and his dark eyes that were singularly
+bright. They entered the inn. The groom released our bridles and wished
+us a safe journey. We set off at a gallop.
+
+Sperver rode a pure Mecklenberg, and I was mounted on a spirited horse
+of Ardennes; we fairly flew over the snow. In ten minutes we had left
+the outskirts of Tuebingen behind us. It was beginning to clear up. All
+trace of our road had become obliterated by the considerable fall of
+snow. Our only companions were the ravens of the Black Forest, spreading
+their great hollow wings above the drifts, lighting for an instant here
+and there, and crying in discordant notes, "Misery! Misery! Misery!"
+Gideon, buried in his coat of wild-cat skin and fur cap, galloped on
+ahead. Suddenly he turned in the saddle and called, "Hey, Gaston! This
+is what they call a fine winter's morning."
+
+"So it is; but a bit severe."
+
+"I like the clear cold weather; it makes you tingle. If old Parson Toby
+had the courage to start out in such weather, he would never feel his
+rheumatism again."
+
+I smiled as well as my stiff cheeks would let me. After an hour of this
+furious pace Sperver slowed down and let me catch up with him. "Gaston,"
+he said in a serious tone, "you ought to know the circumstances of the
+master's illness."
+
+"I was just thinking of that."
+
+"The more so, as a great number of doctors have already visited the
+Count."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes; they have come from Paris, Berlin, and even Switzerland, and have
+made a most careful study of their patient and employed all their
+skill, but to no purpose."
+
+As no answer seemed called for, I remained silent, waiting for him to
+continue.
+
+"The Count's disease is a terrible affliction somewhat akin to madness.
+It returns every year on the same day and at the same hour; his eyes
+grow red as fire, he shudders from head to foot, and he mutters
+incoherently."
+
+"The man has undoubtedly become unbalanced through trouble and
+adversity."
+
+"No! Not so! He possesses power and wealth and untold
+honors,--everything, in short, that other people most desire; but the
+most singular part of it is that he fancies if his daughter would only
+consent to marry, it would effect his cure; and she as strangely
+refuses even to entertain the idea, maintaining that she has consecrated
+her life to God. The Count cannot bear to think that the ancient race of
+Nideck must perish with her."
+
+"How did his illness first declare itself?"
+
+"Suddenly, twelve years ago."
+
+As he spoke my companion seemed to be trying to recall something. "One
+evening," he began, after a moment, "I was alone with the Count in the
+armory of the Castle. It was about Christmas time. We had been hunting
+wild boar all day in the gorges of the Rhethal, and had returned at
+nightfall bringing with us two poor hounds ripped open the length of
+their bellies. It was just such weather as this, cold and snowy. The
+Count was striding up and down the room, his head upon his breast and
+his hands clasped behind his back, like a man who is deep in thought.
+From time to time he paused, and looked at the high windows that were
+fast becoming veiled in snow, while I sat in the chimney-corner warming
+myself, thinking of my dogs, and silently cursing all the wild boar of
+the Black Forest. For fully two hours everybody in the Castle had been
+asleep, and there was no sound to break the silence, save the noise of
+the Count's heavy spurred boots on the flagstones. I distinctly recall
+how a raven, doubtless borne along by a gust of wind, came flapping
+against the panes with a discordant cry, and how the sheets of snow fell
+from the windows. The casements on that side of the house were suddenly
+changed from white to black."
+
+"Have these details any bearing on your master's illness?"
+
+"Let me finish. You shall see for yourself. At the raven's cry, the
+Count suddenly halted; his eyes became fixed, his cheeks ashy pale, and
+he bent his head forward like a hunter who hears the game approaching. I
+went on warming myself, thinking meanwhile, 'Won't he go to bed soon?'
+For, to tell the truth, I was dropping with fatigue. I can see it all,
+Gaston; I am sitting there now! Scarcely had the raven uttered its harsh
+croak above the abyss, when the old clock struck eleven. At the same
+moment the Count turned on his heel; he listened; his lips moved; I saw
+him totter like a drunken man. He stretched out his hands, his teeth
+tightly clenched, and his eyeballs shining like fire. 'My lord,' I
+cried, 'what is the matter?' But he burst into mad laughter, stumbled,
+and fell upon the floor, face downwards. I called for help immediately;
+the servants hurried to the room. Sebalt and I raised the Count and
+moved him to the bed near the window; but just as I was about to cut my
+master's cravat with my hunting-knife,--for I believed it was a stroke
+of apoplexy,--the Countess Odile entered, and threw herself upon the
+body of her father, uttering such piteous cries that I tremble yet when
+I think of it. From that hour, Gaston, a pall has hung over the Castle,
+and Heaven only knows when it will be lifted. Every year, at the same
+day and hour, the Count is seized with these strange convulsions. The
+attacks last from a week to a fortnight, during which he howls and cries
+in a most terrifying manner. Then he slowly recovers. He is pale and
+weak, and moves about steadying himself on the chairs of his chamber,
+and turning fearfully to look, at the slightest sound, seemingly afraid
+of his own shadow. The young Countess, the sweetest creature in the
+world, never leaves him; but he cannot bear the sight of her at these
+times. 'Go! Go!' he cries, stretching out his arms before him. 'Leave
+me! Haven't I suffering enough as it is, without your hated presence?'
+It is abominable to hear him, and I, who am always at his side in the
+chase, and would readily risk my life to serve him,--I could throttle
+him at these moments, when I witness his monstrous treatment of his own
+daughter!"
+
+Sperver, whose swarthy face had assumed a gloomy look, set spurs to his
+horse, and we continued at a gallop. I had become thoughtful. The cure
+of such a malady seemed to me exceedingly doubtful, if not indeed
+impossible. It was evidently some moral disease. In order successfully
+to combat it, it would be necessary to trace it back to its origin, and
+this origin was doubtless lost in the vagueness of the past. These
+reflections tended to increase my apprehension. The old steward's story,
+far from inspiring me with confidence, had depressed me,--a doubtful
+state of affairs to insure success.
+
+It was about three o'clock when we descried the ancient Castle of
+Nideck on the furthest horizon. In spite of the vast intervening
+distance, we could distinguish the high turrets suspended like baskets
+from the angles of the edifice. It was as yet but a mere outline, hardly
+distinguishable from the blue sky; almost imperceptibly the red granite
+peaks of the Vosges appeared. At that moment Sperver slowed up and
+cried, "Gaston, we must get there before night shuts in. Forward!"
+
+But it was in vain that he plunged his spurs into his horse. The animal
+remained motionless, with his fore legs planted firmly before him, his
+mane bristling up with fear, and emitting two streams of bluish vapor
+from his nostrils.
+
+[Illustration: "POINTING TO A DARK OBJECT CROUCHING IN THE SNOW."]
+
+"What does this mean?" cried Gideon, astonished. "Do you see anything,
+Gaston? Can there--" He did not finish his sentence; pointing to a dark
+object crouching in the snow at a distance of some fifty paces on the
+hillside, he exclaimed, in a tone of such distress that I was a good
+deal startled, "The Black Plague!" Following with my glance the
+direction of his extended arm, I was astonished to perceive an aged
+woman, her legs bent up between her clasped arms, and so ragged that her
+red elbows protruded from the sleeves of her dress, seated in the snow.
+A few locks of gray hair fell in disorder about her thin, red,
+vulture-like neck. Singularly enough, a bundle of some sort rested on
+her knees, and her haggard eyes wandered over the snowy plain. Sperver
+had gone far to the right and kept as far as possible out of the old
+creature's way. I had some trouble in overtaking him.
+
+"What the deuce is the meaning of all this? Are you joking?" I cried.
+
+"Joking! God forbid that I should jest about such matters. I am not
+superstitious, but this meeting with the old witch frightens me." Then,
+turning his head and seeing that the old creature had not stirred, and
+that her eyes were still fixed on the plain before her, he seemed
+somewhat reassured.
+
+"Gaston," he said solemnly, "you are a man of learning, and are
+acquainted with many subjects of which I know nothing, but believe me, a
+man is wrong to laugh at things he cannot understand. It is not without
+reason that I call this woman the Black Plague. Throughout the Black
+Forest she is known by that name, but here at Nideck she has won a
+special right to it."
+
+My companion rode on for a few minutes without speaking. "Come, Sperver,
+explain yourself more clearly! I confess I don't understand you in the
+least."
+
+"The hag that you saw down there is the cause of all our misfortunes. It
+is she who is slowly killing the Count."
+
+"How is that possible? How can she exercise such an influence?"
+
+"I cannot tell you. But one thing is certain: on the first day of the
+Count's attack, at the very moment even, you have only to climb up to
+the signal-tower and you will see the Black Plague crouching like a dark
+speck in the long stretch of snow between the Tuebingen Forest and the
+Castle of Nideck. Every day she comes a little nearer, and at her
+approach, the Count's attacks grow worse; sometimes when the trembling
+fits come upon him, he says to me, 'Gideon, she is coming.' I hold his
+arms and try to quiet him, but he keeps muttering with staring eyes,
+'She is coming! Oh, oh! She is coming!' Then I climb the tower and
+survey the landscape. You know I have a keen eye, Gideon. At last, amid
+the distant mists, between sky and earth, I distinguish a black speck.
+The next morning the speck has grown larger; the Count starts up in his
+bed with chattering teeth. On the second day we can see the old creature
+distinctly, almost within rifle-shot on the plain; and then it is that
+the Count's jaws become set like a vice, his eyes roll in his head, and
+he utters terrible cries. Ah, the cursed witch! A score of times I have
+brought my carbine to bear on her, but the poor Count has prevented me
+from drawing the trigger, crying, 'No, Sperver; shed no blood!' Poor
+man! He is sparing the creature who is killing him by inches; he is
+nothing but skin and bones."
+
+My good friend Gideon was too much taken up with the vision of the hag
+to be brought back to calm reason. Moreover, who can define the exact
+limits of the possible? Do we not each day see the realm of reality
+extend itself more widely? These hidden influences, these unseen bonds,
+this world of magnetism that some proclaim with all the ardor of the
+fanatic, and others deny with scorn and ridicule,--who can say that all
+these forces will not some day revolutionize our universe? It is easy to
+arrogate to yourself a claim to superior knowledge in the face of such
+general ignorance. I confined myself, therefore, to begging Sperver to
+moderate his anger, and beyond all things not to fire upon the Black
+Plague, warning him that it would very probably bring grave misfortune
+upon himself.
+
+"Bah! I will risk all that!" he exclaimed; "the worst they could do
+would be to hang me."
+
+"But that would be a good deal for an honest man to suffer."
+
+"As well die one way as another. In this case, you are suffocated,
+that's all. I would as lief die that way as to receive a blow on my
+head, or a stroke of apoplexy, or give up smoking, drinking, and a good
+digestion."
+
+"My dear Gideon, that sounds odd, coming from a graybeard."
+
+"Graybeard or not, that is the way I look at it. I always keep a bullet
+in my rifle at the service of the witch; from time to time, I renew the
+priming, and if ever the occasion offers--" He finished his sentence by
+an expressive gesture.
+
+"You are wrong, Sperver! I am of the same opinion as the Count: 'no
+bloodshed.' Reconsider, and discharge your piece against the first wild
+boar you happen upon."
+
+These words seemed to have some effect upon the old huntsman; he dropped
+his chin on his breast, and his face assumed a thoughtful expression.
+
+By this time, we were climbing the wooded slopes which separate the
+squalid hamlet of Tiefenbach from the Castle of Nideck. Night had
+overtaken us, and as it often happens after a clear, cold day in winter,
+the snow was beginning to fall again, and large flakes fell and melted
+on our horses' manes. The animals whinnied and increased their pace,
+cheered doubtless by the prospect of a warm shelter. Every now and then,
+Sperver turned and looked behind him with evident anxiety, and I was not
+free from a certain indefinable apprehension as I reflected upon the
+strange account of his master's malady which the steward had given me.
+Besides, man's spirit harmonizes itself with its surroundings, and, for
+my part, I know of nothing more melancholy than a forest covered with
+snow and hoar frost, and stirred by a moaning wind; the trees have a
+sombre, icy look that chills you to the heart.
+
+As we climbed the slope, the oak-trees became fewer, and the birches,
+straight and white as marble columns, stretched one beyond another, far
+out to the horizon line intersecting the dark arches of the larch-trees.
+Suddenly, as we emerged from a thicket, the ancient fortress reared up
+before us, its dark extent sprinkled with points of light. Sperver had
+pulled up before a funnel-shaped gateway, cut deep in the rock between
+two towers, and barred by an iron grating.
+
+"Here we are!" he cried, leaning over the horse's head and seizing the
+deer's-foot bell-handle. The clear tinkle of a bell sounded in the
+interior.
+
+After a few minutes of waiting, a lantern appeared at the end of the
+archway, dispersing the gloom, and showing us within its circle of light
+a little dwarf with a yellow beard and broad shoulders, enveloped in
+furs from head to foot. He came slowly towards us and pressed his great
+flat face against the grating, straining his eyes to make us out in the
+darkness.
+
+"Is that you, Sperver?" he asked in a harsh voice.
+
+"Yes. Open the door, Knapwurst!" cried the huntsman. "Don't you know how
+devilish cold it is?"
+
+"Ah, I know you now," replied the little fellow; "it is you indeed! You
+always speak as though you would swallow people whole."
+
+The door opened, and the gnome, raising his lantern towards me with an
+odd grimace, greeted me with, "Welcome, Monsieur Doctor," but in a tone
+as much as to say, "Here is another one who will go the way of the
+rest." Then he quietly closed the door, while we dismounted, and this
+done, he came to take our horses by the bridle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+I MEET THE COUNTESS.
+
+
+Following Sperver, who climbed the staircase at a rapid pace, I was able
+to convince myself that the Castle of Nideck merited its reputation. It
+was a true stronghold, cut out of the rock; a relic of feudal times. Its
+high, deep archways reechoed the sound of our steps, and the wind
+blowing through the loopholes caused the flame of the torches which were
+fastened at intervals along the wall to flare and flicker and send our
+giant shadows dancing along the corridor. Sperver knew every nook and
+cranny of this vast place; he turned many times to right and left, and
+I followed him, out of breath. At last he stopped on a large landing,
+and said to me:
+
+"I will leave you with the people of the Castle for a moment, Gaston,
+while I go to inform the young Countess Odile of your arrival."
+
+"Very good; do whatever you think suitable."
+
+"You will find among the domestics, our majordomo, Tobias Offenloch, an
+old soldier of the regiment of Nideck. In former days he made a campaign
+in Germany under the Count."
+
+"A good fellow, no doubt."
+
+"You will also see his wife, a Frenchwoman, named Marie Lagoutte, who
+pretends to come of good family."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"To be sure; only, between ourselves, she was nothing but a
+canteen-woman of Soubise's army. One day she brought us in Tobias
+Offenloch on her cart, minus one leg, and the poor fellow married her
+out of gratitude; you understand."
+
+"Precisely; but open the door,--I am freezing!" I tried to push past
+him, but Sperver, obstinate, like all good Germans, was bound to
+enlighten me as to the people into whose presence I was about to enter,
+and seizing me by the frogs of my greatcoat, he continued:
+
+"Then there is Sebalt Kraft, the master of the hounds, a sad sort of
+chap, but without an equal in sounding the horn; Karl Trumpf, the
+butler; Christian Becker, and all our people, if they haven't all gone
+to bed."
+
+Thereupon Sperver pushed open the door, and I stood surprised on the
+threshold of a high, dark hall, the former guardroom of Nideck. I took
+in at a glance the three windows at the further end of the room, that
+dominated the precipice; on the right a sort of sideboard of old oak,
+browned by age, and on it a small cask, glasses, and bottles; on the
+left a Gothic chimney with a broad mantel-shelf empurpled by the blazing
+fire underneath, and ornamented in front and on the sides by carvings
+representing the various scenes of a boar hunt in the Middle Ages; and
+finally, in the centre of the room, a long table upon which stood a huge
+lamp, its light reflected by a dozen mugs with pewter lids.
+
+All this I saw at a glance, but it was the people that interested me
+most. I recognized at once the majordomo with his wooden leg; a small,
+square, thick-set man, with a ruddy face, and prominent waistband, and a
+nose of marvellous brilliancy. He wore an enormous hemp-colored wig,
+with a long pigtail, a coat of apple-green plush with steel buttons as
+large as a five-franc piece, velvet breeches, blue silk stockings, and
+shoes with silver buckles. He was about to turn the spigot of the cask;
+an air of inexpressible satisfaction beamed upon his rubicund face, and
+his eyes, starting slightly from his head, glowed in profile like a pair
+of watch glasses. His wife, the worthy Marie Lagoutte, dressed in a gown
+of woolen stuff with a large flowered pattern, and her thin face the
+color of a withered apple, was playing cards with two servants, all
+three seated in straight-backed armchairs. Some small split pegs pinched
+the olfactory organ of the old woman and that of another player, while
+the third was winking slyly and seemed to enjoy seeing his opponents
+subjugated beneath this new variety of Caudine Forks.
+
+"How many cards?" he was asking them.
+
+"Two," replied the old woman.
+
+"And you, Christian?"
+
+"Two."
+
+"Ah, ha! I've got you! Cut the king; now the ace. Ha, ha, ha! Another
+peg, mother; this will teach you once more to boast to us of your French
+games!"
+
+"Master Christian, you don't treat the fair sex with due respect."
+
+"When we play cards, we respect nobody."
+
+"But you see, I have no room for any more."
+
+"Pshaw! with a nose like yours, there's always room enough."
+
+At this moment Sperver cried, "Here I am, comrades!"
+
+"Ha, Gideon! back so soon?"
+
+Marie Lagoutte made haste to shake off her numerous pegs with a motion
+of her head; the big majordomo emptied his glass, and everybody turned
+to look at us.
+
+"Is the Count better?"
+
+"Hum!" exclaimed the majordomo, drawing down his under-lip.
+
+"Is his condition unchanged?"
+
+"Just about," answered Marie Lagoutte, who never took her eyes off me.
+Sperver noticed this.
+
+"Let me present to you my foster-son, Monsieur de la Roche, from
+Tuebingen," he said proudly. "Things will change now in the Castle,
+Master Tobie; now that Gaston has come, this cursed malady will be put
+to flight. If we could only have found him out sooner! However, better
+late than never."
+
+Marie Lagoutte was still watching me, and the examination seemed to
+satisfy her, for, turning to the majordomo, "Come, come, Monsieur
+Offenloch! Stir yourself," she said; "offer monsieur the doctor a chair!
+You sit there with your mouth open like a great carp!"
+
+With these words, the good woman sprang up as though moved by a spring,
+and came to help me off with my greatcoat.
+
+"Permit me, monsieur."
+
+"You are very good, my dear woman."
+
+"Hand it to me, monsieur. Such weather! Ah, monsieur, what a country
+this is!"
+
+"So our master is neither better nor worse," continued Sperver, shaking
+the snow from his cap. "We are here in time. Ho! Kasper! Kasper!"
+
+A little man with a drooping shoulder, indicating a partial paralysis of
+his frame, and a face liberally sprinkled with freckles, came out of the
+chimney-corner.
+
+"Here I am."
+
+"Good! You must prepare for the doctor the chamber at the end of the
+long gallery,--Hugh's chamber. You know which one."
+
+"Yes, Sperver. I will see to it at once."
+
+"One moment! You will take the doctor's valise with you as you go.
+Knapwurst will give it to you. As to supper--"
+
+"Never fear; I will take care of all that."
+
+"Very good."
+
+The little man went out, and Gideon, after throwing off his cape, left
+us to go and inform the young Countess of my arrival. I was somewhat
+embarrassed by the attentions of Marie Lagoutte.
+
+"Come, up with you, Sebalt!" she said to the master of the hounds; "you
+ought to be sufficiently roasted by this time, sprawling there since
+morning. Sit down by the fire, Monsieur Doctor; your feet must be cold.
+Stretch out your legs; that's the way." Then, after a minute: "You have
+come just in time; our master had his second attack yesterday, and it
+was a terrible one; hey, Master Offenloch?"
+
+"Terrible is just the word," replied the majordomo gravely.
+
+"Nor is it to be wondered at, when a man takes no nourishment; and he
+eats nothing, monsieur. Fancy, it is two days since he has taken so much
+as a bowl of broth."
+
+"Or a glass of wine," added Tobie, crossing his fat hands on his
+comfortable waistband.
+
+I felt it incumbent upon me to express some surprise, so I shook my
+head; whereupon the majordomo came over and sat down on my right,
+saying, "Take my advice, doctor, and prescribe a bottle of Marcobrunner
+every day."
+
+"And a chicken wing at each meal," added Marie Lagoutte; "the poor man
+is as thin as a ghost."
+
+"We have some Marcobrunner sixty years old, and Johannisberg of the year
+'14; for Villars's fellows didn't drink it all, as Madame Offenloch
+would have it. You might prescribe now and then a glass of Johannisberg;
+there is nothing like it to set a man on his feet."
+
+"There was a time," said the master of the hounds in a melancholy tone,
+"there was a time when our master went on the hunt twice a week, and he
+was well; now that he has stopped, he is ill."
+
+"That is reasonable enough," observed Marie Lagoutte; "the fresh air
+gave him an appetite. The doctor should order him three hunts a week to
+make up for lost time."
+
+"Two would do," replied the master of the hounds dismally; "two would
+do. The dogs must have some time to rest. They must be considered as
+well as we."
+
+A few moments of silence succeeded, during which I could hear the wind
+rattling the windows and whistling boisterously through the loopholes
+and along the empty halls. Sebalt had crossed his legs, and with his
+elbow on his knee supporting his chin, he gazed into the fire with
+unspeakable gloominess. Marie Lagoutte refreshed herself with a pinch of
+snuff, and I was reflecting on that strange infirmity that leads us to
+press our advice on others, whether they desire it or not, when the
+majordomo rose, and leaning over the back of my chair, said:
+
+"Will you have a glass of wine, doctor?"
+
+"Thank you, but I never drink before visiting a patient."
+
+"What, not even one small glass?"
+
+"Not even a tiny glass."
+
+He opened his eyes very wide, and looked with astonishment at his wife.
+
+"Monsieur the doctor is right," she said; "I am of his opinion; I prefer
+to drink with my meals and take a glass of cognac afterwards. In my
+country, the women drink cognac; it is more genteel than kirschwasser."
+
+Marie Lagoutte had hardly finished this explanation, when Sperver opened
+the door part way, and motioned me to follow him. I nodded a farewell to
+the worthy company, and as I stepped into the passage, I heard Tobie's
+wife saying to him, "He is a nice-looking young man. He would have made
+a fine soldier!" Sperver looked uneasy; he said nothing. I too was
+thoughtful.
+
+A few steps beneath the shadowy arches of the Castle served completely
+to efface from my mind the grotesque figures of Tobie and Marie
+Lagoutte,--poor, inoffensive creatures, living like bats under the
+vulture's powerful wing. Soon Gideon threw open the door of a sumptuous
+apartment, hung with violet-colored velvet worked in gold. A bronze
+lamp, resting on a corner of the mantelpiece, and covered with a globe
+of ground crystal, vaguely lighted up the room. Thick rugs deadened the
+sound of our footsteps. It seemed like a refuge consecrated to silence
+and meditation.
+
+On entering, Sperver lifted the heavy draperies that concealed a turret
+window. I saw him gaze earnestly into the plain beneath, and I divined
+his thoughts; he was looking to see if the witch were still there,
+crouching in the snow,--but he could see nothing, for the night was
+dark. As I moved forward into the room, I made out, by the pale rays of
+the lamp, a young woman of girlish figure seated in an armchair, her
+forehead resting in her hand, and her whole attitude one of patient but
+despairing sorrow. Her back was slightly turned towards us, and for this
+reason I could not at first see her face.
+
+But at the rustle of our entrance she rose quickly, and exhibited to my
+gaze the most beautiful presence I had ever beheld. The tall, stately
+figure, the ideal formation of the features, the glory of golden hair
+that fell about the fair, white neck, the deep, lustrous eyes that
+bespoke a soul as pure and beautiful as the scenes among which it
+flourished,--everything about the young mistress of the Castle
+proclaimed her to be of that noble type which we meet with but once, if
+at all, in a lifetime. Just what my feelings were at sight of this
+beautiful young woman I know not, but certain it is that they were of a
+nature hitherto unknown to me, and I felt a strange sense of harmony and
+contentment within me as my glance continued to rest upon her.
+
+After a moment the Countess advanced, and said simply, "You are welcome,
+monsieur;" then, motioning towards the alcove where the Count lay, she
+added, "There is my father."
+
+I bowed low, and without reply,--such was my agitation,--I approached
+the couch of the sick man. Sperver, standing at the head of the bed,
+held the lamp in his raised hand, and the light, softened by the crystal
+globe, fell palely upon the face of the Count. Odile remained near me,
+waiting anxiously for my first word.
+
+At the first glance I was struck with the strange physiognomy of the
+Lord of Nideck, and in contrast to the admiration that his daughter had
+inspired within me, my first thought was, "He is an old wolf!" And in
+truth, his head bristling with gray hair and swelling behind the ears;
+his long, pointed face and receding forehead; his narrow eyes and shaggy
+eyebrows that met in a point over the bridge of his nose, imperfectly
+shading the dull, cold eye beneath; his short, stiff beard, spreading
+unevenly over his bony jaws,--in short, everything about the man made me
+shudder, and brought involuntarily to my mind the oft-alleged affinities
+between man and the brute creation.
+
+I mastered my repugnance, and raised the arm of the sick man. It was
+wasted and tremulous, the hand small and wiry. The pulse was rapid,
+fluttering and feverish, indicating intense nervous excitement. What was
+I to do? I considered. On one side stood the young Countess, anxiously
+awaiting an expression of my opinion; on the other, Sperver, trying to
+read my thoughts and following attentively my slightest movement. A
+painful restraint was thus imposed upon me.
+
+However, I saw that no decided step could be undertaken as yet. I
+dropped the arm, and listened to the breathing. From time to time,
+something like a sob escaped the sick man's breast; then the respiration
+became normal again; then faster, and finally, labored. Some sort of
+nightmare oppressed him. But the cause!--this I must determine first,
+and I must confess it seemed hopeless enough. I turned round, sorely
+perplexed.
+
+"Is there any hope, monsieur?" asked the young woman.
+
+"Yesterday's crisis is drawing to a close, mademoiselle. We must seek to
+ward off the next attack."
+
+"Is that a possible thing?"
+
+I was about to reply in some scientific generalities, not daring to
+commit myself, when the distant sound of the Castle bell fell upon our
+ears.
+
+"Strangers," said Sperver.
+
+There was a moment of silence.
+
+"Go and see who it is," said Odile, whose brow was shadowed with
+anxiety. "How can we be hospitable at such times? It is impossible."
+
+Just then the door opened, and a yellow head and rosy cheeks appeared in
+the shadow, whispering, "The Baron Zimmer, accompanied by his servant,
+asks for shelter in the Castle. He has lost his way in the mountains."
+
+"Very well, Gretchen," replied the Countess quietly; "go and tell
+Offenloch to attend to the wants of the strangers. Tell him to inform
+the Baron Zimmer that the Count is very ill, and that this alone
+prevents him from doing the honors of the house in person. Wake up our
+people, and see that he is properly waited on and that everything is
+suitably done."
+
+It would be difficult to describe the well-born simplicity with which
+the young mistress of the Castle gave her orders, and I reflected that
+if an air of nobility seems inherent in some families, it is certainly
+because the discharge of hospitable and charitable duties tends to
+elevate the character and ennoble the soul.
+
+All this passed through my mind while I was admiring the gentle glance,
+the distinguished carriage, and the exquisitely cut features of Odile of
+Nideck,--that purity of outline only to be met with in the realms of
+aristocracy,--and I tried in vain to recall anything comparable to her
+in my recollection.
+
+"Make haste, Gretchen! Don't keep the travellers waiting," said the
+young Countess.
+
+"Yes, madame."
+
+The servant departed, and I stood for a few moments unable to dispel the
+charm of my meditations. Odile turned and addressed me.
+
+"You see, monsieur," she said with a sad smile, "we are not allowed to
+indulge our grief; we must ever divide ourselves between our feelings
+and the claims that others have upon us."
+
+"That is too true, mademoiselle," I replied; "souls of the higher sort
+seem purposed to serve as a guide and promise to us weaker ones: the
+traveller who has lost his path, the sick man, and the starving
+pauper,--each has a claim upon them, for God has created them like the
+stars above us, for the happiness of all."
+
+Odile lowered her deep-fringed eyelids, while Sperver pressed my hand.
+
+After a moment, the Countess continued:
+
+"Ah, monsieur, if you could only save my father!"
+
+"As I have had the pleasure of telling you before, mademoiselle,
+yesterday's crisis is past; we must now endeavor to prevent its
+recurrence."
+
+"Do you believe that this can be done?"
+
+"With God's help, mademoiselle, it is not impossible. I must give the
+matter the most careful thought."
+
+Odile, much agitated, moved with me to the door, and as I bowed myself
+out of the chamber, I fancied that I detected in her lovely face an
+expression of increased hope. Sperver and I crossed the antechamber,
+where a few servants were standing awaiting the orders of their
+mistress. We had just entered the corridor, when Gideon, who led the
+way, turned abruptly round, and resting his hands on my shoulders, said:
+
+"Gaston, I am a man to be trusted; what is your opinion of the case?"
+
+"There is nothing to be feared to-night."
+
+"I know that; you said as much to the Countess. But to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow?"
+
+"Yes. Don't turn your head. I suppose you can't prevent a recurrence of
+the attack, but, frankly, do you think he will die of it?"
+
+"He may, but I don't anticipate it."
+
+"Ah," cried the good fellow joyfully; "that means you are sure he
+won't!"
+
+Thrusting his arm through mine, he pulled me into the gallery. We had
+hardly set foot in it when the Baron Zimmer and his groom appeared,
+preceded by Sebalt, who carried a flaming torch in his hand. They were
+on their way to their chambers, and these two figures, with their cloaks
+flung over their shoulders, their knee-boots of soft Hungarian leather,
+their waists tightly buttoned in, their long green tunics ornamented
+with frogs and twisted fringes of silk and gold, their bearskin caps
+drawn down over their ears, and their long hunting-knives stuck in their
+belts, looked strangely picturesque in the white light of the dripping
+pine torch.
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Sperver, "if I am not greatly mistaken, those are
+our Tuebingen friends. They were close at our heels, you see."
+
+"You are right; they are the same people! I remember the younger one by
+his slim figure; he has the profile of an eagle, and wears his mustache
+like the astrologer-general Wallenstein."
+
+They disappeared beneath a side triforium.
+
+Gideon took a torch from the wall, and guided me through a labyrinth of
+corridors, passageways, and high, low, turret-shaped, and winding
+entries. I thought he would never have done.
+
+"Here is the hall of the Margraves," he said; "and this is the portrait
+gallery. There is the chapel, where no mass has been said since Louis
+the Bald became a Protestant. Next comes the armory."
+
+These facts possessed but little interest for me. After having reached
+the end of the gallery, we had to descend a staircase that seemed
+interminable; at last, thank Heaven! we halted before a low, massive
+door. Sperver drew an enormous key from his pocket, and handing me the
+torch, said, "Mind the light; be careful!"
+
+At the same time, he pushed open the door, and the cold outside air
+rushed into the passageway. The flame leaped back and sent a shower of
+sparks in all directions. I fancied myself standing on the edge of an
+abyss, and I recoiled instinctively.
+
+"Ha, Ha!" laughed the steward, his mouth parted in a broad grin, "any
+one would think you were afraid, Gaston. Come on! We are now in the
+little court that leads from the Castle to the old tower."
+
+The good fellow moved on by way of example. The snow lay deep in this
+courtyard, and the wind swept it with terrific gusts. Had any one seen
+our flaring torch upon the plain, he would have asked himself, "What are
+they doing up there in the clouds? Why are they prowling about at this
+time of night?"
+
+"Perhaps the old witch is looking up at us," I thought, and the idea
+made me shudder. I drew closer the folds of my cloak, and holding my hat
+on with the other hand, I ran after Sperver, who held his light above
+his head to show me the path, and moved along with rapid strides.
+
+We rushed into the tower, and then into Hugh's Chamber, where a bright
+fire greeted us with cheerful cracklings. How grateful it was to be
+sheltered by the thick walls! I had stopped while Sperver closed the
+door, and contemplating this ancient abode, I cried, "Thank God, we
+shall have a moment to rest now!"
+
+"And before an excellent table," added Gideon. "Just look at that,--the
+leg of a kid, two roasted pheasants, a blue-backed pike, his mouth
+stuffed with parsley; cold meats and hot wines is what I like. I have no
+fault to find with Kasper; he has carried out my orders to the letter!"
+
+Gideon spoke truly,--"cold meats and hot wines;" for before the fire
+stood a generous array of bottles, being submitted to the gentle
+influence of the heat. The sight of this repast served to whet my
+already considerable appetite; but Sperver, who understood the art of
+being comfortable, said to me:
+
+"Don't be in too great a hurry, Gaston! Let's take things easily! We
+have time enough; the pheasants won't fly away, and as for the pike,
+I'll warrant he cares no more about swimming. In the first place, having
+been eight hours in the saddle, your boots must hurt you, so off with
+them. Sit down there and put your boot between my knees. I've got that
+one; let's have the other. There you are. Now put your feet in these
+slippers, take off your cloak, and throw this dressing-gown over you.
+Now you'll do!"
+
+Having gone through a similar course of preparation, he cried in a
+hearty tone:
+
+"Now, Gaston, fall to! You do your share and I'll do mine, and remember
+well the German proverb: 'If Beelzebub created thirst, surely the Lord
+made wine to quench it.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MY FIRST NIGHT IN HUGH'S TOWER.
+
+
+We ate with the ravenous appetite which a ten hours' ride through the
+snows of the Black Forest would be likely to impart. Sperver attacked,
+in turn, the kid, the pheasants, and the pike, murmuring, with his mouth
+full, "Thank God for the woods, the heather, and the ponds." Then,
+leaning over the back of his chair and seizing the first bottle that
+came under his hand, he added, "And for the hillsides, green in spring
+and purple in autumn. Your health, Gaston!"
+
+"Yours, Gideon!"
+
+The fire crackled, the forks jingled, the bottles gurgled, and the
+glasses clinked, while outside the wind of the winter night, the blast
+from the snow-bound mountains, sang its unearthly hymn,--the hymn that
+it sings when storm-driven, fantastic cloud-shapes rush across the sky
+and obscure from moment to moment the pale face of the moon.
+
+We continued our grateful meal. Sperver filled the "wieder komm" with
+old Brumberg wine, whose sparkling froth bordered its generous edges,
+and, handing it to me, he cried, "Here's to the recovery of Hermann of
+Nideck, my noble master! Drink to the last drop, Gaston, that your
+prayer may be heard."
+
+This was done; then, refilling the bowl, he drained it in his turn.
+
+A sense of satisfaction took possession of us. We felt at peace with all
+the world. I sprawled out in my chair with my head thrown back and my
+arms hanging down, and began to study my apartment. It was a low, arched
+chamber cut out of the live rock, shaped like an oval, and measuring in
+the highest part not more than twelve feet. At the further end I
+perceived a sort of alcove, and in it a bed resting on the floor, and
+covered, as nearly as I could make out, with a bearskin robe. Still
+further back was another and smaller niche, with a statue of the Virgin
+cut out of the same piece of granite and crowned with a bunch of
+withered grass.
+
+"You are studying your chamber," said Sperver; "it is not as large nor
+as luxurious as the rooms of the Castle. We are now in Hugh's Tower,
+and it is as old as the mountain itself. It dates back to the time of
+Charlemagne. In those days the people didn't understand the art of
+building lofty, spacious dwellings; they cut right into the solid rock."
+
+"That served the purpose as well; but it is an odd corner that you have
+stuck me in, Gideon."
+
+"Don't be deceived on that point, Gaston; it is the place of honor.
+Whenever the Count's particular friends come to visit him, they are put
+in here. Hugh's Tower is the most honorable accommodation of all."
+
+"By the way, who was this Hugh?"
+
+"Why, Hugh the Wolf!"
+
+"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment.
+
+"Certainly; the founder of the family of Nideck; a rough customer, they
+say. He came and settled down here with a score of horsemen and archers.
+They scaled the highest rock on the mountain,--you will see it
+to-morrow,--and built this tower. 'We are the masters,' they declared,
+'and woe be to those who try to pass without paying toll. We will fall
+on them like wolves, tear the clothes from their backs, and the hides,
+too, if they are obstinate. From here we can command the landscape, the
+passes of the Rhethal, the Steinbach, and the Roche Plate, and the
+entire line of the Black Forest. Let the merchants beware.' And the bold
+fellows carried out their threats under the leadership of Hugh the Wolf.
+Knapwurst told me all about it when we were sitting up the other
+night."
+
+"Knapwurst?"
+
+"You know; the little dwarf who opened the gate to us; a droll chap,
+Gaston, who is always to be found in the library bent over a book."
+
+"So you have a scholar at Nideck."
+
+"Yes, the rascal! Instead of staying in his lodge, where he belongs, he
+spends the whole blessed day shaking the dust from old family
+parchments. He moves about among the shelves like a cat, and he knows
+our history better than we do ourselves. He would like nothing better
+than to tell you his stories; he calls them chronicles. Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+Hereupon, Sperver, exalted by the old wine, laughed for some moments,
+without knowing exactly why.
+
+"So that is why you call this the Tower of Hugh the Wolf?" I resumed.
+
+"Didn't I just tell you so? What are you so surprised at?"
+
+"Oh, nothing."
+
+"Yes, you are. I see it in your face. What are you thinking of?"
+
+"It isn't so much the name of the tower that surprises me, as that you,
+an old ranger, who from a baby had never known any home but the
+fir-trees and crests of the Wald Horn and the gorges of the Rhethal, who
+would never sleep with a roof over your head in spite of all my father's
+urging, and who amused yourself roaming the paths of the Black Forest
+and revelling in the fresh air, the sunlight, and the freedom of a
+hunter's life, should be found here, after sixteen years, in this
+red-granite hole. Come, Sperver, light your pipe and tell me how it
+happened."
+
+The old ranger drew a short, black pipe from his leather jacket, filled
+it leisurely, and snatching up a coal from the hearth, placed it on the
+bowl of his pipe; then, with his head thrown back and his eyes wandering
+over the ceiling, he replied thoughtfully:
+
+"After I left your father's service twenty years ago, it was long before
+I could bring my mind to work for any other master, for I loved the
+General, and you, and your pretty mother, as I could never come to love
+others, not even the Count and my mistress Odile. So I took to poaching
+for a term of years, and found a living by any means I could, until one
+night the Count came upon me in the moonlight.
+
+"He did not despise Sperver, the old hawk, the true man of the woods;
+and he said to me, 'Comrade, you have hunted long enough by yourself;
+now come and hunt with me. You have a good beak and strong claws, and
+you might as well hunt my game with my permission as without it.'"
+
+Sperver was silent for some minutes; then he continued:
+
+"I was getting old,--and the old falcons and hawks, having long swept
+the plains, end by settling down in the cleft of a rock to die. So it
+was with me. I loved the open air, and I love it yet; but now, instead
+of lying on a high branch at night and being rocked to sleep by the
+wind, I prefer to come back to my cover, quietly pick a woodcock, and
+dry my plumage before the fire."
+
+Sperver was silent for some moments; then he continued:
+
+"I still hunt as before, and afterwards I drink a quiet glass of
+Rudesheimer with my friends, or--" At this moment a shock made the door
+tremble.
+
+"It is a gust of wind," I said.
+
+"No; it is something else. Don't you hear a claw scratching on the
+panel? I think one of the dogs must have got loose. Open, Walden! open,
+Lieverle!"
+
+He got up, but he had not gone two steps when a formidable Danish hound
+leaped into the room and raised his fore-paws on his master's shoulders,
+licking his cheeks and beard with his long, red tongue, and whining with
+joy. Sperver put his arm around the dog's neck, and turning to me:
+
+"Gaston," he said, "what man could love me as this dog does? Look at
+this head, these eyes, and teeth!"
+
+He drew back the animal's lips and showed me a set of fangs that could
+have torn a buffalo to pieces. Then pushing him off with difficulty, for
+the dog redoubled his caresses, he cried, "Down with you, Lieverle; I
+know you love me! Who would, if you did not?" He went and closed the
+door.
+
+I never had seen a dog of such formidable proportions before; he
+measured nearly four feet in height, with a broad, low forehead and fine
+coat, a bright eye, long paws, broad across the chest and shoulders and
+tapering down to the haunches,--a mass of nerves and muscles
+interwoven,--but he had no scent. If such animals possessed the scent
+of the terrier, the game would soon be exterminated.
+
+Sperver had returned to his seat and was passing his hand proudly over
+Lieverle's head, while he enumerated the dog's fine points. Lieverle
+seemed to understand him.
+
+"Look, Gaston, that dog would strangle a wolf with a snap of his jaws.
+He is what you might well call perfection in the matter of courage and
+strength; not yet five, and in his prime. I need not tell you that he is
+trained to hunt wild boar. Every time we meet them, I fear for Lieverle;
+he attacks them too boldly; he flies at them like an arrow. Beware of
+the brutes' tusks, Lieverle, you rascal! It makes me tremble. Down on
+your back!" cried the huntsman; "down on your back!"
+
+The dog obeyed, presenting to us his flesh-colored thighs.
+
+"Do you see that long, white line, without any hair on it, which extends
+from his thigh clear up to his chest? A boar did that. The noble chap
+did not let go of the brute's ear, in spite of the wound, and we tracked
+them by the blood. I came up with them first. Seeing my Lieverle, I
+cried out, jumped to the ground, and lifting him in my arms, I wrapped
+him in my mantle and brought him home. I was beside myself with grief.
+Luckily, the vital parts were not injured, and I sewed up the wound.
+God! how he howled and suffered; but at the end of the third day he
+began to lick the place, and a dog who licks a wound is already saved.
+Ha, Lieverle! you remember it! And now we love each other, don't we?"
+
+I was much moved by the affection of the man for the dog, and the animal
+for his master. Lieverle watched him and wagged his tail, while a tear
+stood in Sperver's eye. Soon he began again:
+
+"What strength! Do you see, Gaston, he has broken his cord to come to
+me,--a cord of six strands? He found my tracks, and that was enough.
+Here, Lieverle! Catch!"
+
+He threw him the remains of the kid's leg. The dog went over and
+stretched himself in front of the fire with the bone between his
+fore-paws, and he slowly tore it into shreds. Sperver watched him from
+the corner of his eye with evident satisfaction.
+
+"Hey, Gaston," said the old steward, "if any one should order you to go
+and take that bone away, what would you say?"
+
+"That it was a matter which required delicate manipulation."
+
+We laughed heartily, and Sperver, who was stretched out in his
+red-leather armchair, with his left arm thrown over the back, one leg
+resting on a stool, and the other on a log that was dripping with sap
+and singing in the fierce flame, puffed blue rings of smoke to the
+ceiling with an air of supreme contentment. As for me, I was lazily
+watching the dog, when suddenly remembering our interrupted
+conversation, I began:
+
+"Listen, Sperver! You haven't told me everything. Was it not because of
+the death of your worthy wife, my old nurse Gertrude, that you left the
+mountains to come here?"
+
+Gideon looked grave, and a tear dimmed his eye; he straightened up, and
+knocking the ashes from his pipe upon his thumb nail, he replied:
+
+"Yes, my wife is dead, and that is what drove me from the woods. I could
+not see the valley of the Roche Creuse without sorrow, and so I have
+come hither. I hunt but little in the underbrush, and if the pack happen
+to go in that direction, I leave them to themselves and turn back again,
+trying to think of other things."
+
+Sperver had become melancholy. His head had fallen on his breast, and he
+remained silent. I regretted having recalled these sad images to his
+mind. Then, reflecting once more on the Black Plague crouching in the
+snow, I shivered. How singular that a single word had thrown us into a
+train of dismal recollections! A whole world of retrospection had been
+invoked by the merest accident.
+
+I know not how long our silence had lasted, when a deep, terrible
+growl, like the sound of distant thunder, made us tremble. We looked
+at the dog. He still held his half-eaten bone between his fore-paws,
+but with raised head, ears pricked up, and shining eyes, he was
+listening,--listening in the dead silence, and a tremor of rage ran
+along his back.
+
+Sperver and I looked at each other anxiously; not a sound, not a murmur,
+for the wind outside had fallen, and we could have heard the least
+noise; nothing, save the deep, continued growl, which seemed to come
+from deep down in the dog's chest. Suddenly the animal sprang up and
+leaped against the wall, with a short, harsh, ominous bark that made the
+arches resound as if thunder were rolling away along the empty passages.
+Lieverle, with his head low down, seemed to see through the granite, and
+his teeth, bared to their roots, glistened like snow. He still growled,
+pausing now and then for a moment to sniff along the bottom of the wall;
+then he sprang up again angrily, and seemed trying to tear away the
+stone with his fore-paws.
+
+We were watching him, unable to understand the cause of his excitement,
+when a second howl, more fearful than the first, brought us to our
+feet.
+
+"Lieverle," cried Sperver, springing towards him, "for heaven's sake,
+what ails you? Are you going mad?"
+
+He seized a log, and began to sound the wall, which, however, gave forth
+only a dull, dense sound. There was apparently no hollow in it, but
+still the dog maintained the same posture.
+
+"Decidedly, Lieverle," said the huntsman, "you have had a nightmare.
+Come, lie down, and don't set our nerves on edge any more."
+
+At the same moment we heard a sound outside. The door opened, and the
+big, fat face of honest Tobias Offenloch, with his round lantern in one
+hand and his stick in the other, and his three-cornered hat on one side
+of his head, appeared smiling and genial in the doorway.
+
+"Greeting, worthy company!" he exclaimed; "what the devil are you doing
+here?"
+
+"It was this foolish Lieverle who made all the racket," said Sperver;
+"he sprang against the wall and wouldn't be quieted. Can you tell us the
+reason of it?"
+
+"He probably heard the stumping of my wooden leg as I came up the tower
+stairs," replied the good-natured fellow with a laugh. Then setting his
+lantern on the table: "That will teach you, Master Gideon, to tie up
+your dogs. You have a weakness for dogs,--an absurd weakness. They will
+end by putting us all out of doors. Only a moment ago, as I was coming
+along the gallery, I met your Blitz; he snapped at my leg,--see, there
+are the marks of his teeth. A new leg, too, confound the cur!"
+
+"Tie up my dogs? What an idea!" replied Sperver. "Dogs that are tied up
+are good for nothing; it makes them savage. Moreover, Lieverle was
+fastened, and he has what was left of the cord around his neck still."
+
+"It is not on my account that I am speaking, for whenever I see them
+coming, I always raise my stick and put my wooden leg first. It is only
+for discipline. The dogs ought to be in the kennels, the cats on the
+gutters, and the people in the Castle, according to my way of thinking."
+
+Tobie sat down as he finished his sentence, and with his elbows resting
+on the table and his eyes beaming with satisfaction, he said in a
+confidential tone:
+
+"You should know, gentlemen, that I am a bachelor this evening."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"Marie Anne is sitting up with Gertrude in the Count's antechamber."
+
+"Then you are in no hurry."
+
+"Not the least bit."
+
+"How unlucky you should have come so late," observed Sperver; "all the
+bottles are empty."
+
+The discomfited expression of the good fellow made me feel positively
+sorry. He would gladly have profited by his widowhood. In spite of my
+efforts to repress it, however, my mouth parted in a wide yawn.
+
+"We will put it over till another day," he said, getting up; "what is
+postponed is not lost."
+
+He took up his lantern.
+
+"Good night, gentlemen."
+
+"Wait a minute," said Gideon; "I see the doctor is sleepy; we will go
+down together."
+
+"Gladly, Sperver! We will have a word with Trumpf as we pass. He is
+down-stairs with the others, and Knapwurst is telling them stories."
+
+"Well, good night, Gaston."
+
+"Good night, Sperver. Don't forget to call me if the Count grows worse."
+
+"Never fear. Lieverle, come here."
+
+They went out, and as they were crossing the platform, I could hear the
+old Nideck clock striking eleven.
+
+I was completely exhausted with the day's experiences. Soon I threw
+myself on the bed, and straightway fell into a deep slumber, where all
+night long I was wandering beside a radiant creature with a halo of
+golden hair about her face, amid flower-strewn paths, and the song of
+birds, and above our heads the fairest of summer skies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+KNAPWURST ACQUAINTS ME WITH THE GENEALOGY OF THE NIDECKS.
+
+
+The dawn was beginning to turn gray the only window of the donjon-tower,
+when I was awakened in my granite bed by the distant notes of a
+hunting-horn. I know of no sound more sad and melancholy than the
+vibrations of its tones, just at morning twilight, when all is still,
+and no breath, no whisper comes to disturb the perfect quiet of
+solitude; it is the final note, especially, that, spreading over the
+immense plain and awaking the far-off echoes of the mountain, stirs us
+to the heart with its pure, poetic quality.
+
+Leaning with my elbow on the bearskin, I listened to this plaintive cry,
+that seemed to be invoking memories of the Feudal Ages. The aspect of my
+chamber, with its low, ragged arch, and, further on, the little window
+with its panes set in lead, midway between the alcove and the corridor,
+the ceiling more wide than high, and deeply hollowed in the wall,--in
+short, every detail of this ancient den of the Wolf of Nideck served to
+realize my fancy.
+
+I rose quickly and threw the window wide open. There before me lay a
+spectacle that no mere language can describe,--the scene that the Alpine
+eagle surveys each morning, as the purple curtain of night lifts itself
+from the horizon; range after range of mountains,--motionless billows
+that stretch away and become lost in the distant mists of the Vosges and
+the Jura,--immense forests, lakes, and towering peaks tracing their
+sharp outlines upon the steel-blue of the snow-clad valleys; beyond
+this, the infinite! What human skill could attain to the sublimity of
+such a picture? I stood overwhelmed with wonder and delight. At each
+glance some new detail was revealed to my eyes; hamlets, farms,
+villages, seemed to rise from every fold of the landscape, and as I
+gazed, these objects became more numerous.
+
+I had been standing thus for more than a quarter of an hour, when a hand
+was laid lightly upon my shoulder; I turned and met the calm face and
+quiet smile of my friend Gideon, who greeted me with:
+
+"Good morning, Gaston."
+
+Then he rested his elbows on the window-sill beside me, puffing clouds
+of smoke from his short pipe. Extending his arm towards the distant
+mountains, he said at length:
+
+"Look at that, Gaston; you should love it, for you are a son of the
+Black Forest. Look down there, way down; that is the Roche Creuse. Do
+you see it? You remember Gertrude? How far off those days seem!"
+
+He stopped and cleared his throat; I was at a loss what to reply. We
+stood for a long time in a contemplative mood, mute before the grandeur
+of the scene that rolled away beneath us. From time to time, the old
+steward, seeing my eyes rest on some point of the horizon, would
+explain:
+
+"That is the Wald Horn; this is the Tiefenthal. There you see the
+cascade of the Steinbach; it has stopped running now, and hangs like an
+ice cloak over the shoulder of the Harberg,--a cold garment for this
+season of the year. Down there is the path that leads to Tuebingen; a
+fortnight more and we shall have difficulty in tracing it."
+
+An hour passed thus; I could not tear myself away from the scene.
+
+A few birds of prey, with gracefully hollowed wings, were sailing about
+the tower; a flock of herons flew above them, escaping their claws by
+reason of their loftier flight. Not a cloud was visible in the sky; all
+the snow had fallen to earth. The hunting-horn saluted the mountain for
+the last time.
+
+"That is my friend Sebalt mourning down there," said Sperver. "No one is
+a better judge of horses and dogs than he, and when it comes to sounding
+the horn, there is not his equal in all Germany. Just hear how mellow
+those notes are, Gaston. Poor Sebalt! he is pining away since our master
+became ill; he cannot hunt as he used to. His only consolation is to
+climb the Altenberg every morning just at daybreak, and play the Count's
+favorite airs. He thinks that may cure him."
+
+Sperver, with the tact of a man who himself loves beautiful things, had
+not interrupted my contemplation; but when, dazzled by the growing
+light, I turned back into the chamber, he said:
+
+"Gaston, things look more encouraging; the Count has had no return of
+the convulsions."
+
+These words brought me back to a more practical world.
+
+"Ah, I am glad to hear it."
+
+"And it is your doing, too."
+
+"Mine? I haven't even prescribed anything yet."
+
+"What of that? You are here."
+
+"You're joking, Gideon; what could my mere presence accomplish?"
+
+"You bring him good luck."
+
+I looked at him closely; he was in earnest.
+
+"Yes," he repeated seriously; "you are a bringer of good luck. In past
+years, our master has had a second attack the day after the first, and
+then a third, and fourth; but you have prevented this and arrested the
+course of the malady. That is clear enough."
+
+"Not to my mind, Sperver. On the contrary, I find it exceedingly
+obscure."
+
+"We are never too old to learn," continued the worthy fellow. "There are
+forerunners of good fortune and harbingers of ill. Take that rascal
+Knapwurst, for example; he is a sure sign of bad luck. If ever I happen
+to run across him as I am going out hunting, I am sure to meet with some
+accident; my gun misses fire, I sprain my ankle, or a dog gets ripped
+open. Knowing this, I always take care to set off just at daybreak,
+before the scamp, who sleeps like a dormouse, has got his eyes open; or
+else I steal through the postern gate."
+
+"A wise precaution; but your ideas seem odd to me, Gideon."
+
+"But you, on the other hand," he continued without noticing my
+interruption, "are an open-hearted, honest lad. Heaven has bestowed many
+blessings upon you; just one glance at your good-natured face, your
+frank gaze, and your kindly smile, is enough to make any one happy. And
+you bring good luck; that is certain. Do you want a proof of what I
+say?"
+
+"Why, certainly. I am not sorry to discover that I possess so many
+hitherto unknown virtues."
+
+"Well," said he, seizing my wrist, "look down there!"
+
+He pointed to a hillock a couple of gunshots distant from the Castle.
+
+"Do you see that rock half buried in the snow, with a bush to the left
+of it?"
+
+"Distinctly."
+
+"And you see nothing near it?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, that is easily accounted for; you have driven the Black Plague
+away. Every year, on the second day of the Count's illness, she was to
+be seen there, with her arms clasped around her skinny knees. At night,
+she lighted a fire, warmed herself, and cooked the roots of trees. She
+was a curse to every living thing. The first thing I did this morning
+was to climb up to the signal-tower and look around me. The old hag was
+nowhere to be seen. In vain did I shade my eyes with my hand and gaze to
+right and left, up and down, across the plain and over the
+mountain,--not a sign of her anywhere. She has scented you, sure
+enough!"
+
+Wringing my hand in his enthusiasm, the good fellow cried excitedly,
+"Oh, Gaston, Gaston! How lucky it was that I brought you here! How angry
+the old hag will be!"
+
+I must confess to a feeling of embarrassment at discovering so much
+merit in myself, which had hitherto escaped my observation.
+
+"So the Count has passed a comfortable night, Sperver?" I continued.
+
+"Very comfortable," he replied.
+
+"That is welcome news. Let's go down-stairs."
+
+We once more crossed the little courtyard, and I was able to obtain a
+better view of our means of egress, whose ramparts attained to a
+prodigious height,--continuing along the edge of the rock to the very
+bottom of the valley. It was a flight of precipices, so to speak,
+shelving one below another into the dizzy depths beneath. On looking
+down, I became giddy, and recoiling to the middle of the landing, I
+hastened down the passageway which led to the Castle.
+
+Sperver and I had already traversed several broad corridors, when a
+wide-open door blocked our passage. I glanced in and saw, at the top of
+a double ladder, the little gnome Knapwurst, whose grotesque physiognomy
+had struck me the night before. The hall itself attracted my attention
+by its imposing aspect. It was a storehouse for the archives of Nideck,
+a high, dark, dusty apartment, with long Gothic windows reaching from
+the ceiling to within three feet of the floor.
+
+There were to be found, ranged along the broad shelves by the careful
+abbots of olden times, not only all the documents, title-deeds, and
+genealogical trees of the families of Nideck, establishing their rights,
+alliances, and relations with the most illustrious nobles of Germany,
+but also the chronicles of the Black Forest, the collected remnants of
+the old Minnesingers, and the great folios from the presses of Gutenberg
+and Faust, no less venerable on account of their origin and the enduring
+solidity of their binding. The deep shadows of the alcoves, draping the
+cold walls with their grayish gloom, reminded you of the ancient
+cloisters of the Middle Ages; and in the midst of it all sat the dwarf
+at the top of his ladder, with a huge, red-edged volume lying open on
+his bony knees, his head buried to the ears in a fur cap; gray-eyed,
+flat-nosed, the corners of his mouth drawn down by long years of
+thought, with stooping shoulders and wasted limbs; a fitting
+_famulus_--the rat, as Sperver called him--to this last refuge of the
+learning of Nideck.
+
+That which gave to the place a unique interest, however, was the line of
+family portraits that covered one whole side of the ancient library.
+There they were, knights and ladies, from Hugh the Wolf down to Count
+Hermann, the present owner; from the crude daubs of barbarous days to
+the perfect work of the best painters of our own time. My attention was
+naturally centred upon this part of the room. Hugh I., with a bald head,
+seemed watching you from his frame as a wolf glares at the traveller
+whom a sudden turn in the forest path discloses to view. His gray,
+blood-shot eyes, bristling beard, and large, hairy ears, gave him an air
+of singular ferocity.
+
+Next to him, like the lamb next the savage beast, was a young woman,
+with a gentle, sad expression, her hands clasped on her breast, her
+long, silken tresses of fair hair parted over the forehead and falling
+in thick waves about her face, which they encircled with a golden
+aureole. I was struck with her resemblance to Odile of Nideck. Nothing
+could have been more delicate and charming than this old painting on
+wood, a little stiff in its outline, but charmingly simple and
+ingenuous.
+
+I had been studying this portrait for some minutes, when another,
+hanging beside it, drew my attention in its turn. Here, too, was a
+woman, but of the true Visigothic type, with a broad, low forehead,
+yellow eyes, and prominent cheek-bones, red hair, and nose like an
+eagle's beak. "That woman must have been to Hugh's liking," I said to
+myself, and I began to study the costume, which was in perfect keeping
+with the energy expressed in the face, for the right hand clasped a
+sword, and the waist was encircled in a steel corselet.
+
+I know not how to describe the thoughts that succeeded one another in my
+mind as I gazed upon these three faces. My eye roamed from one to
+another with singular curiosity, and I found it impossible to terminate
+my study. Sperver, standing on the threshold of the library, gave a
+sharp whistle, seemingly to attract Knapwurst's attention, who looked
+down at him from the top of his ladder without stirring.
+
+"Is it me you are whistling to like a dog?" said the dwarf.
+
+"Aye, you imp! None else."
+
+"Listen to me, Sperver," replied the gnome with supreme disdain; "you
+cannot spit so high as my shoe; I defy you!" and he stuck out his foot.
+
+"And if I should come up there?"
+
+"I would squash you flat with this volume."
+
+Gideon laughed, and replied:
+
+"Come, come, Knapwurst! Don't get angry! I don't wish you any harm; on
+the contrary I have the greatest respect for your learning; but what the
+devil are you doing at this hour, seated over your lamp? Any one would
+think you had spent the night here."
+
+"So I have, reading!"
+
+"Aren't the days long enough for you?"
+
+"No! I am looking up an important question, and I shan't sleep till I
+have settled it."
+
+"Well, by Jove; what is this interesting question?"
+
+"It is to find out under what circumstances Ludwig of Nideck discovered
+my ancestor, Otto the Dwarf, in the forests of Thuringia. You should
+know, Sperver, that my ancestor Otto was only an arm's length high;
+that is, about two feet and a half. He delighted the world with his
+wisdom, and figured honorably in the coronation of the Emperor Rodolph.
+Count Ludwig had him enclosed in a cold roast peacock, served up with
+all its plumage. During the feast, Otto spread out the peacock's tail,
+and all the nobles, courtiers, and great ladies were astonished at this
+ingenious piece of mechanism. At last Otto emerged, sword in hand, and
+cried in a thundering voice, 'Long live the Emperor, Rodolph of
+Hapsburg!' which was repeated on all sides with shouts and rejoicings.
+Bernard Hertzog mentions this circumstance, but fails to inform us as to
+the family origin of the dwarf, whether he was of noble descent, or of
+base extraction; the latter hypothesis being highly improbable, as the
+common herd are rarely possessed of so much wit."
+
+I was amazed at the conceit of this little creature, my curiosity,
+however, leading me to dissemble my feelings; for he alone could furnish
+me with the facts concerning the two portraits that hung on the right of
+Hugh the Wolf.
+
+"Monsieur Knapwurst," I said, in a tone of profound respect, "would you
+have the kindness to enlighten me upon a certain subject?"
+
+Flattered by these words, the little fellow replied:
+
+"Speak, monsieur; if it is a question of family history, I shall be glad
+to inform you. In other subjects I take but little interest."
+
+"It is precisely that. I should like to learn something about the noble
+ladies whose pictures hang on the wall yonder."
+
+"Aha!" cried Knapwurst, his face lighting up; "you mean Elfreda and
+Huldine, the two wives of Hugh, the founder of Nideck."
+
+Laying down his volume, he descended the ladder to talk more at his
+ease. His eyes glistened, and an air of gratification at this
+opportunity of displaying his learning shone out all over him.
+
+Having reached my side, he saluted me with a grave bow. Sperver stood
+behind us, seemingly well satisfied to see me admiring the dwarf of
+Nideck. In spite of the ill luck which he averred attached to the
+presence of the pigmy, he admired and boasted of his great learning.
+
+[Illustration: "IN THE PORTRAIT GALLERY."]
+
+"Monsieur," said Knapwurst, pointing with his long, yellow hand towards
+the portraits, "Hugh of Nideck, the founder of his race, married in 832
+Elfreda of Lutzelbourg, who brought to him as dowry the counties of
+Giromani and Haut Barr, the Castles of Geroldsdeck and Teufelshorn, and
+others. Hugh had no children by his first wife, who died young in the
+year of our Lord 837. Thereupon, Hugh, now lord and master of the dowry,
+refused to yield possession of it, and there followed terrible battles
+between himself and his brothers-in-law. His second wife, Huldine, whom
+you see in the steel breastplate, aided him by her wise counsels. She
+was a woman of indomitable courage, but her origin remains a mystery.
+One thing is certain, however: she rescued her husband, who had been
+taken prisoner by Frantz of Lutzelbourg. He was to have been hanged that
+very day, and the iron bar had already been stretched across the
+battlements in preparation for the execution, when Huldine, at the head
+of a band of the Count's vassals whom she had inspired by her brave
+example, burst into the courtyard by a rear entrance, rescued Hugh, and
+had Frantz hung in his place. Hugh the Wolf married his second wife in
+842, and by her he had three children."
+
+"So," I resumed meditatively, "the first of these wives was called
+Elfreda, and the descendants of Nideck are not related to her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Are you sure of this?"
+
+"I can show you our genealogical tree. Elfreda had no children; Huldine,
+the second wife, had three."
+
+"That is very surprising!"
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"I thought I noticed a resemblance."
+
+"Ha, ha! resemblances!" exclaimed the dwarf with a harsh laugh; "wait a
+moment. Just look at this wooden snuff-box that lies beside the plaster
+greyhound! It represents my ancestor, Hanswurst. He has a nose like an
+extinguisher, and a sharp chin, while I have a flat nose and an
+agreeable mouth; and yet this does not prevent my being his
+great-great-grandson."
+
+"No, certainly not."
+
+"Well, it is the same with the Nidecks. They may have certain
+characteristics in common with Elfreda, but Huldine is the head of the
+line. Look at this genealogical tree, monsieur. Have I not informed you
+correctly?"
+
+Then we separated,--Knapwurst and I,--the best of friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+I BREAKFAST WITH ODILE.
+
+
+"Nevertheless," I said to myself, "the resemblance is there! Is it
+chance? Nonsense! What is chance, anyway, save that for which we fail to
+grasp the reason? No; there must be some other explanation of it!"
+
+Buried in these reflections, I followed my friend Sperver, who had
+resumed his walk down the corridor. The portrait of Elfreda, that pure,
+artless face, blended in my fancy with that of the young Countess.
+Suddenly Gideon stopped. I looked up; we were standing before the
+Count's room.
+
+"Go in, Gaston," he said; "I will see, meanwhile, if breakfast is ready,
+and be with you again in a minute."
+
+I entered noiselessly, and made out, in the dim light, the broad figure
+of Becker, the forester, sprawled out leisurely in his armchair beside
+the bed and drowsing over his vigil.
+
+The Count was sleeping quietly, with every indication that this
+desirable state of things would continue. Seeing no reason for remaining
+longer, I directed Becker to let me know at once if the master should
+wake, and I withdrew to the hall, where I met Sperver returning to get
+me.
+
+"The Countess is waiting for you in the dining-room. She is overjoyed at
+the news of her father. Poor woman! It has been a hard strain upon her,
+for she insists on remaining close beside the Count, and her strength
+is not equal to the task."
+
+"So it seemed to me," I replied; and I secretly regretted that I saw no
+way in which I could properly suggest to the Countess that she should
+share her watchfulness more with others.
+
+We reached the dining-room. Sperver announced me and departed.
+
+My eyes fell first upon Odile, seated at the head of the table in a
+high-backed oaken chair. She was dressed in a gown of gray stuff, simply
+fashioned, with a bodice of white velvet worked in gold. Her superb
+figure was perfectly set off by the almost severe outlines of the dress.
+
+"It is she," I thought: "Hugh's first wife. There is the noble
+forehead; there are the long lashes, the somewhat languid bearing, and
+the indescribable smile."
+
+And as I gazed, the dream of last night recurred to me in all its
+charming vividness, and I felt that, far from entering upon her world
+but a few hours since, I had known her--aye, and loved her, too!--for
+years.
+
+"Good morning, monsieur!" she said in answer to my salutation, as she
+rose and rested one hand on the chair-back. "It seems that your presence
+here has already worked a change for the better. Our good Sperver tells
+me that my father's condition is improved."
+
+"I am delighted to be able to assure you that it is so, mademoiselle. We
+must endeavor to confirm these bettered conditions."
+
+"I am so thankful!" she exclaimed. "Who knows but it was Providence that
+brought you here?" and she indicated my seat at the end of the table
+opposite her.
+
+Bowing to the housekeeper, who sat before the broad fireplace, with her
+spectacles thrust back on her forehead, plying her busy needles, her lap
+filled with knitting-work which momentarily grew as she rocked back and
+forth in time to the ticking of the tall clock, I took the seat which
+Odile designated, experiencing a sense of rare contentment as I
+reflected upon my surroundings. Decidedly, my present employment
+combined pleasure with the exactions of duty.
+
+No further mention of the Count's condition was made during the repast,
+Odile preferring apparently to confine herself to other subjects.
+
+"Sperver," she said presently, "has often spoken of you to us with much
+pride and affection. Your relationship with the old steward is a
+romantic one, is it not?"
+
+"Rather," I replied. "It began some twenty years ago with his pulling me
+out of a swamp into which I got myself, through my desire to imitate his
+custom of roaming the forest."
+
+Then, as Odile smiled and seemed to be waiting for me to continue, I
+resumed:
+
+"I distinctly remember how, one morning, I escaped the vigilance of my
+old nurse, Gideon's wife Gertrude, and arming myself with my father's
+old sabre, I sallied into the forest with a vague notion of performing
+some similar exploits to those which Gideon was never tired of telling
+me. I had not gone far when, finding the forest very dark and lonely,
+and quite unlike what I had fancied it, I began to repent of my
+resolution and to wish I was safely at home again. The sabre, too, had
+grown very heavy, and everything about the undertaking having fallen far
+short of my anticipation, I turned around and began to retrace my steps.
+Having only such knowledge of direction as a boy of eight would be
+likely to have, I soon lost my way, and in attempting to cross the swamp
+of the Losser by picking my path along the tufts of grass above its
+surface, I lost my footing and slipped into the mud. Fortunately Sperver
+happened to be passing in the neighborhood. He heard my cries, and
+promptly coming to my aid, he pulled me out and carried me to safer
+ground. Meanwhile my absence from home had been discovered, and the men
+servants had been sent in all directions to search for me. My father was
+so delighted at seeing me again, unharmed, in Sperver's arms, that he
+rewarded his ranger with a brand-new carbine and a brace of his favorite
+hounds."
+
+I laughed as I recalled this incident, and the Countess joined me in it,
+continuing after a little:
+
+"And your old home?"
+
+"It has passed into other hands. On the death of both my parents, which
+occurred within a few years, I was left entirely without resources, save
+such as I could create for myself, and it became necessary to dispose
+of the estate in order to get the means which I required to pursue my
+studies."
+
+It seemed the most natural thing in the world to be thus confiding to
+Odile my intimate affairs, though ordinarily I guarded such matters with
+jealous care; but I felt, I know not why, that her expression of
+interest was more a wish to learn the real facts of my condition than
+merely to evince a civil concern in my interests. Such feelings are
+intangible; they cannot be explained.
+
+"You are living now in Tuebingen?"
+
+"Yes; after six years' study in Germany and France, I have returned to
+the scenes of earlier times to try what fortune may have in store for
+me. I feel that I never should be contented anywhere else; and I am
+better satisfied to remain here with a modest success than in the cities
+with, maybe, a more considerable one."
+
+"How well I can understand that feeling," replied the Countess musingly.
+"Long ago, when we used to visit the court each year, I remember that,
+in spite of all its gaieties and pleasures, so well calculated to charm
+young minds, I was always glad when the time came to return to the
+Castle; and that for a girl of eighteen is unusual, I think."
+
+I was silently musing upon the fair face opposite me, and the charming
+personality of my noble hostess, which piqued my curiosity and aroused
+in me a singular desire to learn more of it. The young Countess
+conducted the affairs of the table with captivating grace, and the
+ready Offenloch was ever on the watch for her slightest nod or glance.
+Truly, I felt myself under a spell no less potent than the companions of
+Ulysses of old.
+
+Rousing myself at length from these agreeable reflections, I resumed:
+
+"You too, mademoiselle, are fond of the hunt, I suppose? for the Count's
+devotion to it is proverbial."
+
+"Yes!" she replied, "when it is not a deer or fox that is being hunted.
+Somehow the wild boar claims less of my sympathy, for it is often a
+question which comes off the better, the man or the beast."
+
+The truth of this remark it was reserved for me to learn at a later
+day.
+
+"As for me, I have never had any experience in the chase, as the years
+which I might have spent so were passed in foreign cities, but some time
+I hope to give it a thorough trial."
+
+A pause succeeded, during which Odile prepared the coffee. From time to
+time I glanced at Marie, whose admiration for my person expressed the
+evening before seemed in no way to have decreased, judging from the
+senile simper which invariably appeared on her face when she caught my
+eye.
+
+"This Castle has an indescribable charm for me," I continued after a
+little; "it has such a delightfully ancient air, and its old stones seem
+so full of romance;" and my eyes wandered to the two suits of armor at
+the further end of the room, which from their shadowy corners nodded at
+each other, gaunt and sightless, in the uncertain firelight.
+
+"I am fond of it," replied Odile; "indeed, I feel that I could never be
+happy anywhere else; but at times it is lonely, nevertheless."
+
+Then I began to reflect upon the singular vow which this charming young
+creature, so eminently lovable in every trait of character and person,
+had taken, it seemed almost wantonly and in a spirit of perversity; and
+yet I was satisfied that no such explanation could be sufficient, for I
+felt instinctively that no small or trivial thought could gain
+admittance to Odile's mind.
+
+"Perhaps," I thought, "some day the wanderer will come to implant the
+magic kiss, and she, like others of her sisters, will be obliged to
+obey the inexorable laws of the little god."
+
+So I thought. It seemed to me that one might be happy here, could he
+continue forever, as I was then, in Odile's companionship, amid gay
+companies and festivals, hunting-parties and the like, which I felt
+would become immediately inaugurated, were the Count's recovery to
+become an established fact. Then my thoughts reverted once more to my
+patient, and, speculating for the fiftieth time on all that Sperver had
+told me of his master, I was recalled to a less alluring train of
+reflections, and I became grave as I realized the burden of duty which
+rested upon me.
+
+An hour passed, the breakfast was finished. I rose and took leave of the
+Countess, who inclined her head with a friendly smile. As I stepped
+into the hallway, I descried Sperver in the distance.
+
+"The Count has waked, and he wishes to see you," he said, as he reached
+me.
+
+"He is no worse?" I asked.
+
+"Apparently not; he seems quiet enough."
+
+Still engrossed with the experience of the last hour passed in the
+dining-room, I moved along with Sperver down the corridor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE COUNT UNSHEATHES HIS CLAWS.
+
+
+I entered the Count's chamber. What was my surprise to perceive in the
+half-light of the alcove, the master of Nideck raised upon his elbow and
+studying me with profound attention. I had so little anticipated such a
+reception, that I paused in surprise.
+
+"Come here, doctor," he said in a faint but steady voice, reaching out
+his hand. "My good Sperver has often spoken to me of you, and I have
+been anxious to make your acquaintance."
+
+"Let us hope, monsieur," I replied, "that it may be continued under
+more auspicious circumstances; a little patience, and all will be
+well!"
+
+"I fear not," he replied; "I feel that the end is drawing near."
+
+"You are mistaken, monsieur."
+
+"No! Nature grants us, as a last favor, a presentiment of our
+approaching end."
+
+"How often have I seen such presentiments disproved!" I returned,
+smiling.
+
+He gazed fixedly at me, as sick people are wont to do when they are in
+doubt as to their true condition. It is a trying moment for the doctor;
+upon his expression depends the moral strength of the sufferer; if the
+sick man detect the suspicion of a doubt, all is lost; dissolution
+begins, the soul prepares to quit the body, and the malady holds full
+sway. I passed firmly through the ordeal; the Count seemed reassured;
+he pressed my hand again, and released it, calmer and more confident.
+
+During the pause which followed, Odile and Marie Lagoutte entered the
+room. They must have followed close behind us. They seated themselves in
+the two chairs which occupied the embrasure of the window, and Marie
+resumed her knitting, while Odile spread open a portfolio on her lap and
+seemed to be studying it.
+
+Soon the Count's glance wandered from my face to that of his daughter,
+whom he continued to regard fixedly for a long time in silence.
+
+This somewhat oppressive quiet continued, broken only by the jarring of
+the casements, the monotone of the wind, and the sound of the snow as
+it swirled and whispered against the panes.
+
+After a half hour of this, the Count suddenly began to speak:
+
+"If my beloved child Odile would but grant my request, if she would only
+consent to let me hope that one day she would fulfil the desire of my
+heart, I believe that alone would accomplish my recovery!" I glanced
+quickly at Odile; she had closed her book, and her eyes were fastened on
+the floor. I noticed that she had become deathly pale.
+
+"Yes," continued the sick man, "I should return to life and happiness!
+The prospect of seeing myself surrounded by a new branch of our family,
+of embracing my grandchildren, and of seeing the perpetuation of our
+house ensured, would suffice to cure me."
+
+I felt moved at the mild and gentle pleading of the sufferer. The young
+woman made no reply. After a minute or two, the Count, who looked
+entreatingly at her, pursued:
+
+"Odile, you refuse to make your father happy. My God! I only ask for
+hope; I fix no time! I do not seek to control your choice! We will go to
+court, and choose from a hundred noble suitors. Who would not be proud
+to win my daughter's hand? You shall be free to decide for yourself."
+
+He paused. Nothing is more painful to a stranger than these family
+discussions. There are so many conflicting interests, deep emotions,
+and sacred feelings involved, that our innate delicacy demands that we
+hold aloof from such scenes. I was pained, and would gladly have
+withdrawn, but the circumstances did not permit of it.
+
+"Father," said Odile, as if to evade further insistence on the sick
+man's part, "you will recover. Heaven will not take you from us who love
+you so dearly. If you only knew with what loving fervor I pray for you!"
+
+"That is not answering my question," said the Count drily. "What
+objection have you to my proposal? Is it not just and natural? Must I be
+deprived of the consolations accorded the most wretched? Have I made use
+of force or trickery?"
+
+"No, father!"
+
+"Then why do you refuse me?"
+
+"My resolution is taken; I have consecrated myself to God."
+
+So much firmness in so frail a being astonished me. She stood there like
+the sculptured Madonna in Hugh's Tower,--fragile, calm, impassive.
+
+The eyes of the Count glowed with feverish brightness. I endeavored to
+prevail upon the Countess, as best I could by signs, to give him a grain
+of hope, that his growing agitation might be calmed; but she did not
+appear to see me.
+
+"So," he cried in a voice choked with emotion, "you will see your father
+perish! A single word would save his life,--a word from your lips,--and
+you will not pronounce it."
+
+"Life is not within the gift of man, but of God alone," she murmured;
+"a word from me could be of no avail."
+
+"These are nothing but pious maxims," cried the Count bitterly, "to ease
+your conscience in refusing to do your duty! Has not God commanded,
+'Honor thy father and thy mother'?"
+
+"I do honor you, my father," she replied gently; "but it is my duty not
+to marry."
+
+I could hear the Count grind his teeth. He lay for a few moments,
+apparently calm, then he suddenly sprang up.
+
+"Out of my sight!" he screamed; "your presence is hideous to me!"
+
+Then turning to me:
+
+"Doctor," he cried with a savage smile, "have you a poison about you,--a
+poison that slays with the quickness of a lightning flash? It is only
+merciful to give it to me! Ah, God! If you knew how I suffer!"
+
+His features worked convulsively; he became livid. Odile had risen and
+moved towards the door.
+
+[Illustration: "'STAY!' HE HOWLED, 'I HAVE NOT CURSED YOU YET.'"]
+
+"Stay!" he howled; "I have not cursed you yet!"
+
+Up to this point, I had restrained myself, not daring to interfere
+between the father and his child; but I could endure it no longer.
+
+"Monsieur," I exclaimed; "in the name of your own health, in the name of
+reason, calm yourself! Your life depends upon it!"
+
+"What matters my life? What matters the future? Oh, if I were only done
+with it all!"
+
+His excitement increased with every moment. I feared lest, crazed with
+passion, he might spring from the bed and destroy his own child. She,
+still calm, but with cheeks as pale as his, fell on her knees before the
+threshold. At this moment, I succeeded in getting the Count to swallow a
+few drops of laudanum. He fell back with a long sigh, and soon his
+irregular breathing gave way to deep and leaden slumber.
+
+Odile arose, and her old governess, who had remained silent throughout,
+left the room with her. Sperver and I watched them as they slowly
+withdrew. There was a calm grandeur in the step of the Countess that
+bespoke a consciousness of duty fulfilled.
+
+When she had disappeared in the shadows of the corridor, Gideon turned
+to me: "Well, Gaston," he said gravely; "what do you think of this?"
+I bowed my head without replying. The unaccountable firmness of the
+young woman dumbfounded me.
+
+"Come Gaston!" exclaimed Sperver indignantly, "let's get a breath of
+fresh air! I'm strangling here!" and he pulled me out of the chamber.
+
+"That is the happiness of high-born people!" he exclaimed, as we stepped
+into the hall. "What is the use of being master of Nideck, with its fine
+Castle, forests, and game-preserves, and all else, if your own daughter
+can blight your life,--even cause your death, perhaps, by a nod of her
+head or a mincing refusal to obey your will? It would be a thousand
+times better to come into the world the son of a humble woodcutter, and
+live in the quiet accomplishment of your labor. Come down to my den,
+and we will drink a glass and have a pipe. I know nothing better to put
+care to flight than a good stiff glass."
+
+It was then about nine o'clock. The sky, so clear at daybreak, had
+become overcast; the north wind was whirling the flakes against the
+window-panes, and I could hardly distinguish the peaks of the
+neighboring mountains. We were descending the staircase which led to the
+main courtyard, when, at a turn of the corridor, we came face to face
+with Tobias Offenloch. The worthy majordomo was puffing like a porpoise.
+
+"Hullo!" said Gideon; "where are you going in such a hurry?"
+
+"To tell the Countess that the Baron Zimmer begs the privilege of
+paying his respects to her before quitting the Castle."
+
+"Baron Zimmer?"
+
+"Yes, the stranger who came in last night at midnight."
+
+"To be sure," replied Sperver; "I was forgetting."
+
+We went along. A moment later we reached our destination. My companion
+pushed open the door and we went in.
+
+We sat down before the hearth. Gideon possessed himself of a corkscrew
+and two bottles, and soon our glasses were filled and pipes aglow. We
+were about to begin a discussion of the singular scene of a few moments
+before, when Offenloch appeared, but not alone, for to our astonishment
+we saw the Baron Zimmer and his valet following at his heels. We rose.
+The young Baron approached to greet us with uncovered head, and I
+studied with interest his handsome face, pale and haughty, with long,
+black locks falling about it. He paused before Sperver.
+
+"Monsieur," he said, with that pure Saxon accent that no dialect can
+imitate, "I come to ask you about the country hereabouts. Mademoiselle
+the Countess of Nideck assures me that no one can inform me as well as
+yourself in regard to the passes of the Wald Horn."
+
+"I believe that is true, monsieur," replied Sperver with a low bow; "and
+I am entirely at your service."
+
+"Imperative reasons compel me to set out in the midst of this storm,"
+resumed the Baron, pointing to the eddying flakes outside; "I must
+reach the Wald Horn, six leagues from here, before nightfall."
+
+"That will be a difficult matter, monsieur, for all the roads are
+blocked with snow."
+
+"I know it, but it must be done."
+
+"A guide will be indispensable in that case. I will go with you if you
+like, monsieur, or Sebalt Kraft, the master of the hounds; he knows
+every inch of the mountain from Unterwalden to the Hunsdruck."
+
+"Thank you for your obliging offer; I appreciate it most fully, but I
+cannot accept it; your instructions will be sufficient."
+
+Sperver bowed again, and going over to a window, threw it wide open. A
+quick gust of wind whirled the snow clear across the room and closed the
+door with a crash. I remained standing with one hand resting on the back
+of my chair; Tobias took refuge from the cold draught in a corner of the
+chamber. The Baron and his servant approached the window.
+
+[Illustration: "YONDER YOU SEE THE PEAK OF THE ALTENBERG.'"]
+
+"Messieurs," said Sperver, trying to make himself heard above the noise
+of the storm, and pointing towards the horizon, "this is the lay of the
+country. If the day were clear, I would take you up to the signal-tower,
+where we could see the whole of the Black Forest, until it becomes lost
+to view in the distance; but as it is, I will do my best from here.
+Yonder you see the peak of the Altenberg, and further off, in the same
+line, just back of that white ridge, the Wald Horn, swept by the
+tempest. You must go straight towards the Wald Horn. There, if the snow
+permits, you will see from the top of the mitre-shaped rock that is
+called the Roche Fendue, three peaks: the Behrenkopf, the Geierstein,
+and the Triefels. It is by the last one, the furthest to the right, that
+you must make your way. A torrent divides the valley of the Rhethal, but
+it must be frozen over now. However, if it is impossible to proceed
+further, you will find on your left, as you climb the summit, a cavern
+half-way to the top, known as the Roche Creuse. You can pass the night
+there, and to-morrow, in all probability, when the wind has fallen, you
+will see the Wald Horn."
+
+"Many thanks for your kindness."
+
+"If you are fortunate enough to meet with a charcoal burner," continued
+Sperver, "he may be able to show you where the torrent can be forded,
+but I doubt if there is any such place at this season. Have a special
+care to keep around the base of the Behrenkopf, for if you get much to
+either side of it, the descent is impossible; there are precipices
+everywhere."
+
+During these observations, I was watching Sperver, whose clear, ready
+speech accentuated each sentence with great precision, and I glanced
+occasionally at the Baron, who was listening with singular attention. No
+obstacle seemed to daunt him. His old servant appeared no less resolute
+than he.
+
+Just as they were leaving the window, a ray of light broke through the
+clouds as the tempest seized the masses of snow and whirled them for an
+instant back upon each other like a floating drapery, and during this
+instant the three peaks behind the Altenberg were disclosed to view,
+serving to illustrate the details which Sperver had just given. Then the
+blizzard once more closed in.
+
+"Good!" said the Baron; "I have seen my destination, and thanks to your
+instructions, I hope to reach it."
+
+Sperver bowed without replying, and the young man and his servant,
+together with Offenloch, having saluted us, silently withdrew.
+
+Gideon closed the window, and addressing himself to me: "The Old Nick
+must possess a man," he said, laughing, "to set out in such weather! I
+shouldn't have the heart to turn a wolf outdoors. I believe I have seen
+the young man's face before, and the old one's, too, if I could only
+think where. Let us drink! Your health, Gaston!"
+
+I had gone over to the window, and as the Baron Zimmer and his servant
+climbed into their saddles in the middle of the courtyard, I saw, in
+spite of the snow that filled the air, a curtain slightly raised in the
+tower opposite, and the pale face of the Countess appear, glancing long
+and furtively at the young man.
+
+"Ha, Gaston, what are you doing?" cried Sperver.
+
+"Nothing. I am only looking at the strangers' horses."
+
+"Oh, yes, the Wallachians! I saw them in the stable this morning. They
+are fine creatures."
+
+The horsemen departed at full speed. The curtain in the tower window
+dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MARIE LAGOUTTE RELATES HER EXPERIENCE.
+
+
+When I again saw Odile her expression was one of complete wretchedness;
+her swollen eyes told me that she had been weeping long, and her extreme
+pallor and weariness cut me to the heart.
+
+"My dear mademoiselle," I said to her, with forced cheerfulness, "we
+must not be despondent. The turning-point of the malady must soon
+arrive, and this crisis safely passed, we may expect to see the Count in
+as good health as before."
+
+She looked at me with an expression of gratitude for my wish to console
+her, but underlying it, I felt there was a quiet conviction to the
+contrary, and I realized the weakness of my position when I reflected
+that she might very probably be possessed of facts, unknown to me, which
+entirely disproved my words.
+
+"At all events," she replied, after a pause of some moments, "it is
+grateful to know that there is some one who shares our anxieties and has
+the desire really at heart to mitigate them."
+
+"You speak truly, mademoiselle," I returned. "I desire nothing so much
+as to see peace and contentment restored to this house, and I only wish
+that I possessed a thousandfold more power to accomplish it than I do.
+But whatever my skill is, it shall be devoted to this one end; and I
+shall not despair of success until all my efforts have proved
+unavailing."
+
+I was surprised at my own warmth a moment after; but Odile's glance
+satisfied me that I had not transgressed the limits of that reserve with
+which she surrounded herself.
+
+"And furthermore," I continued, encouraged by this fact to speak what I
+had for some time meditated, "if I might add the advice of a friend to
+that of the doctor, I should beg of you to spare yourself as much as
+possible in the matter of night watches and too unremitting a care of
+the Count, for a true woman's strength is exhausted long before her
+will, and you owe it to your friends as well as to yourself to preserve
+the life which God has entrusted to you."
+
+Odile lowered her eyes, then raised them; and as I approached and lifted
+to my lips the hand which she gave me, I surprised there a look which
+opened up to me a world of speculation.
+
+I returned to my chamber, where I found an hour none too long to calm in
+a measure the exuberance of feeling to which my moments with Odile
+invariably gave rise.
+
+Inclination made me quite as much concerned to spare Odile the suffering
+which her father's revolting harshness in his moments of delirium caused
+her, as to restore the Count to health, for after the morning's
+experience I felt that my pity for the sick man had, in spite of
+myself, largely given place to loathing; and I felt too, with Sperver,
+that I could throttle him as he continued to heap injuries upon his
+daughter's defenceless head.
+
+However, there was but one way to alter the present condition of things
+and to establish a better one; namely, to effect the Count's cure, and I
+resolved that the best effort of my life should be expended here.
+Meanwhile I knew not where to begin. Medicines used otherwise than as
+opiates seemed lacking in the smallest efficacy. I saw nothing for it
+but to await developments.
+
+To remonstrate with Odile in the matter of the vow which she had taken
+was clearly out of the question, though I was curious to see if any
+yielding on her part would effect the change in her father's condition
+which he averred it would.
+
+And the reason of her absolute refusal to entertain even the thought of
+marriage? What could it be? She was not without feeling, a fact
+sufficiently demonstrated by her unswerving devotion to the Count. Nor
+did it seem to me that she could regard with disdain the fulfilment of
+that position which is the noblest aim and achievement of womankind, and
+which she was so eminently fitted by every circumstance of fortune to
+occupy and adorn. It could not be that there was any lack of
+understanding; for at times, when I surprised her glance resting upon
+me, I read in it a depth of sensibility that seemed almost
+unfathomable; and that its possessor was all kindness, in the strongest
+and best sense of the term, I was convinced. Of the answer to this
+riddle, it seemed then, I must forever remain in ignorance; but while
+any chance remained to solve it, I was determined to do so at all costs.
+
+Meanwhile the Count's illness continued its course. All that Sperver had
+told me verified itself. Sometimes the Count, starting up and leaning on
+his elbow with outstretched neck and staring eyes, would mutter, "She is
+coming! She is coming!" Then Gideon would shake his head and climb the
+signal-tower; but in vain did he look to right and left: the Black
+Plague was nowhere to be seen.
+
+After long reflection upon this strange malady, I had finally persuaded
+myself that the Count was deranged. The singular influence which the old
+creature exerted upon his mind, his alternate periods of delirium and
+calm, all served to strengthen me in this opinion. "Unknown chains unite
+his fate with that of the Black Plague," I said to myself. "That woman
+may have been young and beautiful in the past; who knows?" and my
+imagination, once launched in this direction, soon built up a romance;
+but I was careful to mention nothing of my thoughts,--Sperver would
+never have forgiven me for entertaining suspicions of a relationship
+between his master and the hag.
+
+During these anxious days, the one bright thing in my life was Odile's
+presence. Had it not been for this, I doubt if I should longer have
+preserved any degree of hope.
+
+I know not if I myself quite realized the extent of my growing affection
+for Odile, but certain it is that with each day her image became more
+and more identified with all that I held dearest in the world, and as I
+moved about the old Castle halls and chambers, the library, the
+drawing-room, the chapel, her fair figure and light step accompanied me
+in fancy, and I likened her to the delicate, fragrant rose, which in
+summer blossomed and waved from the rough interstices of the Castle's
+battlements.
+
+Things were in this pass when one morning, at about eight o'clock, I was
+walking up and down in Hugh's Tower thinking of the Count's malady, the
+outcome of which I could foresee no more clearly than before, and
+cudgelling my wits to determine what was next to be done. Suddenly I was
+roused from these cheerless reflections by three discreet taps on my
+door.
+
+"Come in!"
+
+The door opened, and Marie Lagoutte entered, dropping a low courtesy.
+The worthy woman's arrival annoyed me a good deal; I was on the point of
+asking her to leave me for the present, when an expression of unusual
+seriousness on her face aroused my curiosity. She had thrown a large
+red-and-green shawl over her shoulders, and stood with her lips pursed
+up and her eyes on the floor. It surprised me not a little to see her,
+after a moment, approach the door and open it again, apparently to make
+sure that no one had followed her.
+
+"What does she want of me?" I asked myself. "What do all these
+precautions mean?" I was puzzled.
+
+"Monsieur," she said at length, drawing nearer me, "I beg your pardon
+for disturbing you so early in the morning, but I have something
+important to tell you."
+
+"Pray go on! What is it about?"
+
+"It is about the Count."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur; you probably know that I sat up with him last night."
+
+"I know you did. Pray sit down!"
+
+She seated herself in a chair opposite me, a big, leather-covered
+armchair, and I remarked with interest the energetic character of the
+face which had seemed to me only grotesque on the evening of my arrival
+at the Castle.
+
+"Monsieur," she went on after a brief pause, fixing her dark eyes on me,
+"I must tell you first of all that I am not a timid woman. I have seen
+many things in my life,--things so terrible that nothing astonishes me
+any more. When any one has passed through Rossbach, Leuthen, and
+Zorndorf, he has left fear behind him on the road."
+
+"You speak truly, madame!"
+
+"I don't tell you this from a desire to boast, but only to convince you
+that I don't lose my wits at nothing, and that you may depend upon what
+I say when I tell you I have seen something."
+
+"What the deuce can she have to tell me?" I said to myself.
+
+"Well!" she continued; "last night, between nine and ten, just as I was
+starting up to bed, Offenloch came in and said to me:
+
+"'Marie, you must sit up with the Count to-night.'
+
+"I was surprised at this, and replied:
+
+"'What! sit up with the Count! Isn't madame going to sit up with him
+herself?'
+
+"'No; our mistress is ill, and you must take her place.'
+
+"Ill, poor child! I was sure it would end that way, and I told her so a
+hundred times; but what can you do, monsieur? Young people never have
+any thought for the future,--and then, it was her own father, too. So I
+took my knitting, said good night to Toby, and went to the master's
+room. Sperver, who was waiting for me, went off to bed as soon as I
+came in, and I was left all alone."
+
+Here the good woman paused, slowly breathed up a pinch of snuff, and
+seemed to be brushing up her memory. I had become attentive.
+
+"At about half past ten," she continued, "I was knitting away beside the
+bed, and every now and then I raised the curtain to see how the Count
+was doing; he never stirred; he was sleeping like a child. All went well
+up to eleven o'clock; then I began to feel tired; when you are old,
+monsieur, do what you will, you fall asleep in spite of yourself; and
+then, too, I didn't think anything was going to happen. I said to
+myself, 'He will sleep like a top till morning!'
+
+"Towards midnight the wind died down, and the big windows that had been
+rattling all the evening were quiet. I got up to see if anything was
+going on outside. The night was as black as a bottle of ink, and I went
+back to my armchair. I took another look at the sick man and I saw that
+he hadn't stirred; then I went on knitting. After a few minutes, I fell
+slowly, slowly to sleep. My chair was as soft as down and the room was
+very warm; I couldn't keep awake.
+
+"I had been asleep about an hour, when a draught of cold air woke me. I
+opened my eyes, and what did I see? The long, middle window was wide
+open, the curtains were drawn, and the Count was standing upright on the
+window-sill!"
+
+"The Count?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Impossible! He cannot move!"
+
+"I couldn't believe my eyes; but, nevertheless, I saw him as plainly as
+I see you this minute. He held a torch in his hand, and the air was so
+still that its flame never wavered."
+
+I stared at Marie Lagoutte, stupefied.
+
+"At first," she went on, "when I saw the master in this extraordinary
+position, it made such an effect on me that I wanted to scream; but then
+I thought, 'Perhaps he is walking in his sleep; if you cry out and wake
+him he will fall and be dashed to pieces.' So I kept still and watched
+him, as you can fancy. He raised his torch slowly, and then he lowered
+it, and he did this three times, like a man making signals to some one;
+then he threw it down on to the ramparts, closed the window, and drew
+the curtains; he passed before me without appearing to see me, and got
+into bed again muttering Heaven knows what."
+
+"Are you certain you saw all this, madame?"
+
+"Perfectly!"
+
+"It is strange!"
+
+"Yes, I know it, but it is true! Goodness, how astonished I was for a
+moment! Then, when I saw him go back to bed again and cross his hands
+over his breast as if nothing had happened, I said to myself, 'Marie
+Anne, you have had a bad dream; that is the only explanation of it!' and
+I went over to the window. But the torch was still burning; it had
+fallen into a bush a little to the left of the third gate, and you
+could see it glowing like a spark. There was no denying it!"
+
+Marie Lagoutte looked at me for some minutes without speaking.
+
+"You can imagine, monsieur, that there was no more sleep for me that
+night. I was on tenter-hooks; every moment I thought I heard something
+behind my chair. I wasn't afraid, but I was uneasy; it worried me. This
+morning, at the first signs of day, I ran to wake up Offenloch, and I
+sent him to the Count's bedside. As I went along the corridor I noticed
+that the first torch on the right was missing from its ring. I went down
+the stairs, and I found it in the little path that leads to the Black
+Forest. See! here it is!"
+
+And she took from under her apron the end of a torch, which she laid on
+the table. I was thunderstruck. How could this man, whom but the night
+before I had seen so weak and exhausted, have risen from his bed, walked
+to the window, and opened and closed the heavy sash? What did this
+midnight signal mean? Wide awake as I was, it seemed to me as if I, too,
+had witnessed the strange scene, and my thoughts reverted involuntarily
+to the Black Plague. I roused myself at last from introspection, and I
+saw Marie Lagoutte had risen and was about to depart.
+
+"Madame," I said, as I moved with her to the door, "you have acted
+wisely in telling me this, and I thank you heartily for doing so. You
+have told no one else of this adventure?"
+
+"No one, monsieur. Such things are only to be confided to the priest
+and doctor."
+
+"Ah! I see you are a very sensible person."
+
+These words were exchanged on my threshold. At this moment, Sperver
+appeared at the end of the gallery, followed by his friend Sebalt.
+
+"Ho, Gaston!" he cried, hurrying up; "I have news for you!"
+
+"Well, well!" I exclaimed; "more news. The Old Harry is most certainly
+taking a hand in our affairs."
+
+Marie Lagoutte had disappeared. The steward and his comrade entered the
+Tower.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SEBALT TRACKS THE PLAGUE.
+
+
+Sperver's face wore a look of supreme indignation; Sebalt's one of
+bitter irony. The master of the hounds, whose melancholy appearance had
+struck me during my first days at Nideck, was as thin as a rail; he wore
+a leather jacket fastened at the waist by a belt, from which hung a
+hunting-knife with a bone handle; long leather gaiters reached above his
+knees, and his horn hung at his elbow from a shoulder belt that went
+from right to left across his chest. On his head was a broad-brimmed hat
+with a heron's plume in the band, and his profile, terminating in a
+yellowish beard, suggested that of a goat.
+
+"Yes," continued Sperver; "I have some news for you!"
+
+He threw himself into a chair, burying his face in his hands, while
+Sebalt quietly drew his trumpet over his head and laid it on the table.
+
+"Come, Sebalt," cried Gideon, "speak out!"
+
+"The witch is roaming about the Castle."
+
+This information would have failed to interest me had it not been for
+the interview with Marie Lagoutte; but now it made a deep impression
+upon me. There was some mysterious connection between the Lord of Nideck
+and this horrid creature, the nature of which was an enigma to me. I
+felt that I must solve it at all costs.
+
+"One moment, gentlemen! one moment!" I said to Sperver and his comrade;
+"first of all, I want to know where this Black Plague comes from."
+
+Sperver stared at me in astonishment.
+
+"Heaven only knows!" he cried.
+
+"At precisely what time does she come within sight of Nideck?"
+
+"I told you before! Just a week before Christmas every year."
+
+"And she stays?"
+
+"From a fortnight to three weeks."
+
+"Is she ever seen except at that time, either going or coming?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then we shall have to catch her!" I exclaimed. "This is not natural!
+We must find out what she wants, who she is, and where she comes from."
+
+"Catch her!" said the master of the hounds, with an odd smile. "Catch
+her, indeed!" and he shook his head meaningly.
+
+"My dear Gaston," began Sperver, "your suggestion is all well enough,
+but it is easier said than done. If I could send a bullet after her,
+that would be another matter, for I can always come within gunshot of
+her, but this the Count forbids; and as to taking her otherwise, you
+might as well try to catch a squirrel by the tail. Listen to Sebalt's
+story, and you shall see for yourself."
+
+The person thus addressed, sitting on the end of the table with his legs
+crossed, looked at me and began:
+
+"This morning, as I was coming down the Altenberg, I followed the hollow
+Nideck road. The snow was on a level with its edges. I was going along,
+thinking of nothing in particular, when a foot-track caught my eye; it
+was deep, and went straight across the path; the creature had come down
+one side of the bank and gone up on the other. It wasn't a hare's foot,
+for that makes hardly any mark in the snow; nor the cloven hoof of the
+wild boar, nor a wolf's paw either; it was a deep hole. I stopped and
+brushed away the snow that was collecting round it. It was the Black
+Plague's track!"
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"How do I know it? I know the old hag's footprint better than her
+figure, for I always go along with my eyes on the ground. I can
+recognize any one in the country around by his foot-tracks, and a child
+couldn't have mistaken this one."
+
+"What was there about it so very different from any other?"
+
+"It is no larger than your hand; it is finely shaped, the heel a trifle
+long, the outline clean, and the great toe lies close to the others, as
+if they were pressed into a slipper. It is a beautiful foot. Twenty
+years ago, monsieur, I should have fallen in love with such a foot!
+Every time I come across one like it, it makes a great impression on me.
+Heavens! how can such a foot belong to the Black Plague?" And the good
+fellow fixed his eyes on the floor with a dismal air.
+
+"Well, Sebalt, go on!" said Sperver impatiently.
+
+"To be sure! Well, I recognized the track, and I set out to follow it. I
+was in hopes of catching the witch in her den, but you shall hear what a
+dance she led me. I climbed up the roadside, only two gunshots from
+Nideck, and struck off into the bushes, keeping the trail always on my
+right; it ran along the edge of the Rhethal. Suddenly it jumped over the
+ditch into the woods. I kept on, but happening to glance a little to the
+left of it, I discovered another track that had been following the Black
+Plague's. I stopped; 'Could it be Sperver's? or Kasper Trumpf's? or any
+of the other people's?' I asked myself. I stooped over and examined it
+closely, and you can fancy my surprise when I saw that it belonged to
+nobody in this part of the country. I know every footprint from here to
+Tuebingen, and it was none of these. The owner must have come from a
+distance. The boot--for it was a kind of soft, well-made boot, with a
+spur that left a little rowelled line in the snow behind it--instead of
+being rounded at the end, was square; the sole, thin and without nails,
+bent at every step. The pace was short and hurried, like that of a man
+from twenty to twenty-five. I noticed the stitches in the leather at
+this glance, and I have never seen finer."
+
+"Who could it have been?"
+
+Sperver shrugged his shoulders and remained silent.
+
+"Who can have any object in following the old woman?" I asked, turning
+to Sperver.
+
+"The devil himself, perhaps," he replied.
+
+We sat for some minutes, each one busied with his own reflections.
+
+"I started on again," pursued Sebalt finally; "the tracks led up the
+mountain side amongst the fir-trees, and then turned off around the base
+of the Roche Fendue. When I saw this, I said to myself, 'Ah! you old
+hag! If there was much game of your sort, the sport of hunting would go
+to the dogs. It would be better to work as a galley slave!' We came--the
+two tracks and I--to the top of the Schneeberg. The wind had swept here
+and the snow was up to my waist, but I must get on! I reached the banks
+of the Steinbach torrent and there the Black Plague's foot-prints
+ceased. I stopped, and saw that after having tried up and down, the
+gentleman's boots had taken the direction of the Tiefenbach. This was a
+bad sign. I looked at the opposite bank, but there was no sign of a
+track there. The witch had waded either up or down the stream, to break
+the scent. Where should I go? To right or left? In my uncertainty, by
+Jove, I came back to Nideck."
+
+"You have forgotten to tell the doctor about her breakfast."
+
+"To be sure, monsieur! At the foot of the Roche Fendue, I saw she had
+lighted a fire; the snow was black around it; and I laid my hand on the
+spot, thinking that if it were still warm the Plague could not be far
+away, but it was as cold as ice. I noticed a snare in the bushes close
+by."
+
+"A snare?"
+
+"Yes; it seems the old creature knows how to manage traps. A hare had
+been caught in it; the impression of his body was still there where he
+had lain stretched out. The witch had lighted the fire to cook him; she
+knows a thing or two, you see!"
+
+"Just to think," cried Sperver angrily, "that this old wretch should
+find meat to feed on, when so many honest people of our villages are
+starving for the want of a bit of bread! It infuriates me! If I only had
+her in my clutches--!"
+
+He had no time to finish his sentence. The next moment, we were staring
+into each other's ashy faces, speechless and immovable. A howl--the howl
+of a wolf on a bitter winter's night--a cry that you must have heard to
+comprehend in the least, the agonized plaint of the savage beast,--was
+echoing through the Castle, and seemed not far from us. It rose from
+below, so fearfully distinct that we fancied the wild animal just
+outside our door.
+
+We often hear quoted, as the most terrible of sounds, the roar of the
+lion, as he rends the silence of approaching night in the immensity of
+the desert. But if the parched and burning sands of Africa have their
+voice, like the sound of the autumn tempest growling among the crags of
+the forest, so, too, have the vast, snowy plains of the North their
+characteristic cry, that accords so well with the dreary winter
+landscape, where all is sleeping, and not even a dead leaf rustles to
+disturb the perfect stillness; and this cry,--it is the howl of the
+wolf!
+
+Rousing himself with difficulty, Sperver sprang from his chair, rushed
+to the window, and stared down at the foot of the Tower.
+
+"Can a wolf have fallen into the moat?" he cried.
+
+But the howls came from within the Castle. Then turning to us:
+
+"Gaston! Sebalt!" he cried, "come on!"
+
+We flew down the stairs four steps at a time, and rushed into the
+armory. Sperver drew his hunting-knife, and Sebalt followed his example;
+they preceded me along the gallery. The cries were guiding us towards
+the chamber of the sick man. Sperver spoke no more, and hurried his
+steps. I felt a shudder pass over me; something forewarned us that an
+abominable scene was about to transpire before our eyes.
+
+As we approached the Count's apartment, we found the whole household
+afoot--hunters, kennel-keepers, and scullions, running this way and
+that, and asking each other, "What is the matter? where are the cries
+coming from?" Without waiting for anything, we dashed into the corridor
+which led to the Count's chamber, and in the vestibule we encountered
+the good Marie Lagoutte, who alone had had the courage to proceed there
+before us. She was holding in her arms the young Countess, who had
+fainted, and was hurrying her away as rapidly as she could. So agitated
+was I at this pathetic sight that for the moment I forgot the Count, and
+I sprang forward to Odile's aid; but Marie Lagoutte begged me to hurry
+to the Count, as her mistress was only in a faint and would soon revive,
+when she would be terribly distressed if I were not at her father's
+bedside. Realizing that in spite of my preferences my first duty was to
+my patient, I reluctantly quitted them, and hastened to overtake my
+companions.
+
+We reached the Count's room. The howls were coming from within.
+
+[Illustration: "THEN HE WOULD RESUME HIS FRIGHTFUL CRIES."]
+
+We stared at one another, trying in vain to explain the presence of such
+a guest. Our ideas were in utter confusion. Sperver threw open the door,
+and with his hunting-knife tightly grasped, started to enter the room;
+but he paused on the threshold, motionless as a stone. I glanced over
+his shoulder, and the sight that presented itself to my gaze froze
+the blood in my veins. The Count of Nideck, crouching on all-fours on
+the bed, his head bent forward and his eyes glowing fiercely, was
+uttering these terrible howls. He was the wolf! That low forehead, that
+long, pointed face, that bristling beard, that long, thin body, and
+those wasted limbs,--the expression, the cry, the attitude,--all bespoke
+the savage beast beneath a human mask. At times he would stop for a
+second to listen, and the tall curtains of the bed would tremble like
+leaves. Then he would resume his frightful cries.
+
+Sperver, Sebalt, and I stood nailed to the floor; we held our breath.
+Suddenly the Count stopped; like the hunted animal that sniffs the
+breeze, he raised his head and listened. Far, far away beneath the
+lofty arches of the snow-clad pines, a cry was heard; feeble at first,
+it seemed to grow louder as it was prolonged, and soon it rose clear and
+strong above the roaring of the storm. It was the she-wolf answering its
+mate.
+
+Sperver, turning towards me with livid face, his arm pointing to the
+mountain, cried:
+
+"Listen, it is the witch!"
+
+The Count, motionless, with raised head and extended neck, his mouth
+wide open, and eyeballs glowing like coals, seemed to understand the
+meaning of the distant voice, lost in the midst of the deserted gorges
+of the Black Forest, and a certain savage joy gleamed in his face. At
+this moment Sperver cried in a broken voice:
+
+"Count of Nideck! What are you doing?"
+
+The Count fell backwards as if thunderstruck. We rushed into the room to
+his assistance. The third attack had begun, and it was terrible to
+witness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE PLAGUE IN MY CHAMBER.--THE MIDNIGHT SCENE ON THE ALTENBERG.
+
+
+The Count of Nideck was in a dying condition. All that art might
+accomplish I had tried without avail, and at that moment, when life and
+death were struggling for the mastery, I was compelled to stand idly by
+and watch the sands of Time's hour-glass run out. Towards midnight, the
+Count seemed almost gone; his pulse beat feebly, and at times seemed to
+stop. Sometimes I thought the end was but the question of a few moments.
+At length, worn out with exhaustion and anxiety, I bid the weeping
+Sperver remain with his master while I repaired to the Tower to snatch
+a few moments' sleep.
+
+A bright fire was burning in my chamber. I threw myself on the bed
+without removing my clothes, and soon fell into a heavy, troubled
+slumber. I slept thus, with my face turned towards the fire, whose rays
+danced upon the polished flagstones. After an hour, the fire suddenly
+started up, and as it often happens, the flame, rising and falling
+momentarily, beat upon the walls its great red wings and tired my
+eyelids. Lost in a vague slumber, I half opened my eyes to see whence
+came these alternate lights and shadows, when I was brought wide awake
+by an appalling sight.
+
+[Illustration: "I RAISED MYSELF ON MY ELBOW AND STARED FEARFULLY IN THE
+DIRECTION."]
+
+At the further end of the hearth, hardly revealed by the light of a few
+glowing embers, a dark profile was dimly visible,--the profile of the
+Black Plague. At first, I thought it an hallucination, the natural
+offspring of my feverish thoughts. I raised myself on my elbow, and
+stared fearfully in the direction, real or fancied, of the image. It was
+she indeed! Calm and motionless she sat, her hands clasped about her
+knees, just as I had seen her in the snow, with her long, thin neck,
+sharp, hooked nose, and thin lips tightly closed,--and she was warming
+herself before the fire.
+
+I was horrified. How could the creature have got into my room? How could
+she have climbed the Tower, beneath which precipices yawned on every
+side? Everything that Sperver had told me concerning her mysterious
+power seemed no whit exaggerated. The vision of Lieverle growling
+against the wall passed before me like a flash. I huddled close in the
+alcove, hardly daring to breathe, and watching this immovable silhouette
+as a mouse watches a cat from the bottom of its hole. The old woman
+stirred no more than the chimney-breast cut in the solid rock, and her
+lips moved as she mumbled inarticulate words.
+
+My heart beat painfully fast, and my fear increased from moment to
+moment, as I gazed on the motionless figure amid the perfect silence.
+This lasted perhaps a quarter of an hour, when the fire catching a pine
+splinter, the flame leaped up and a few rays penetrated to the end of
+the room. This flash sufficed to show me the aged woman dressed in an
+old gown of purple brocade that shimmered violet and red in different
+lights, with a heavy bracelet on her left wrist and a gold arrow stuck
+through her thick, gray hair, which was coiled up on the back of her
+head. It was like an apparition of past ages.
+
+Still, the Plague could have no hostile designs upon me, or she would
+have profited by my slumber to execute them. This thought was beginning
+to reassure me, when she suddenly got up and moved slowly towards my
+bed, holding in her hand a torch which she had just lighted at the fire.
+I now observed that her eyes were fixed and haggard. I made an effort to
+rise and cry out, but not a muscle of my body would obey my will, not a
+sound passed my lips, and the old witch, bending over me between the
+parted curtains, fixed her eyes on me with a strange smile. I tried to
+spring upon her and cry for help, but her glance paralyzed me as the
+snake's look charms the tiny bird. During this dumb contemplation, each
+second seemed to me an eternity. What was she about to do? I was
+prepared for anything. Suddenly she turned her head, listened, and then
+crossing the room with a rapid step, she opened the door. At last I had
+recovered a little courage; an effort of the will brought me to my feet,
+as if acted upon by an invisible spring, and I followed on the heels of
+the old woman, who with one hand was holding her torch above her head,
+and with the other kept the hall-door wide open.
+
+I was about to seize her by the hair when, at the end of the long
+gallery, beneath the oval archway that opened upon the ramparts, I
+saw--the Count of Nideck! The Count of Nideck, whom I thought dying,
+clad in a huge wolf-skin, with its upper jaw projecting like a visor
+over his eyebrows, the claws resting on his shoulders, and the tail
+dragging behind him over the flagstones. He wore heavy boots, a silver
+clasp fastened the wolf-skin at his throat, and his expression, except
+for the dull, icy look in his eyes, bespoke the strong man born to
+command,--the master.
+
+In the presence of such a personage my ideas became vague and confused.
+Flight was impossible. I had presence of mind enough left, however, to
+throw myself into an embrasure of the window.
+
+The Count entered the chamber and fixed upon the old woman a rigid
+stare. They held a whispered conversation, of which I was able to hear
+nothing, but their gestures were full of meaning. The old hag pointed to
+the bed. They moved to the fireplace on tiptoe, and there in the shadow
+of the triforium the Black Plague unrolled a large bundle, grinning
+hideously meanwhile. Hardly had the Count caught sight of the sack,
+before he sprang to the bedside and disappeared between the curtains,
+which stirred in a strange fashion. I could only see one leg still
+resting on the floor, and the wolf's tail moving back and forth. They
+seemed to be enacting a mock murder scene.
+
+Nothing could have been more horrible than this mute representation of
+such an act. The old creature approached the bed in turn, and spread out
+her sack on the floor beside it. The curtains still moved, and their
+shadows danced upon the walls. Then a great movement succeeded. The old
+creature and the Count together crowded the bed clothes into the sack,
+stamping them down with the haste of a dog scratching a hole in the
+earth, and the Lord of Nideck, throwing the shapeless bundle over his
+shoulder, started for the door. A sheet dragged behind him, and the old
+woman followed him with her torch. They crossed the court.
+
+My knees trembled and almost refused to support my weight; a prayer rose
+involuntarily to my lips. Two minutes had not passed before I was on
+their footsteps, dragged along by a subtle, irresistible curiosity. I
+crossed the court at a run, and was about to enter the Gothic Tower,
+when I perceived a deep, narrow pit at my feet, and into its depths
+wound a staircase, down which I saw the hag's torch turning, turning
+about the stone baluster like a firefly, until it became lost in the
+distance.
+
+I descended in turn the first steps of the staircase, guiding my course
+by the distant glimmer, when it suddenly disappeared. The old woman and
+the Count had reached the bottom of the precipice. Soon the steps
+ceased. I looked around me and discovered on my left hand a ray of
+moonlight that found its way into the pit through a low door, across
+the nettles and brambles laden with hoar-frost. I put aside these
+bushes, clearing away the snow with my feet, and found myself at the
+foot of Hugh's donjon-tower. Who would have supposed that such a hole
+led up to the Castle? Who had shown it to the old woman? I did not stop
+to answer these questions. The vast plain lay before me, flooded with a
+light almost equal to that of day. To the right stretched the dark
+extent of the Black Forest, with its perpendicular rocks, its gorges and
+ravines. The night air was still and bitter cold; I felt exalted by the
+keen atmosphere. My first glance was to discover the direction which the
+old woman and the Count had taken. Their tall, dark forms were moving
+slowly up the mountain side some two hundred paces in advance of me,
+and stood out against the background of the heavens studded with
+innumerable stars. I came close up to them at the bottom of the next
+ravine. The Count moved slowly on, the winding-sheet still dragging
+behind him. His attitude and movements, like those of his companion,
+were automatic in their precision.
+
+On they went, some twenty paces before me, following the hollow road to
+the Altenberg, now in the shadow, now in the full light, for the moon
+was shining with surprising brilliancy. A few clouds followed her, and
+seemed as if stretching out their great arms to seize her; but she
+evaded them, and her rays, cold as a blade of steel, cut me to the
+heart.
+
+I would gladly have turned back, but an invisible power impelled me to
+follow this funeral procession. Even to this hour, I still see in fancy
+the path that winds beneath the colonnades of the Black Forest. I hear
+the snow crunching beneath my step, and the fallen leaves rustling in
+the gently stirring north wind. I still see myself following those two
+silent figures, and I try in vain to explain to myself the mysterious
+impulse which caused me to dog their footsteps.
+
+At last we reached the forest and proceeded amongst the naked beeches,
+the dark shadows of whose higher boughs intersected the lower branches
+and traced their outlines on the snow-covered path. Sometimes I fancied
+I heard some one behind me; I would turn quickly around, but could see
+nothing.
+
+We gained at length the line of crags on the summit of the Altenberg,
+behind which the torrent of the Schneeberg rushes earlier in the year,
+but now there was only a mere thread of water slowly trickling beneath
+its thick covering of ice. The vast solitude no longer had its murmurs,
+its warblings, and its thunder; its oppressive stillness inspired fear.
+The Count and the old woman found a gap in the rocks, up which they
+mounted quickly and apparently without effort, while I was obliged to
+scramble up, clinging to the bushes in order to follow them.
+
+Scarcely had I reached the top of the rock which forms a corner of the
+precipice, when I found myself within three yards of them, and before
+me I saw a bottomless abyss. On the left hung the falls of the
+Schneeberg in sheets of ice. This resemblance to a wave leaping into the
+precipice, and bearing with it the neighboring trees, sucking up the
+underbrush and cleaving the ivys that follow on its crest without
+becoming uprooted; this appearance of mighty movement in the
+immovableness of death, and those two silent forms proceeding with their
+sinister work, all inspired me with indescribable terror. Nature herself
+seemed to share in my feelings.
+
+The Count had laid down his burden; the old woman and he swung it for a
+moment above the precipice, then the long shroud floated over the edge,
+and the actors in this awful drama bent over to watch it as it fell.
+The long, white sheet, swelling upwards as it met the rising breath of
+the chasm, and then falling slowly and disappearing from sight, still
+floats before my eyes. I see it sinking like the swan shot far up in the
+sky, her wings spread out and head thrown back, falling to earth in the
+agony of death.
+
+At this moment a cloud which had long been approaching the moon slowly
+veiled her in its bluish folds; complete darkness succeeded. After a
+little the moon appeared again through a rift in the clouds, and I saw
+the old woman seize the Count's hand and drag him along with dangerous
+speed down the mountain side. Then it became dark again, and I dared not
+risk a step lest I should fall headlong into an abyss. Once more the
+clouds parted. I looked about me and found myself alone on the high
+rock, knee-deep in snow. Seized with horror, I made my way cautiously
+down the steep declivity, and once on the plain I started to run towards
+the Castle, as much stunned as if I had shared in some dark crime.
+
+As for the Lord of Nideck and the old woman, I had lost sight of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+I LOSE MY WAY AND PASS THE NIGHT IN THE DWARF'S LODGE.
+
+
+I wandered around the Castle, unable to find the opening through which I
+had come out on to the plain. So much anxiety and emotion began to tell
+upon my mind; I moved aimlessly along, asking myself with dread if
+madness were not playing a part in my fancies, unable to believe what I
+had seen, and yet alarmed at the clearness of my perceptions. The image
+of the master of Nideck waving his torch in the darkness, howling like a
+wolf, coolly accomplishing an imaginary crime, without omitting a
+gesture, a circumstance, not even the smallest detail, then escaping and
+committing to the abyss the secret of the murder, harassed my mind and
+hung over me like a nightmare. I ran breathless and distracted through
+the snow, not knowing in what direction to guide my steps.
+
+As day approached, the cold became more intense. At last, exhausted, my
+legs feeling like lead, and my ears half frozen, I succeeded in
+discovering the iron grating, and I rang the bell with all my might. It
+was then about four o'clock in the morning. Knapwurst kept me waiting a
+terribly long time. His little lodge, built against the rock, just
+within the principal gate, remained quite silent; it seemed to me that
+the dwarf would never finish dressing, for I had fancied him in bed and
+soundly sleeping.
+
+I rang again, and this time his grotesque figure emerged abruptly from
+his doorway, and he cried furiously:
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+"I! The Doctor!"
+
+"Ah! that is another matter! I'll see whether you are telling the
+truth."
+
+He went back into his lodge to get a lantern, crossed the outer court
+with the snow up to his middle, and staring at me through the grating:
+
+"I beg your pardon, monsieur the doctor," he said; "I thought you were
+asleep up-stairs in Hugh's Tower. It was you ringing! Now I see why
+Sperver came to me at midnight to ask if any one had gone out. I said
+no, for I never saw you go out."
+
+"But for Heaven's sake, Knapwurst, open the door! You can tell me all
+this later."
+
+"Be patient for a moment, monsieur."
+
+And the dwarf deliberately turned the lock and drew back the bolts,
+while I stood with my teeth chattering, and shivering from head to foot.
+
+"You are cold, Doctor," observed the diminutive porter, "and you cannot
+get into the Castle. Sperver has fastened the inside door, I don't know
+why; he doesn't ordinarily; the grating is enough. Come into the lodge
+and warm yourself. You won't find my room much to boast of; properly
+speaking, it is nothing but a sty, but when you are cold you don't spend
+much time in looking about."
+
+Without replying to his chatter I followed him as rapidly as possible,
+burning with impatience to learn what things were passing in the Castle,
+but seeing nothing for it but to wait till dawn.
+
+We entered the lodge, and in spite of my state of complete frigidity, I
+could not help admiring the picturesque disorder of this species of
+nest. The slate roof leaned against the rock on one side, and on the
+other against a wall six to seven feet high, disclosing to view the
+blackened beams propped up against each other. The lodge consisted of a
+single room, furnished with a bed which the gnome did not take the
+trouble to make up very often, and two small dusty windows with
+hexagonal panes which the moon turned to mother-of-pearl with its pale
+rays. A large, square table occupied the middle of the room. How this
+massive oak table had ever been brought through the narrow doorway, it
+would have been difficult to explain. Upon a few shelves were arranged
+some old volumes and rolls of parchment, and on the table lay open an
+enormous tome with illuminated initial letters, bound in vellum, with a
+silver clasp and corners; it looked to me like a collection of old
+chronicles. Lastly, two armchairs, one covered with red leather and the
+other upholstered with a down cushion, and bearing the unmistakable
+impression of the dwarf's body, completed the furniture of the place.
+
+I will not stop to describe the desk with its five or six pens, the
+tobacco jar, the pipes scattered variously about, the little, low, iron
+stove in one corner of the room, with its door standing open, red hot,
+and sending a shower of sparks from time to time on to the stone floor,
+and the spitting cat with her back arched and her paw lifted in defiance
+of me.
+
+All these objects were veiled in that smoky amber light which rests the
+eye, and of which the old Flemish masters alone possessed the secret.
+
+"So you went out last night, monsieur the doctor," Knapwurst said to me
+when we were comfortably seated, he before his volume and I with my
+hands stretched out before the fire.
+
+"Yes, rather early. A woodcutter of the Black Forest needed my services;
+he had cut his left foot with an axe stroke."
+
+This explanation appeared to satisfy the dwarf; he lighted his black
+pipe, which hung down over his chin.
+
+"You don't smoke, monsieur?"
+
+"Indeed I do!"
+
+"Well, help yourself to a pipe! I was just here," he said, stretching
+his long, yellow hand over the page, "reading the chronicles of Hertzog
+when you rang."
+
+I now understood why he had kept me standing so long in the cold.
+
+"You waited to finish your chapter," I said smiling.
+
+"Yes, monsieur," he admitted; and we laughed together.
+
+"However, if I had known it was you, I should have put it off till
+another time," he added.
+
+A silence of some minutes followed, during which I studied the truly
+remarkable physiognomy of the dwarf: those deep wrinkles at the corners
+of his mouth, those little squinting eyes, the broad, unshapely nose
+rounded at the end, and especially his swelling, double-storied
+forehead. I noticed in his face something of the expression of Socrates,
+and as I warmed myself before the crackling blaze, I reflected upon the
+strange fortunes of certain of us.
+
+"Here is this dwarf," I said to myself, "this unsightly, stunted
+creature, exiled into a corner of Nideck like the cricket that sings
+beneath the hearthstone; this Knapwurst, who, in the midst of all these
+excitements, hunting-parties and gay cavalcades going and coming, the
+baying of hounds, stamping of horses, and winding of the hunters' horn,
+lives quietly alone, buried in his books, and thinking only of times
+long past, indifferent whether all is in songs or tears around him,
+whether it is spring, summer, or autumn that comes to peep in at him
+through his little dusty window panes, reanimating, warming or chilling
+the breast of Nature outside. While others are living, blessed with the
+hope and magic of love, striving to gratify ambition or avarice,
+plotting, coveting, and longing, he hopes for nothing, covets nothing,
+wishes nothing. He sits and smokes his pipe, and with his eyes fixed on
+the old parchment before him, he dreams and revels in things that no
+longer exist, perhaps never had any existence--what matters it to
+him--'Hertzog says this,' 'such a one has it differently,'--and he is
+happy. His parchment skin gets more and more wrinkled, his sharp elbows
+dig holes in the table, while his long fingers bury themselves in his
+cheeks, and his little gray eyes roam over Latin, Greek, and Etruscan
+characters. He goes into ecstasies, he licks his lips like a cat who has
+just lapped up a saucer of cream, and then he lies down on his cot, with
+his knees drawn up under the coverlid, and thinks he has passed the best
+possible kind of a day. O God of Heaven! Is it at the top or at the
+bottom of the ladder that we find the true application of your laws, and
+the accomplishment of the duties you have imposed?"
+
+Meanwhile the snow was melting from my legs, and the grateful warmth of
+the stove restored my spirits. I felt reanimated in this atmosphere of
+tobacco smoke and resinous pine. Knapwurst laid his pipe on the table,
+and passing his hand once more across the folio:
+
+"Monsieur de la Roche," he said in a grave tone that seemed to come from
+the bottom of his conscience, or if you prefer, from the depths of a
+twenty-five gallon cask, "here is the law and the prophets."
+
+"How do you mean, Knapwurst?"
+
+"Parchment, old parchment, is what I love. These old yellow leaves,
+eaten by worms, are all that is left us of times long gone by, from
+Charlemagne to our own day. The ancient families have disappeared, but
+the old parchments remain. Where would be the glory of the
+Hohenstauferns, the Liningens, the Nidecks, and so many other noble
+families, were it not for these? Where would be the fame of their
+title-rights, their deeds of arms, their heroic actions, their distant
+expeditions to the Holy Land, their ancient alliances and claims, and
+their conquests, did they not stand in these chronicles? These lofty
+barons, dukes, and princes would be as if they never existed--they and
+everything relating to them far and near.
+
+"Their great castles, fortunes, and palaces crumble and fall, and their
+ruins serve as vague reminders. Of all this a single memorial
+remains,--the chronicles, the history, the songs of bards and
+minnesingers,--parchment alone is left to us!"
+
+A brief silence followed, then Knapwurst resumed:
+
+"And in those distant times, when brave knights went forth to war,
+disputing and fighting over a bit of forest, title, or a lesser matter
+yet, with what contempt did they look upon this wretched little scribe,
+this man of letters and mystery, clad in ratteen, his only weapon an ink
+bottle dangling at his belt, and the handle of his pen for a plume. How
+often they jeered him, crying, 'That fellow is an atom, a flea; he is
+good for nothing; he cannot even collect our taxes or manage our
+estates, while we fine chaps go out on our mounts with lance in hand,
+ready for anything that comes in our way!' Thus they talked when they
+saw the poor devil dragging along behind them, shivering in winter,
+sweating in summer, and growing feeble in his old age. Ah, well! this
+atom, this flea, has caused them to survive long after their castles
+have turned to dust and their arms have rusted away, and for my part I
+love these old parchments; I respect and revere them. Like ivy, they
+clothe the ruins and prevent the old walls from crumbling away and
+becoming entirely effaced."
+
+Having given such expression to his thoughts, Knapwurst seemed grave,
+and reflecting upon these things his eyes filled with the tears of
+affectionate remembrance. The dwarf loved those who had tolerated and
+protected his ancestors. After all, he spoke the truth; there was
+profound good sense in his words. His warmth surprised me.
+
+"Have you learned Latin, Knapwurst?" I asked him.
+
+"Yes, monsieur," he replied, "I taught myself Latin and Greek. Old
+grammars were enough,--some of the Count's thrown into the ash-barrel;
+they fell into my hands and I devoured them. Some time after, the Lord
+of Nideck having chanced to hear me make some Latin quotation was
+surprised.
+
+"'Who taught you Latin, Knapwurst?' he asked.
+
+"'I taught myself, monseigneur.'
+
+"He asked me some questions, which I answered pretty well.
+
+"'By Jove!' he cried, 'Knapwurst knows more than I do! He shall keep my
+archives.'
+
+"And he gave me the key to the archive chamber. During the thirty years
+since then, I have read every page. Sometimes the Count, seeing me on my
+ladder, stops a minute and says to me:
+
+"'Ha! ha! What are you doing up there, Knapwurst?'
+
+"'I am reading the family records, monseigneur.'
+
+"'And you enjoy it?'
+
+"'Very much, monseigneur.'
+
+"'Well, well! I am glad to hear it; if it weren't for you, Knapwurst,
+who would know of the glory of the Nidecks?' and he goes off laughing. I
+do as I please here!"
+
+"He is a good master then?"
+
+"Oh, monsieur, what a heart, and what kindness!" exclaimed the dwarf,
+clasping his hands. "He has but one fault."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"He has no ambition."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, he could have attained to anything. A Nideck! One of the most
+illustrious families of Germany! Think of that, monsieur! He had only to
+choose; he might have been a minister or a field-marshal. But no! In his
+youth he retired from political life. With the exception of a campaign
+that he conducted in France, at the head of a regiment which he raised
+by his own exertions--with this exception, he has always lived far from
+noise and strife, simple and almost unknown, only interesting himself in
+his hunting."
+
+These details were of the greatest interest to me. The conversation was
+taking, of its own accord, the direction that I most wished, and I
+resolved to profit by my opportunity.
+
+"The Count has never had any great passions in his life, then?" I asked.
+
+"None, monsieur; and that is the pity, for noble passions make the
+renown of great families. It is a misfortune for the member of a noble
+race to be devoid of ambition. He allows his family to degenerate. I
+could cite many examples in proof of what I say. That which would be the
+pride of the tradesman's family, would be the ruin of the illustrious."
+
+I was amazed; all my speculations regarding the Count's past life were
+fast being disproved.
+
+"However, the Count has met with many reverses, has he not?"
+
+"Of what nature?"
+
+"He has lost his wife?"
+
+"Yes, you are right; his wife was an angel. He married her for love; she
+was a daughter of one the oldest and noblest families of Alsace, but
+ruined by the Revolution. The Countess Odette was her husband's sole
+happiness. She died of a lingering illness that lasted over the space of
+five years; every means was resorted to to save her life. They travelled
+together in Italy, but she returned worse than she went, and succumbed
+some three weeks after their return. The Count came near dying himself
+of a broken heart. For two years he shut himself up and would see
+nobody. His dogs and horses were neglected. Time at length calmed his
+grief, but there has ever been something here." (The dwarf laid his
+finger on his heart.) "You understand; it is a bleeding wound. Old
+wounds pain us in change of weather, and old griefs, too, when the
+flowers spring up above the tomb, and in autumn when the dead leaves
+cover the ground. The Count has never wished to marry again; his
+daughter is the sole object of his affection."
+
+"So this marriage was always a happy one?"
+
+"Happy? It was a blessing for everybody!"
+
+I was silent. Evidently the Count had not committed, could not have
+committed, a crime. I was obliged to yield to the weight of evidence;
+but then that nocturnal scene, these strange relations with the Black
+Plague, that horrible pantomime and the remorse in a dream which forced
+the couple to betray their past--what did it all mean? I became lost in
+thought.
+
+Knapwurst relighted his pipe and reached me one, which I accepted. The
+chill which had seized me had by this time passed away. I was
+experiencing that delicious period of inaction which follows the fatigue
+caused by unusual exertions, when, sprawled out in a big armchair in the
+chimney-corner and enveloped in a cloud of smoke, you abandon yourself
+to the pleasure of repose and listen to the blending of the cricket's
+chant with the unearthly singing of the green log on the hearth. We sat
+thus for a quarter of an hour.
+
+"The Count sometimes gets angry with his daughter," I ventured to
+remark. Knapwurst started, and fixing on me a suspicious, almost
+hostile look, replied:
+
+"I know, I know!"
+
+I watched him with a sidelong glance, thinking that I might learn
+something new, but he added ironically:
+
+"The towers of Nideck are high, and slander flies too low to reach
+them!"
+
+"Undoubtedly; but it is a fact, nevertheless, is it not?"
+
+"Yes; but this is a mere crotchet, an effect of his malady. Once the
+crisis is passed, all his affection for the Countess Odile returns. It
+is curious, monsieur, a lover of twenty years could not be more devoted,
+more affectionate than he. This young woman is his one joy and pride.
+Only fancy, no less than a dozen times I have seen him ride off to get
+her a dress, or flowers, or some like trifle. He would not entrust this
+commission to any one, not even to his faithful Sperver. The Countess
+does not even dare to express a wish in his presence, lest he should
+commit some new extravagance. In a word, monsieur, I assure you that the
+Count of Nideck is the worthiest of men, the tenderest of fathers, and
+the best of masters. As for the poachers who ravaged his forests, the
+old Count Ludwig would have hanged them without mercy; but our Count
+tolerates them; he even makes them his gamekeepers. Take Sperver, for
+instance! If Count Ludwig was still alive, Sperver's bones would be
+clicking together like castanets, at the end of a rope, while as it is,
+he is the steward and man-of-affairs at the Castle."
+
+My theories were fast falling to the ground. I rested my head between my
+hands and thought for a long time. Knapwurst, supposing that I was
+asleep, had resumed his reading. The gray dawn appeared through the tiny
+panes; the lamplight paled, and vague murmurs arose within the Castle.
+Suddenly footsteps sounded outside, some one passed before the window,
+the door opened abruptly, and Gideon appeared on the threshold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+I AM SUMMONED TO THE COUNTESS' CHAMBER, AND MAKE A CONFESSION.
+
+
+Sperver's pale face and rapid glance intimated that something unusual
+was happening; nevertheless, he was calm and did not appear surprised at
+my presence in Knapwurst's room.
+
+"Gaston," he said briefly, "I have come to get you!"
+
+I rose without replying and followed him. No sooner had we left the
+lodge than he seized me by the arm and drew me hastily towards the
+Castle.
+
+"The Countess Odile wants to speak to you," he whispered.
+
+"The Countess! Is she ill?"
+
+"No, she is quite recovered, but something unusual is going on. This
+morning at about one o'clock, thinking that the Count was about to
+breathe his last, I went to wake the Countess, but as I was on the point
+of ringing, my heart failed me. 'Why should I fill her with despair?' I
+asked myself. 'She will learn of her misfortune soon enough; and then to
+wake her up in the middle of the night, when she is so frail and broken
+by so much sorrow, might prove her own death-blow.' I stood some minutes
+reflecting what course to pursue, and at last I decided to take the
+responsibility upon myself, and I returned to the Count's room. I looked
+about; no one was there. Impossible! the man was in his last agonies! I
+ran along the corridor like a madman; no one was to be seen! I entered
+the gallery; no one there! Then I lost my head and rushed again to the
+Countess Odile's chamber. This time I rang. She appeared in tears.
+
+"'My father is dead?'
+
+"'No, madame!'
+
+"'He has disappeared?'
+
+"'Yes; I left the room for a moment, and when I returned--'
+
+"'And Monsieur de la Roche; where is he?'
+
+"'In Hugh's Tower.'
+
+"'In the Tower!'
+
+"She threw on a dressing-gown, seized a lamp and hurried out. I remained
+behind. A quarter of an hour afterwards she returned, her feet covered
+with snow, and very pale; it was pitiful to see. She set the lamp on
+the mantelpiece, and looking steadily at me, she said:
+
+"'Was it you who put the doctor in the Tower?'
+
+"'Yes, madame.'
+
+"'Unhappy man! you will never know the harm that you have done!'
+
+"I wanted to reply, but she stopped me.
+
+"'That is enough! Go and fasten all the doors and lie down. I will sit
+up myself. To-morrow morning you will go and find the doctor in
+Knapwurst's lodge, and you will bring him to me. Breathe no word of this
+to anybody! Remember you have seen nothing and know nothing!'"
+
+"Is that all, Sperver?"
+
+He nodded gravely.
+
+"And the Count?"
+
+"He has come back again; he seems better."
+
+We had reached the antechamber. Gideon knocked gently on the door, then
+opened it, announcing, "Monsieur the doctor."
+
+[Illustration: "I STEPPED FORWARD AND FOUND MYSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF
+ODILE."]
+
+I stepped forward and found myself in the presence of Odile. Sperver
+withdrew, closing the door behind him.
+
+A strange impression was produced upon my mind by the appearance of the
+young Countess, robed in a long gown of black velvet, and standing pale
+and firm with her hand resting on the back of an armchair, her eyes
+glistening with a feverish light.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, pointing to a chair; "pray be seated. I wish to
+speak with you upon a very grave subject."
+
+I obeyed silently. She seated herself in turn, and seemed trying to
+arrange her thoughts.
+
+"Chance, monsieur," she continued after a moment, fixing her large blue
+eyes upon me--"chance or Providence, I know not which to call it--has
+made you the witness of a mystery in which is involved the honor of our
+family."
+
+She knew everything, then. I was astonished.
+
+"Let us call it Providence!" I cried. "Who knows but that through me the
+spell that has so long overhung the Castle is destined to be broken?"
+
+"All this is frightful!" she continued; then in a despairing tone, "My
+father is not guilty of this crime!"
+
+I sprang up, and stretching out my hands deprecatingly, I exclaimed:
+
+"I know it, mademoiselle; I know of the Count's past life, and it is one
+of the purest that it would be possible to conceive!"
+
+Odile half rose from her chair as if to protest against any harsh
+judgment of her father, but seeing me myself undertake his defence, she
+sank back, and covering her face with her hands, burst into tears.
+
+"God bless you, monsieur," she murmured; "had you entertained a
+suspicion of my father, it would have killed me!"
+
+"Why, mademoiselle! Who could mistake for realities the unreasoning
+actions of the somnambulist?"
+
+"That is true, monsieur. I had reflected upon this myself--but
+appearances--I feared--pardon me--but I should have remembered that you
+are a man of honor."
+
+"Pray, dear Countess, calm yourself!" I exclaimed, feeling myself on the
+verge of losing my composure, so deeply was I moved by the grief of my
+beloved mistress.
+
+"No," she cried; "let me weep. These tears are a relief. I have suffered
+so for the past ten years! This secret, so long locked in my breast, was
+killing me, and I should have died at last like my dear mother! God has
+taken pity on me, and he has sent you to share the burden with me. Let
+me tell you all, monsieur, let me--" She could not continue; her voice
+was stifled in sobs. Her proud and high-strung nature, after having
+conquered grief so long, had succumbed to the fateful happening of the
+night before; the seal once broken and her secret betrayed, her
+vanquished nature, still struggling to shield its sacred trust, sought a
+grateful relief in unrestrained tears.
+
+My one sentiment of love and sympathy, repressed until that moment, now
+demanded expression with a power which I was unable to gainsay. I cast
+all prudence to the winds, and dropping on one knee beside Odile, I
+seized the delicate hands that covered her face and drew them gently
+away until her sorrowing glance rested on my face.
+
+"Odile!" I said, as her name rose naturally to my lips, in a voice so
+choked with emotion as to be hardly more than a whisper, "forgive my
+rashness, but it no longer rests with me to speak or not as I choose! I
+might never have said anything of this, at least not now, but your
+suffering affects me so powerfully that to be silent longer is not
+within my power. It must have been evident to you, had you cared to read
+it, that I love you and have loved you, far, far dearer than life
+itself, ever since my eyes first rested upon you in the Count's chamber,
+that first night when I came to the Castle. I cannot ask pardon for it!
+No! For I am convinced that no man could be near you for even this brief
+time and experience the wonderful charm of your being, to say nothing of
+witnessing your present sorrow, without feeling himself moved to the
+depths of his own nature. Odile, I love you! I see no goal in life but
+you, no future but one passed in your divine companionship; and though
+you might well reproach me for choosing such a moment to tell you so,
+believe me, it is through no wish to take advantage of your confidence.
+Did I feel myself guilty of such baseness, I should despise myself more
+than you could possibly do. Odile, my darling, I could not choose but
+speak. I must tell you this, even though it should be at the cost of
+your further favor!"
+
+As I spoke, Odile's eyes were fastened on my face with an expression of
+surprise, indeed, but in it there was no trace of disfavor, and her
+hands were not withdrawn from mine. A bright flush that, for the first
+time since I knew her, had succeeded to her usual pallor, mounted to her
+cheeks and served to increase her matchless beauty.
+
+She remained silent for some moments still, and I could perceive the
+agitation which my words had caused her, by the slight tremor of her
+frame and her quickened breathing.
+
+At length she began, with her clear, frank gaze fastened on my face:
+
+"I am deeply sensible of the honor you do me in expressing yourself as
+you have done, and I am convinced that no woman can do otherwise than
+feel a sense of the greatest satisfaction in knowing that she is so
+regarded by an honorable man. I must confess," she continued after a
+moment of hesitation, "that your words are far from being indifferent or
+unwelcome to me! Oh, how strange are the circumstances of my life! I
+know not how to reply to you! I know not--"
+
+And she paused, at a loss how to continue.
+
+I was happy. Odile had confessed enough to make me feel that I could
+bide my time for the present without endangering my future hopes;
+indeed, I felt that it might be wisdom to grant her time more fully to
+determine her sentiments, before pursuing the victory already won. I was
+now about to share in the secret of her life at her own request; and I
+resolved, if the reason of her vow should be explained, as I felt it
+must, to controvert it by any honorable means.
+
+"You have said enough to make me supremely happy!" I exclaimed. "You
+have not denied me the happiness of hope, and I shall not despair!
+Meanwhile, whatever I may win is fairly mine, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," murmured Odile, with just the slightest smile, in which I fancied
+there was less sorrow than before.
+
+"And now, dear one, I fear I have been selfish in intruding my own
+feelings where so much grief is present! Pray forgive me, and continue
+your story."
+
+I pressed her hands once more, and as she gently disengaged them I
+resumed my chair.
+
+Odile dried her tear-stained cheeks, and resting her face on her fair
+hand she began:
+
+"When I go back into the past, and return to my earliest dreams, I see
+again my mother. She was a stately woman, pale and silent, and still
+young at the time of which I am now speaking. She was scarcely thirty
+years, and you would have thought her at least fifty. White locks
+veiled her thoughtful forehead; her thin cheeks and severe profile, and
+her lips ever firmly closed with an expression of pain, gave to her
+features a strange character, in which grief and pride were blended.
+There was nothing that suggested youth in this old woman of thirty;
+nothing but her upright, haughty bearing, her brilliant eyes, and her
+voice, pure and sweet as the dreams of childhood. She often walked up
+and down for hours together in this very chamber, with her head bowed
+down, and I ran happily along by her side, little knowing that my mother
+was deep in sorrow, too young to comprehend the grief that was preying
+upon her heart. I knew nothing of the past; the present alone possessed
+any reality for me; this was happiness, and the future was but
+to-morrow's play." Odile smiled sadly, and resumed:
+
+"Sometimes it happened that in the midst of my dancing about her, I
+would interrupt my mother's walk, and she would stop, and seeing me at
+her feet, bend down and kiss me on the forehead with a far-off smile;
+then she would resume her interrupted walk. Since then, when I have
+wished to search my memory for remembrances of those early days, this
+tall, pale woman has appeared before me like the image of melancholy
+itself. There she is," she exclaimed, pointing to a picture on the wall;
+"not such as illness made her, as my father believed, but that terrible
+and fatal secret. Look!"
+
+I turned, and my glance falling suddenly upon the portrait which the
+young girl indicated, I shuddered. It was a long, thin, pale face,
+stamped with the cold rigidity of death, and with dark hollows under the
+eyes, which looked at you with a fixed, burning gaze of terrible
+intensity. There was a moment's silence.
+
+"How she must have suffered!" I exclaimed, with a sinking of the heart.
+
+"I know not how my mother made this frightful discovery," continued
+Odile; "but she knew of the mysterious attraction of the Black Plague,
+and of their meetings in Hugh's Tower,--all, in short,--but she never
+suspected my father. No! only she slowly pined away, as I am doing now."
+
+I hid my face in my hands, and the tears started involuntarily.
+
+"One winter night," she went on, "when I was only ten years old, my
+mother, whose energy alone sustained her,--for she was in the last
+stages of a decline,--came to my room. I was sleeping, when suddenly a
+cold, nervous hand seized my wrist. I opened my eyes, and opposite me
+stood a woman; with one hand she held a torch, and with the other she
+held my arm, which felt as if clasped in a chill vise. Her dress was
+covered with snow, a convulsive trembling agitated her limbs, and her
+eyes burned with a dark fire through the white, disordered locks that
+hung about her face. It was my mother.
+
+"'Odile, my child, rise and come with me! You must know everything!' she
+said.
+
+"I dressed myself tremblingly, and leading me along the lonely
+corridors to Hugh's Tower, she showed me the staircase that led down to
+the chasm.
+
+"'Your father will come out this way,' she said, pointing to the tower;
+'he will come out with the she-wolf. Fear nothing! He cannot see you.'
+
+"Hardly had she finished speaking, when my father appeared with the old
+woman, carrying his funereal burden. Taking me in her arms, my mother
+followed them, and I witnessed the scene on the Altenberg.
+
+"'Look, child!' she cried; 'you must, for I am going to die, and you
+shall keep the secret! You shall watch over your father alone--all
+alone! The honor of our family depends upon it!'
+
+"We returned. A fortnight later my mother died, leaving to me the
+accomplishment of her vow and the lesson of her example. I have
+faithfully discharged my trust, but oh, at what a cost! You have seen
+it! I have been obliged to disobey my father and make him wretched. My
+marriage could have accomplished nothing, though he does not know it,
+and to marry would have been to bring a stranger into our midst and
+betray the family secret. I resisted. No one in the Castle knows the
+nature of my father's malady, and had it not been for yesterday's
+crisis, which broke down my strength and prevented me from watching by
+my father, I should still have been the sole depositary of the secret.
+God has willed otherwise; he has placed in your keeping the honor of our
+family.
+
+"Such is my story, and in view of what you told me a few moments ago
+(and she colored charmingly), I feel that I need hardly ask you if you
+will share with me my burden, for my strength is unequal to it--I am
+bending beneath its weight."
+
+She had risen as she finished speaking. For all answer, I sprang
+forward, and throwing my arms about her I drew her close to me and
+covered her upturned face and forehead with passionate kisses, and she
+rested, a delicious burden in my arms.
+
+"Odile," I cried, "I will be all this and a thousand times more, if you
+will only consent to let me. I am the petitioner, not you; and in
+allowing me to share with you even the least of your trials, you make me
+forever your debtor. You have told me the reason of your vow, and in
+doing so you have removed the necessity for its further existence. Oh,
+Odile, may I hope--may I hope, I say, that if I can raise the spell
+which overhangs the Castle, and restore your father's health,--as the
+price of it, I may have your love?"
+
+After a moment, she replied softly, as she gently disengaged herself
+from my arms:
+
+"You may;" and she added, "until then my first duty is ever to my
+father."
+
+I pressed the hand which she yielded to me to my lips, exclaiming with a
+smile, "This seals the promise!"
+
+Then I continued:
+
+"And one thing more. We must seize this creature known as the Black
+Plague, and find out what she is, whence she comes, and what she wants
+here."
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, with a motion of her beautiful head, "I fear that
+is impossible!"
+
+"Who can say that?" I replied. "I want only your permission, and I will
+undertake to seize the Plague at once."
+
+"Do as your judgment dictates. I consent to everything beforehand."
+
+I took a long and reluctant leave of Odile, and hurried jubilantly to
+Sperver's room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WE CHASE THE PLAGUE.--HER DEATH.
+
+
+An hour after my conversation with Odile, Sperver and I were galloping
+hard over the plain from Nideck. The huntsman, bending over his horse's
+neck, set spurs to her from time to time, and the tall Mecklenberg, with
+flying mane and foaming lips, literally cleaved the air in her flight.
+As for my mount, I believe he took the bit in his teeth, and ran away
+with me. Lieverle accompanied us, bounding along beside us like an
+arrow. We seemed to be borne along on the wings of the wind.
+
+The towers of Nideck were far behind us, and Sperver was leading the
+way, as usual, when I shouted to him:
+
+"Hallo, comrade! Pull up! Before we go any further, let us deliberate a
+little."
+
+He wheeled about.
+
+"Only tell me, Gaston, is it to right or left?"
+
+"No, no! Come here. You must first know why I have started off this
+morning. In a word, we are going to catch the hag!"
+
+An expression of supreme satisfaction lighted up the long, bronzed face
+of the old steward; his eyes sparkled.
+
+"Ha, ha!" he exclaimed; "I knew it would come to that sooner or later."
+
+With a movement of his shoulder, he slipped his rifle into his hand.
+This significant movement opened my eyes.
+
+"One moment, Sperver. We are not going to kill the Black Plague; we are
+going to take her alive."
+
+"Alive!"
+
+"Precisely; and to spare you future regrets, I warn you that the destiny
+of the old creature is identified with our master's. The ball that
+strikes her down kills the Count."
+
+Sperver sat open-mouthed with amazement.
+
+"Is this really so?"
+
+"Positively."
+
+There was a long silence; our horses tossing their heads at each other
+as if in salute, pawed the snow impatiently. Lieverle yawned expectantly
+and stretched out his long, snake-like body, and Sperver sat motionless,
+with his hand resting on his rifle.
+
+"Well, then, we will try to take her living," he said at length; "we
+will handle her with kid gloves, since it must needs be so; but it is
+not such an easy matter as you think, Gaston."
+
+Pointing with his extended hand to the mountains which lay unrolled
+about us in the form of a great amphitheatre, he added:
+
+"You see before us the Altenberg, the Birkenwald, the Schneeberg, the
+Oxenhorn, the Rhethal, and the Behrenkopf, and if we were up a little
+higher, we could see fifty other peaks, extending clear into the plain
+of the Palatinate. Within this distance are rocks, ravines, defiles,
+torrents, and endless forests, and the old woman wanders everywhere
+through this wilderness. She has a sure foot and a good eye, and can
+scent you a good league away; so you see we shall have a pretty chase
+before us."
+
+"If it were an easy thing to do, I shouldn't have chosen you out of all
+the people of the Castle."
+
+"That sounds all very well. Still, if we can once get on her trail, I
+don't deny that with courage and patience--"
+
+"As for her trail, don't worry about that; I will put you on it myself."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"You, able to follow up a trail?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Ah, well, since you are so confident and know so much more about it
+than I do, that's another thing; go ahead. I'll follow."
+
+It was easy to see that the old huntsman was vexed at my venturing to
+encroach upon his particular field of operations. Therefore, laughing
+inwardly, I waited for no second invitation and turned to the left, sure
+of coming upon the traces of the old woman, who, after having left the
+Count in the subterranean passage, must have recrossed the plain to gain
+the mountain.
+
+Sperver followed on behind me whistling with assumed indifference, and I
+could hear him muttering:
+
+"The idea of looking for the she-wolf's tracks in the middle of the
+plain. Any one should know that she would follow along the edge of the
+forest, as she always does; but it seems she walks about now with her
+hands in her pockets, like a well-to-do citizen of Tuebingen."
+
+I turned a deaf ear to all this, and kept on my way. Suddenly he gave an
+exclamation of surprise, and looking at me sharply:
+
+"Gaston," he said, "you know more than you are willing to admit."
+
+"How do you mean, Gideon?"
+
+"The track that it would have taken me a week to find, you have got at
+once. There is something behind this."
+
+"Where do you see it, then?"
+
+"Come, don't pretend to be looking at your feet," and pointing to a
+scarcely perceptible white streak at some distance ahead of us, he said:
+
+"There it is."
+
+He started off at a gallop. I followed him, and a moment later we
+leaped from our saddles. It was indeed the Black Plague's track.
+
+"I should like to know," said Sperver, folding his arms, "how the devil
+that trace came to be here!"
+
+"Don't let that trouble you."
+
+"You're right, Gaston. Don't mind what I say. I talk nonsense sometimes.
+The principal thing now is to find out where this track leads."
+
+The huntsman knelt on the snow. I was all ears, he all attention.
+
+"It is a fresh track," he said at the first glance; "last night's. As I
+thought, Gaston, during the Count's last attack the hag was prowling
+about the Castle."
+
+Then examining it more carefully:
+
+"She passed here at about four o'clock this morning."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"The track is fresh, but there is sleet around it. Last night at twelve
+o'clock I went out to lock the doors, and sleet was falling then; there
+is none on this footprint, and therefore it must have been made since
+then."
+
+"That is true, Sperver; but it may have been made later, at nine or ten
+o'clock for instance."
+
+"No; look! It is covered with frost. There is no mist to freeze except
+at daybreak; the old woman passed here after the sleet and before the
+frost; that is to say, between three and four this morning."
+
+I was astonished at the accuracy of Sperver's reasoning. He got up,
+slapping his hands together to shake off the snow, and looking at me
+thoughtfully, he added, as if speaking to himself:
+
+"Let us call it, at the latest, five o'clock! It is now twelve, isn't
+it?"
+
+"Quarter to twelve."
+
+"Very good; the hag has seven hours' start of us. We must follow her
+step by step wherever she may lead us. On horseback we can come up with
+her in from one hour to two, and if she is still moving, by seven or
+eight this evening she ought to be in our clutches. Come on, Gaston;
+there is no time to lose!"
+
+We started on again, following the traces which led us straight towards
+the mountain. As we galloped along, Sperver called out:
+
+"If good luck would have it that this cursed Plague had gone into a hole
+in the rocks somewhere to lie down for an hour or two, we might catch
+her before nightfall."
+
+"Let's hope so, Gideon."
+
+"Don't fool yourself that way. The old she-wolf is always moving; she
+never grows tired; she roams through all the hollow roads of the Black
+Forest. We mustn't indulge vain hopes. If she should happen to have
+stopped somewhere along the road, so much the better for us, and if she
+is still going, we have no reason to be discouraged. Come! hurry along!"
+
+It was a strange occupation; that of a man engaged in hunting down one
+of his own kind; for, after all, this unfortunate woman was a fellow
+creature, endowed like us with an immortal soul, and feeling, thinking,
+and reflecting like ourselves. It is true that perverted instincts had
+brought her near the level of the wolf, and that some great mystery
+overhung her destiny. Her prowling life had doubtless obliterated her
+moral being, and even effaced her human character; but granted all this,
+it is, nevertheless, an incontrovertible truth that nothing in God's
+universe gave us the right to exercise over her the despotism of man
+over the brute creation.
+
+Notwithstanding, a savage ardor hurried us on in pursuit; for my part,
+my blood boiled, and I was determined to stop at nothing which would
+enable me to get this strange being into my power. The wide waste of
+snow flew past us, and the fragments of crust, thrown up by our horses'
+hoofs, whizzed past our ears.
+
+Sperver, sometimes with his head thrown back, and his long mustache
+blowing in the wind, and always with his gray eye on the trail, reminded
+me of the famous horsemen of the steppes, whom I had seen passing
+through Germany in my childhood; his tall, sinewy horse, with full mane
+and body tapering like a greyhound's, completed the illusion. Lieverle,
+in his enthusiasm, bounded sometimes as high as our horses' backs, and I
+could not help trembling at the thought that, should he come upon the
+Black Plague, he might tear her to pieces before we could make a
+movement to prevent him.
+
+The old woman led us a terrible chase; on every hill she had doubled,
+and at every hillock we found a false scent.
+
+"It is easy enough along here," said Sperver, "for you can see a long
+distance ahead, but when we get into the woods, it will be another
+matter; we shall have to keep our eyes open there. Do you see how the
+cursed beast has confused her tracks? There she has amused herself
+sweeping the trail, and from that rising ground that is exposed to the
+wind she has slipped down to the stream and crept through the cresses to
+reach the thicket yonder. If it weren't for these two foot-prints, she
+would have tricked us completely."
+
+We had just reached the border of a fir forest. In these forests, the
+snow never penetrates between the branches of a tree. It was a difficult
+way. Sperver dismounted to watch the tracks closer, and placed me on the
+left, that my shadow might not come between him and the ground. There
+were large open spots covered with dead leaves and pine-needles, which
+take no imprint. Thus it was only in the unsheltered places, where the
+snow lay on the ground, that Sperver could recover the trail.
+
+It took us an hour to get through this patch of woods. The old poacher
+gnawed his mustache with vexation, and his long nose almost touched his
+chin. When I tried to speak, he interrupted me shortly, crying:
+
+"Don't talk; it bothers me!"
+
+At last we descended into a valley to the left, and Gideon, pointing to
+the she-wolf's steps, running parallel with the edge of the undergrowth,
+remarked:
+
+"This is no false sortie; we can follow it confidently.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because the Black Plague has a habit, whenever she doubles on her
+tracks, of going three steps to one side, then, retracing them, taking
+four, five or six in the other direction, and finally jumping into a
+clear space. But when she thinks she has covered the trail, she strikes
+out without troubling herself about false scents. Look! what did I tell
+you? She is burrowing now into the brushwood like a wild boar; it will
+be easy enough to follow her here. So much for that; and now, let's keep
+the tracks between us and light a pipe!"
+
+We halted, and the good fellow, whose face was beginning to brighten up,
+looked at me with enthusiasm, crying:
+
+"Gaston, this promises to be one of the finest days in my life. If we
+take the old creature, I will fasten her to the saddle behind me like a
+bundle of old rags. Only one thing troubles me."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Having forgot my horn. I should like to have sounded the return as we
+were approaching Nideck. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
+
+He lighted his stub of a pipe, and we started on again. The track of the
+she-wolf now led up a wooded slope so steep that we were obliged many
+times to dismount and lead our horses by the bridle.
+
+"There it goes to the right," said Sperver; "in this direction the
+mountains go up like the side of a house. One of us may have to lead
+both horses while the other scrambles along after the trail, and as the
+devil will have it, it's getting so dark we can't see anything much
+longer."
+
+The landscape was at this point assuming a grander aspect. Enormous
+boulders, covered with icicles, raised one beyond another their angular
+peaks, like breakers in a sea of snow.
+
+There is nothing that imparts a more melancholy sense to the beholder
+than a winter scene among these mountains. The irregular line of crests,
+the dark ravines, the denuded trees and bushes sparkling with a tracery
+of hoar frost, all assume before your eyes a look of indescribable
+desolation and still sadness; and the silence, so profound that you can
+hear a dead leaf rustle on the snow-crust, or a pine-needle swirl from
+its branch,--this silence oppresses you; it forces upon you the
+realization of man's littleness in the scale of Nature's vast economy.
+
+Sometimes we felt a need of speaking, if only to break the stillness:
+
+"Ah, we are getting nearer the end of this business! How beastly cold it
+is! Lieverle, what have you got there?" or some like insignificant
+phrase.
+
+Unfortunately, our horses were beginning to tire; they sank up to their
+bellies in the snow, and no longer whinnied as they did on setting out.
+The inextricable defiles of the Black Forest stretched out indefinitely.
+The old woman loved these solitudes; here she had passed around a
+deserted charcoal-burner's hut; further on she had torn up the tender
+roots which overspread the surface of the rocks; and here again she had
+sat down at the foot of a tree to rest, and that recently,--at most two
+hours before, for the marks in the snow were fresh. At sight of this,
+our hopes and enthusiasm were redoubled; but the daylight was fast
+fading out. Strangely enough, ever since our departure from Nideck, we
+had met neither woodcutters, charcoal-burners, nor log-haulers; the
+solitude was as complete as in the Siberian steppes. At five o'clock the
+night had so far closed in that Sperver halted and said to me:
+
+"Gaston, we have started a couple of hours too late. The Plague has got
+too long a start of us. In ten minutes the woods will be as dark as an
+oven. Our best plan will be to reach the Roche Creuse, twenty minutes
+from here, light a good fire, and eat our provisions and empty our
+goat-skins. When the moon comes up we will take up the trail again, and
+if the old hag is not the devil himself, ten to one we shall come upon
+her frozen stiff at the foot of some tree, for no human creature could
+live through such a tramp in such weather as this. Sebalt himself, who
+is the best walker in all the Black Forest, could not have stood it.
+What do you say, my boy?"
+
+"I should be mad to think otherwise, and, moreover, I am perishing with
+hunger!"
+
+"Well, let's be off!"
+
+He took the lead, and we pressed into a narrow gorge between two walls
+of precipitous rock. The fir-trees formed an arch above our heads;
+beneath our feet trickled what the frost had left of a mighty torrent,
+and from time to time a wandering ray penetrated the obscurity, and
+reflected the dull, lead-colored ice mantle. The darkness had become
+such that I deemed it wise to let my bridle fall on the horse's neck.
+The steps of our horses on the slippery pebbles reechoed with an odd
+noise like the laughing and chattering of monkeys through the narrow
+glen. The rocks took up and repeated every sound, and in the distance a
+blue point seemed to grow as we advanced. It was the outlet of the
+gorge.
+
+"Gaston," said Sperver, "we are now in the bed of the Tunkelbach. It is
+the wildest pass in all the Black Forest, and it terminates in a cave
+called La Marmite du Grand Guelard. In the spring, when the snow is
+melting, the Tunkelbach pours all its torrents into it to a depth of
+two hundred feet. It makes a tremendous roar; the waters leap over the
+edge, and their spray falls upon the neighboring mountains. Sometimes
+they even flood the cavern of the Roche Creuse, but just now it must be
+as dry as a powder-flask, and we can build a big fire there."
+
+As I listened to Sperver's observations, I was at the same time
+considering this ominous defile, and reflecting that the instinct of the
+savage beasts, which seek such retreats far from the light of day and
+from all that gladdens the soul, must be akin to remorse. The creatures
+that live in the sunshine,--the goat on the open crag, the horse running
+free on the plain, the dog frisking about his master, the bird basking
+in the sunshine,--all breathe in joy and happiness with their gambols
+and their songs. The kid, browsing in the shade of the great trees on
+the green hillside, is as poetic an object as the retreat that he
+prefers; the wild boar, as fierce and savage as the trackless brakes
+through which he roams; the eagle as proud and lofty as the towering
+peaks where he rests in his sweeping flight; the lion as majestic as the
+mighty arches of his den,--but the wolf, the fox, and the ferret seek
+the darkness, with fear their only companion; aye, this instinct is
+closely related to remorse.
+
+I was still reflecting upon these things and already felt the keen air
+blowing against my face--for we were approaching the opening of the
+gorge--when suddenly we perceived a reddish reflection dancing upon the
+rock a hundred feet above us, turning to purple the dark green of the
+firs, and making the frost wreaths on the tree trunks glitter.
+
+"Ha!" whispered Sperver hoarsely, "we've got the witch!"
+
+My heart leaped; we moved along pressed close against each other. The
+dog growled warningly.
+
+"Can't she escape us?"
+
+"No; she is caught like a rat in a trap. La Marmite du Grand Guelard has
+but one outlet, and we are barring it. Everywhere else the rocks rise
+sheer two hundred feet. Ha! you Satan's hag, I've got you!"
+
+He sprang from his horse into the ice-cold water of the Tunkelbach,
+handing me his bridle. I shivered. The click of his rifle as he cocked
+it sounded with fearful distinctness, and the sound sent a nervous wave
+clear to my finger-tips.
+
+"Sperver, what are you doing?"
+
+"Never fear; it is only to frighten her."
+
+"Very good; but no blood! Remember what I have already told you. The
+ball that strikes the Plague kills the Count!"
+
+"Rest easy on that score!"
+
+He moved forward, without stopping further to listen to me. I could hear
+the splash of his feet in the water; then I saw his tall figure appear
+at the outlet of the glen, black against the bluish background. He stood
+full five minutes motionless. Meanwhile, I was slowly approaching him,
+and when he at last turned around, I was within three paces of him.
+
+"Sh!" he said mysteriously; "look there!"
+
+At the end of the open gorge, now revealed to us, which was dug out like
+a quarry in the mountainside, I saw a bright fire unrolling its golden
+spires before the mouth of a cave, and in front of the fire sat a man
+with his hands clasped about his knees, whom I recognized by his
+clothing as the Baron Zimmer. He sat motionless, with his eyes fixed on
+the fire, and seemed lost in thought. Behind him a dark form lay
+stretched upon the ground, and further in the distance, his horse, half
+lost in the shadows, gazed upon us with fixed eyes, ears pricked up, and
+distended nostrils.
+
+I stood stupefied. How came the Baron Zimmer to be in this dense,
+terrifying wilderness at such an hour and such a time,--what was he
+doing here? Had he lost his way? The most contradictory conjectures
+succeeded each other in my brain, and I knew not where to pause, when
+the Baron's horse began to neigh. At the sound, the master raised his
+head:
+
+"Well, Rappel, what now?"
+
+Then, in his turn, he gazed in our direction, straining his eyes to make
+us out in the darkness. That pale face, with its clear-cut features,
+delicate lips, and heavy black eyebrows, gathered in a frown, would have
+struck me with admiration under any other circumstances, but now an
+indefinable feeling of apprehension took possession of me, and I was
+filled with vague anxiety. Suddenly, the young man cried:
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"I, monsieur," replied Sperver quickly, at the same time advancing
+towards him; "I, Sperver, steward of the Count of Nideck!"
+
+A strange expression passed across the Baron's features, but not a
+muscle of his face quivered. He rose to his feet, gathering the folds of
+his cloak more closely about him. I drew towards me the horses and the
+hound, who suddenly began to howl as he had done on the night of my
+arrival at the Castle.
+
+Who of us is not subject in some degree to superstitious fears? At the
+sound of Lieverle's menacing growls, I felt a dread of I know not what,
+and I shuddered instinctively. Sperver and the Baron stood at a
+distance of fifty yards from each other; the first immovable in the
+middle of the gorge, with his rifle resting against his shoulder; the
+other, standing erect before the entrance of the cave, holding his head
+high, and surveying us with a haughty glance.
+
+"What do you want here?" he asked defiantly.
+
+"We are looking for a woman," replied the huntsman; "a woman who comes
+each year prowling about the Castle of Nideck, and we have orders to
+seize her."
+
+"Has she robbed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Has she committed murder?"
+
+"No, monsieur."
+
+"Then what do you want of her? What right have you to pursue her?"
+
+Sperver straightened up, and fixing his gray eye on the Baron:
+
+"And you? What right have you over her?" he asked with a strange smile;
+"for she is there. I can see her at the back of the cavern. By whose
+authority do you meddle with our affairs? Do you not know that we are at
+this moment within the domains of Nideck, and that we administer all
+forms of justice at our pleasure?"
+
+The young man grew paler yet, and replied shortly:
+
+"I am not accountable to you for any act of mine."
+
+"Take care," replied Sperver; "I am acting in the name of my master, the
+Count of Nideck, and am but doing my duty. You will have to answer for
+any interference on your part."
+
+"Your duty!" exclaimed the young man, with a bitter smile; "if you speak
+of your duty, you may force me to tell you mine."
+
+"Let us hear it," cried the old steward, whose face was becoming
+discomposed with anger.
+
+"No," returned the Baron, "I will tell you nothing, nor shall you set
+foot inside this cave."
+
+"We will see about that," said Sperver, advancing towards the cavern.
+
+The young man drew his hunting-knife. Seeing this, I tried to spring
+between them, when the hound, which I was holding by a leash, shook
+himself free, throwing me to the ground with the force of the shock. I
+thought that the Baron was lost; but at the same moment a savage cry
+rose from the back of the cavern, and as I rose to my feet, I saw the
+old woman standing upright before the fire, her clothing in rags, her
+head run forward, and her gray locks scattered about her shoulders, with
+her long, skinny arms raised towards heaven, and uttering dismal howls,
+like the cries of the wolf in the cold winter nights, when hunger is
+gnawing at his entrails.
+
+Never in my life had I witnessed such a frightful spectacle. Sperver,
+motionless, with his eyes fixed on the strange scene before him, seemed
+turned to stone. The dog, surprised himself at this unexpected
+apparition, stood still for a moment, then suddenly arching his
+bristling back, he flew at the hag with a low growl of fury that made
+me shudder. The entrance to the cavern was some eight or ten feet above
+the spot where we stood, or he would have reached it with a single
+bound. I can hear him still, as he crashes through the frost-laden
+bushes, and see the Baron fling himself before the old woman with the
+heart-rending cry:
+
+"My mother!"
+
+Then, as the dog takes his final spring, Sperver, quick as lightning,
+raises his rifle, and brings down the noble animal dead at the young
+man's feet. All this was the work of an instant. The gorge was
+momentarily lighted by the rifle flash, and the echoes, taking up the
+noise of the explosion, carried it roaring and tumbling to the infinite
+depths of the neighboring crags.
+
+When the smoke cleared away, I saw Lieverle lying stretched out at the
+foot of the rock, and the old woman fainting in the arms of the young
+man. Sperver eyed the Baron gloomily, as he dropped the butt of his
+rifle to the ground, his features working with rage and grief.
+
+"Baron," he said, pointing to the cave, "I have killed my best friend to
+save the woman whom you call your mother. You may thank God that her
+destiny was bound up with that of my master. Take her away from here.
+Take her far away, and let her never return; for, if she does, I cannot
+answer for myself."
+
+Then, glancing at his dog:
+
+"My poor Lieverle!" he cried; "was this to be the outcome of our long
+years of friendship? Come, Gaston, let us hurry away from this accursed
+spot. I might do something I should regret afterwards."
+
+Seizing his horse's mane, he started to throw himself into his saddle,
+but suddenly his heart swelled to bursting, and dropping his head on his
+horse's neck, he wept like a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE BARON'S STORY.--HE DISAPPEARS.
+
+
+Sperver set out, carrying the body of Lieverle in his cloak. I had
+refused to follow him, for I felt that duty compelled me to remain near
+this unhappy woman, and I could not have abandoned her without violating
+my conscience. Moreover, I am obliged to confess I was curious to
+examine more closely this mysterious being, and hardly had Sperver
+disappeared in the darkness of the defile before I began climbing the
+path to the cavern. A strange sight awaited me there. Upon a large fur
+cloak with green facings lay the old woman in a long purple robe, with
+a golden arrow stuck through her gray hair, her withered hands
+clutching her breast.
+
+Time will never efface the image of this woman from my mind. Her
+vulture-like face, distorted by the last agonies of death, her staring
+eyes and half-opened mouth, were appalling to look upon. Such might have
+been the last hour of the terrible Queen Fredegonde. The Baron, on his
+knees beside her, tried to restore her to animation, but at the first
+glance it was evident to me that the unfortunate creature was dying, and
+it was not without a sentiment of profound pity that I kneeled to raise
+her arm.
+
+"Leave her alone! How dare you touch her?" cried the young man
+bitterly.
+
+"I am a doctor, monsieur."
+
+"Ah, pardon me!"
+
+He was deathly pale, and his lips trembled nervously. After a moment, he
+asked:
+
+"What is your opinion, monsieur?"
+
+"It is over. She is dead."
+
+Without replying, he leaned back against the wall of the cavern, his
+forehead resting in his hands, and staring straight before him,
+motionless as marble. I sat near the fire, watching the flames as they
+climbed to the arched top of the cave, casting their vivid reflections
+upon the rigid features of the Black Plague.
+
+We had been sitting thus for a full hour without stirring, when suddenly
+lifting his head, the Baron said to me:
+
+"Monsieur, all this confounds me. Here is my mother,--for twenty-six
+years I thought I knew her, and now a whole world of mystery and horror
+opens itself before my eyes. You are a doctor; tell me if you have ever
+known anything like it before."
+
+"Monsieur," I replied, "the Count of Nideck is afflicted with a malady
+that bears a striking resemblance to that of which your mother has been
+the victim. If you have confidence enough in me to relate to me the
+facts which you yourself must have witnessed, I will gladly tell you
+what I know of the matter, for this exchange may be the means of saving
+my patient."
+
+As I began to speak the Baron started, and exclaimed:
+
+"What? the Count of Nideck visited thus? This is more than a
+coincidence."
+
+And without further parley he informed me that the Baroness Zimmer,
+belonging to one of the noblest families in Saxony, and being a blood
+relation of the Count of Nideck (to whom he should have made himself
+known had not circumstances required that he should maintain the
+strictest secrecy as to his identity), had been accustomed for many
+years to make a journey into Italy towards Christmas, accompanied by an
+old man servant, who alone possessed her entire confidence; that this
+man, being at the point of death, had desired a private interview with
+her son, and that at the last hour, tormented no doubt by remorse, he
+had told the young man that his mother's journey into Italy was only a
+pretext to furnish her a means of making an excursion into the Black
+Forest, of the object of which he himself was in ignorance, but which
+must have been of some fearful nature, since the Baroness invariably
+returned haggard, in rags, and almost dead, and that it required weeks
+of rest to repair the terrible fatigues of these few days.
+
+This is what the old servant had related to the young Baron, thinking
+that in so doing he was only fulfilling his duty. The son, wishing to
+learn the truth of his story, whatever the cost to himself, had this
+very year verified the incomprehensible fact by following his mother
+first to Baden, and then pursuing her step by step into the gorges of
+the Black Forest. The tracks which Sebalt had discovered on the
+Altenberg were his.
+
+When the Baron had finished his confidence, I thought that I ought no
+longer to conceal from him the singular influence which the advent of
+the old woman exercised upon the Count's health, nor indeed any of the
+attendant circumstances, and accordingly, I imparted to him even the
+slightest details.
+
+The Baron was amazed by the coincidence of these facts; the mysterious
+attraction which these two beings exercised over one another without
+knowing it, the ghastly drama which they had enacted without
+consciousness, the acquaintance which the old woman had shown with the
+Castle and its most secret passages, without ever having seen them
+before; the costume which she had discovered in which to carry out the
+murder in pantomime, and which could only have been discovered in some
+mysterious retreat which magnetic clairvoyance had revealed to her.
+
+When I had ended the recital of my experiences, the Baron relapsed into
+his former gloomy silence, nor did he again rouse from it while I
+remained near him. I fancied I could read in his face and attitude the
+one wish to distance himself forever from the scene of this bitter
+revelation.
+
+While we were still sitting, each one buried in his own reflections, the
+darkness of night began to fade. An owl, far off in the shadows, sounded
+the retreat of darkness with its strange note, like the gurgling of
+liquid from a bottle. Presently we heard a whinnying in the depths of
+the defile, and then, in the first rays of dawn, we saw a sledge
+approaching, driven by the Baron's servant. It was covered with straw,
+and upon it rested a litter, on which we laid the body of the old woman.
+
+I mounted my horse, who did not seem sorry to stretch his legs again,
+having stood half the night in the snow, and I accompanied the sledge as
+far as the outlet of the glen. There, having gravely saluted one another
+for the last time, they proceeded in the direction of Hirschland, and I
+on my way towards the Castle of Nideck.
+
+At nine o'clock I was again in Odile's presence.
+
+"The Plague is dead!" I cried, "and the spell is raised forever from
+the Castle. Henceforth we may look for the olden days at Nideck."
+
+[Illustration: "ODILE DROPPED HER EYES."]
+
+And I related the extraordinary experiences of the last twenty-four
+hours, exulting in our victory over the hag. When I had finished, and
+recalled to my now happy love her promise of the day before, Odile
+dropped her eyes, flushed charmingly, and returned the pressure of my
+hand with averted head.
+
+After some precious moments passed in the indulgence of our new-found
+happiness, I proceeded to the Count's chamber. I found him in a very
+satisfactory condition. He was naturally in a state of complete
+exhaustion after the terrible crises that he had been through, but was
+entirely himself, and the fever had disappeared the evening before.
+Everything pointed towards a speedy recovery.
+
+"Monsieur," I said, as he greeted me with a warm grasp of my hand, "your
+restored health is assured, and it is but the matter of a few days when
+you will be able to indulge in your favorite pastime again."
+
+"I believe you, monsieur! I feel that myself as I have never done
+before, and I am bound that you shall remain at Nideck and accompany me
+on my first boar hunt."
+
+"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, monsieur," I replied. "Though
+an entire novice in the art, I shall doubtless gain much by employing my
+powers of observation."
+
+"And furthermore," continued the Count, "your reward for this greatest
+of all services which you have performed for me shall be whatever you
+may require that lies within my gift!"
+
+"Monsieur," I replied, bowing low, "your generosity overwhelms me.
+However, we will discuss the matter of compensation at a future time,
+when your strength will better admit of it. At present let me say that
+the existing state of affairs is an ample reward for anything I may have
+been able to accomplish in your behalf." And meanwhile I wondered if the
+Count realized the significance of his promise as I reflected upon the
+recompense I was presently to seek at his hands.
+
+As his malady left him, I found the master of Nideck a changed man. His
+features, which had at first aroused only a sentiment of repugnance in
+me, slowly resumed their natural expression, and became dignified and
+even handsome. His generosity and kindness exceeded anything I had
+before experienced, and everything that Knapwurst had declared in his
+master's favor was realized to the utmost. From liking I grew to loving
+him, as I felt indeed I must have done if only as the author of Odile's
+being.
+
+The fortnight that followed was one of rejoicing throughout Nideck. The
+Count gained with wonderful rapidity, and for a week past he had moved
+about the Castle with a buoyancy and contentment of demeanor which only
+Odile and the old steward could recall having seen in him long years
+before, ere the dead witch had yet entwined him in the meshes of her
+baneful spell.
+
+Even the grim, melancholy Sebalt had become grotesquely gay, and he
+discontinued his matinal post on the Altenberg, feeling, no doubt, that
+he had contributed not a little to his master's recovery. As for
+Sperver, he was radiant, and he would come to my chamber late at night,
+after I had left Odile, and as we sat over our bottles we would discuss
+for the fiftieth time the circumstances of my stay within the Castle.
+
+During the earlier stages of the Count's convalescence I repaired each
+morning to his chamber, where I invariably found Odile arrived before
+me, and as the Count was fond of reading, which served to wear away the
+period of his enforced inactivity, Odile and I would share for hours
+together the reading of "Garin the Lorrainer," which was one of his
+favorite romances.
+
+The extent of my contentment may be imagined. Whenever I glanced up from
+my book as it became necessary to turn a page, I invariably met Odile's
+eyes fastened upon my face, and speaking the whole language of love and
+contentment, and when she in turn assumed the reading, I found myself
+lost in a world of reverie and speculation as I continued to study her
+beautiful face, which was always a revelation to me, no matter how long
+it remained before my gaze.
+
+Oh, the delight of all this! How I pity you crabbed misanthropes who
+know not the richness of a loving woman's endearments!
+
+I had determined, with Odile's sanction, to broach the subject of our
+betrothal to the Count as soon as his health would permit it.
+
+Meanwhile, our hours at table were spent in laying plans for our future.
+I was sanguine of success in my avowal, for added to the Count's desire
+of seeing his line perpetuated,--which lay nearest his heart,--I knew
+that he felt, though how deservedly I leave it to the reader to
+determine, that I had been instrumental in restoring him to health.
+These considerations, combined with his invariable desire to secure to
+his daughter her slightest wish or whim, I believed would be sufficient
+to ensure the consummation of my desire. Moreover, with my beloved
+champion beside me, I felt strong enough to overcome the opposition of
+the universe.
+
+But the future still held something in store, and as it often happens
+when we fancy ourselves beyond the reach of an adverse Fate, we may in
+reality be standing within the shadows of the Valley of Darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BOAR HUNT.
+
+
+"You must be ready to start with the Count in an hour," exclaimed
+Sperver, as he stood on my threshold before the sun had yet risen.
+"Sebalt and Becker came in late last night, famished, and covered with
+mud, and they have reported a wild boar's tracks near the Leidenthal. I
+will lend you whatever clothes you need, but be quick, for there's only
+breakfast between us and the start."
+
+I got up, and taking a hasty plunge in the icy water beside my bed,
+which served to drive the vapors from my brain, I half dressed myself,
+and followed Sperver to his room.
+
+"The beaters found game worthy of our powder," continued Gideon. "They
+brought back a dried clump of bog-mud with an enormous hoof-print in the
+middle of it. If the Count's carbine misses fire, we must stand in well
+beside him this time, though he always grudges the fatal shot to any arm
+but his own."
+
+I paid little heed to his words, busied as I was in accommodating myself
+to my borrowed garments, and I presently emerged from the chamber
+dressed in a leather hunting-jacket, cap, and long gaiters which reached
+to my hips; a carbine and long hunting-knife completed my outfit.
+
+"If I only had you for a couple of weeks on the forest patrol, I would
+make a first-class shot out of you," said Sperver with a grin. "As it
+is, I suppose you know as much about a gun as a pike does of mountain
+climbing."
+
+"Just about!" I laughed. "However, I'm fortunately in such good company
+that it will make little difference whether I can tell the muzzle from
+the stock, or not."
+
+"There's something in that," he returned; "and as there are to be ladies
+in the party you may find other employment as agreeable as the killing
+of animals," and he looked at me with a dry twitching of his mouth.
+
+I made no reply to this beyond rather a grim smile, and a moment later
+we reached the dining-room. I found the Count dressed in
+hunting-costume, seated at the table, on which Tobias was placing the
+last dishes for the breakfast. He complimented me on my professional
+appearance, and added that, judging from externals, a little practice
+was all that was necessary to make me an accomplished huntsman.
+
+I looked in vain for Odile as I entered the room, but she presently
+appeared in a close-fitting habit which became her marvellously well,
+sparkling with health and freshness, and bearing in one hand her long
+skirt, and in the other a pearl-handled crop. A pistol with a heavy
+barrel was thrust beneath her belt, more for ornament, I fancied, than
+for service.
+
+"Ha! Odile!" cried her father, as she greeted us and took her seat at
+the table, "the mere sight of your rosy cheeks and lithe step puts new
+life into me! It's a pleasure to look at you. Isn't it so, Monsieur
+Gaston?" then, as Odile grew crimson with confusion, the Count perceived
+his blunder, and began to busy himself with the dishes before him. The
+next moment I caught Odile's eye, as she stole an amused glance at me,
+and I nodded a quick affirmative, without violence to my conscience.
+
+The meal passed with narratives of hunting exploits by the Count, who
+delighted in recalling his past experiences, often discontinuing his
+meal to illustrate by attitudes and gestures his combats with the
+different animals of the regions round about. Odile and I proved good
+listeners, though, perhaps, as one sometimes hearkens to a strain of
+music, the better to indulge his own reflections.
+
+Breakfast finished, we went down into the courtyard. A dozen horses
+stood saddled just inside the principal gate. Sebalt, in his leather
+dress, with his double-coiled horn strapped across his back, and a heavy
+cowhide whip in his hand ready to strike, held a score of dogs in leash,
+that were baying and tugging at their bonds in excited anticipation of
+the part they were to play in the day's sport. Joy gleamed in every line
+of his goat's face as his long deferred desire was now about to be
+realized. Gideon, who held the Count's horse, looked more himself than I
+had seen him since the death of poor Lieverle; he seemed to have
+recovered much of his wonted good spirits.
+
+I pushed aside the groom who stood beside Odile's horse, and she sprang
+from my hand into the saddle. Then I, in turn, mounted my horse, and
+moved abreast of Odile and the Count.
+
+When all was in readiness, Sebalt raised his horn and sounded the
+departure as, according to Sperver, he alone could sound it.
+
+The neighboring hillsides took up the sound, and threw it back in tones
+of purest silver, and all the echoes of the valleys were awakened and
+fled away towards the rising sun. This warm February sun had done its
+work, and the snow had disappeared to a level of but a few inches,
+covered with a hard crust. We started off at a gallop. Sebalt and
+Sperver rode first, with Odile, the Count, and myself close behind them.
+Becker and the under-keepers came on in the rear.
+
+Sebalt led the pack along the base of the Gaisenberg, and skirting the
+falls of the Lauterbach, he followed along the defile at its further
+side, from which point the trail diverged in the direction of the
+Leidenthal. The weather was superb, not a cloud in the heavens, and the
+frosty air clear as crystal. The bare oaks creaked their gaunt branches,
+and the singing pines waved their lofty tops in the fresh south wind.
+The yelping of the pack could have been heard for a mile around, and
+Gideon, turning from time to time, called to them:
+
+"Hold your noise, you rascals; you'll have reason enough to howl before
+long, I'll warrant."
+
+There was little chance for conversation at the furious pace which we
+were following, and I contented myself with frequent glances at Odile,
+whose superb beauty was enhanced by the bright color in her cheeks,
+which excitement, exercise and happiness called forth. As for the Count,
+I could no longer recognize in him the dying patient of my first night
+at Nideck. All trace of his terrible illness had vanished, and he rode
+like a youth of twenty years, vigorous, calm, confident.
+
+At the end of an hour we emerged from the defile into the dazzling
+sunlight beyond. The dogs came upon the trail of the boar, and their
+long, full cries changed to exultant yappings; they glided along to
+right and left among the rocks, their noses to the ground, and they ran
+and leaped along the trail. Not one of them followed the other's lead,
+until he had verified the scent for himself; like all true hunting dogs,
+they relied only upon themselves.
+
+Meanwhile, the blast of the horn, the short, savage yelps of the pack,
+and the noise of our horses' hoofs as they pierced the sparkling snow
+crust, made music of an exciting, bewildering sort. I galloped on imbued
+to the finger-tips with the contagious anticipation everywhere around
+me.
+
+For some little time past the order of the hunt had been broken up. The
+Count, seemingly lost in the one object of the chase and oblivious to
+all else, had ridden far ahead, and had almost overtaken Sebalt and
+Sperver, who were at such a distance from us that the sound of their
+trumpets grew feebler and feebler, and at length were entirely lost,
+save that at rare intervals they reached our ears like the sigh of the
+passing breeze. The mounts of Becker and his comrades, though chosen for
+endurance and strength, were not the equal of ours in speed; and thus it
+was that Odile and I now found ourselves alone, as it were, midway in
+the plain.
+
+On we went. Every now and then Odile would turn her head and smile at
+me; then she would whisper to her horse, and we bounded along yet
+faster. From the less frequent pauses of the pack, that glided, no
+larger than rabbits now, up the distant slopes, and their straight-ahead
+course, I fancied that the foremost of the party were approaching the
+whereabouts of the game.
+
+It was now that a belt of dense woods became visible on the rising
+ground before us. The Count had by this time gained so far upon us that
+we presently saw him disappear, together with his followers, within its
+borders.
+
+"We must be in at the death!" cried Odile breathlessly; "let's make
+haste!" and she urged her horse still further, while I clapped spurs to
+mine. Twenty minutes later we had covered the intervening distance, and
+dashed into the shadows of the wood.
+
+We had not proceeded above a mile further, when we found that our road
+forked, and running over an extensive ledge of rock, swept bare of snow
+and pine-needles by the wind, we were at a loss which path to follow,
+for there were no tracks of horses nor dogs, and the direction of both
+paths being apparently the same, the noise of the pack growing
+momentarily fainter, afforded us no clue to our proper course.
+
+We reined up, impatient at this vexatious occurrence.
+
+"Which way now?" I cried to Odile.
+
+She hesitated for a moment.
+
+"Let's go to the right!" she replied. "There's a new blaze on that
+beech-tree yonder. Perhaps one of the men's guns bruised the bark as he
+passed it!" and without waiting for me to reply, she started on again.
+
+It occurred to me a few moments later that we might now be left entirely
+alone if, perchance, we had chosen the wrong path, and if our followers,
+who would inevitably meet with the same question of direction on
+reaching the fork in the road, should decide upon the one to the left.
+
+I felt little apprehension in being thus deserted, as it were, but let
+it not be understood by this that fearlessness formed any part of my
+character; it was to the more ignoble trait of ignorance that my present
+equanimity was due. I did, however, feel that Odile should be reminded
+of the fact, and I proceeded to communicate it to her; but whether it
+was that her attention was so much engrossed by the business in hand
+that she had no thought for anything else, or whether she considered my
+apprehensions groundless, her only reply was a smile and a motion of her
+head, as her horse carried her away from me, which I interpreted as
+meant to reassure me, and I gave my horse his head.
+
+From time to time we heard, far over on the mountainside, the sound of
+the woodcutter's axe, falling against the oak with measured
+stroke,--that slow, heavy stroke that is taken up and exaggerated by the
+echoes,--then the creaking of the falling tree, the shout of warning,
+and the thud of the giant as it measured its length upon the earth,
+crashing among the underbrush. Owing to the frequent windings of the
+woodland path, and the uncertain character of the ground, we were
+obliged to moderate our speed, and as we came upon the open land between
+the hills, the barking of the dogs reached us, loud for a moment, then
+faint again, as some intervening object came between us.
+
+"You hear the dogs!" cried Odile; "we are on the right path after all!"
+
+And as the sounds became more distinct with each moment, I was satisfied
+that she was right.
+
+Here and there, as we entered a dark defile, we saw the fire of the
+charcoal-burner beneath the shadowy boughs, spreading its purple ring
+over the snow-crust and even to the tops of the swaying firs, then
+drawing its uncertain rays the closer until it was no longer but a
+spark, only to spread them out again yet wider than before. The outline
+of the charcoal-burner, stooping over the flame, with his broad-brimmed
+hat flattened on his shoulders, smoking his short, black pipe, and
+turning potatoes in the embers, reminded me at a distance of the trolls
+that are said to quarry gems of untold value in the centre of the
+earth.
+
+The noise of the dogs, forming a discordant, frenzied concert, grew
+nearer every moment. At length a sharp turn to the left, as we emerged
+from the deep, narrow glen which we had been traversing for some minutes
+past, brought us, it almost seemed, right upon the game, so startling
+was the uproar that greeted us.
+
+I was now convinced that we had happened upon the right path, and I
+expected momentarily to come upon the Count's party engaged in securing
+the game. I glanced back to see if Becker and his comrades were near us,
+but our frequent windings through the forest would have concealed them
+completely from our view, even had they followed us.
+
+Up to this point I had been vaguely regretting my inexperience in the
+hunt, though I still had little realization of the danger that might
+threaten us. But now, as I heard the loud blare of Sebalt's horn not
+above a quarter of a mile before us, I felt entirely reassured, and both
+Odile and I were looking expectantly for the forms of the Count and his
+huntsmen among the trees.
+
+A few rods further on we came upon a brake, half swamp, half stubble,
+beyond which, as far as the eye could reach, the sun once more shone
+brightly. We advanced at a walk, which the treacherous nature of the
+ground made necessary. The din of the maddened dogs, and a strange,
+ominous snarl, the like of which I had never before heard, told us that
+the beast was run, or nearly run, to earth.
+
+"Whose hand will the slaying fall to to-day?" I exclaimed laughingly to
+Odile.
+
+"To my father's, if his aim is true," replied Odile excitedly.
+
+She had hardly finished these words when a sudden parting of the bushes
+before us brought us into a crescent-shaped clearing some fifty yards in
+extent, and entered at its opposite side by the other forest path.
+Directly in the centre of this clearing, surrounded by a score of dogs
+that had seized him by the ears and neck, and were vainly endeavoring to
+bear him down, regardless of those of their number who had succumbed to
+his savage tusks,--was a huge wild boar!
+
+I confess to a sensation of horror at the sight. I glanced involuntarily
+at Odile, whom I would have given anything in the gift of man to see
+removed as far as possible from the spot. She, apparently undaunted
+still, though with a shade less color in her fair cheeks, turned hastily
+towards me and motioned me to hand her my rifle. I complied with
+misgiving, silently cursing my ignorance of the weapon's use, and in
+another moment Odile was gazing along its glistening barrel.
+
+There was a report, and though the aim was true it failed of its effect.
+And now the raging brute, infuriated by the pain of the wound, charged
+directly upon Odile, heedless of the sharp fangs which lacerated him,
+unchecked by the combined strength of the pack.
+
+My dismay was complete when, the next moment, the frightened animal
+which Odile rode, rearing up at the boar's furious onslaught, lost its
+footing in the treacherous bog-land and fell on its side,--happily upon
+its right side.
+
+[Illustration: "I FELL UPON MY KNEE BEFORE THE BRUTE."]
+
+Leaping to the ground, I had only time to seize my love about the waist
+and swing her beyond the reach of the horse's flying hoofs, when the
+boar was upon me. There was no time for reflection. I fell upon my knees
+before the brute, my hunting-knife extended straight before me, and held
+with all the strength of my arm.
+
+So quickly works the eye sometimes, in moments of danger, that in this
+instant I saw the Count, or rather, perhaps, he came within my range of
+vision, pale as death, and riding at the highest speed along the
+opposite path, while close behind him followed Gideon and Kraft.
+
+The knife in my hand never swerved, for the love I bore Odile steadied
+my arm as I fancy that alone could have done. The mad rush of the boar
+was but the means of his surer destruction. He came straight upon the
+knife, and the momentum of his ponderous body drove the steel deep
+through his heart. I felt the gush of his life's blood pour over my arm
+and chest; then I heard a cry from Odile's lips and a shout of wild
+triumph from the Count and his huntsmen; then I fell backwards, my
+consciousness half crushed out by the enormous weight of the brute's
+body as it struck against me in its swaying fall to the earth.
+
+A moment later Odile, oblivious to all around her, had thrown herself
+into my arms and burst into uncontrollable tears. The crisis of the
+moment just passed had completely unnerved her and robbed her of her
+usual calm control.
+
+We stood thus when the Count reined up before us.
+
+"Ha! is it so?" he exclaimed, endeavoring to hide his emotion beneath a
+joking exterior. "And why not? Who deserves better of a woman than the
+lad who has saved her life and her father's too!" And as Sebalt and
+Gideon rode up, all three jumped from their saddles and wrung my hands,
+while good old Sperver beamed with gratified pride, and pulled the brim
+of his hat down over his eyes to screen them from the glare of the sun.
+
+These words of the Count had filled our cup of happiness to the brim.
+Though I had dared to hope for little exception on his part when I
+should determine to impart to him my wishes, yet this complete and
+cordial acceptance of the relationship existing between Odile and myself
+filled me with unwonted exultation. Nor was the Count's satisfaction any
+less, I believe, as he realized that the fulfilment of that desire which
+lay nearest his heart was now assured him. It seemed, moreover, that he
+had guessed something of the truth during the hours which we had passed
+together in his sick-room.
+
+"Aye," said he, in speaking of it afterwards, "did you think I had not
+weighed my words, Gaston, when I promised you any reward you should
+require of me? And was I wrong in believing that such a spirited lad as
+you, and one after my own heart, might find his happiness in Odile; for
+she is lovely, is she not, though she is my child?"
+
+For all answer, I drew Odile closer to me, and kissed the fair face that
+rested on my shoulder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE BANQUET.--THE DWARF EXPLAINS THE MYSTERY OF THE NIDECK HOUSE.
+
+
+The body of the boar was strapped across the backs of the two horses
+which the beaters, Wilhelm Moelz and Yeri Scharf, relinquished for the
+purpose, themselves returning on foot to the Castle.
+
+I looked with strange fascination at the shaggy brute that had so nearly
+put an end to all my cherished prospects. The bristling, wiry hair
+running over head and shoulders and extending half-way to the haunches;
+the broad yellow tusks that forced up the black, leathery upper lip;
+the small, savage eyes now glazed and half-closed in death, all inspired
+me with reluctant curiosity and loathing.
+
+We retraced our road to the Castle, walking our jaded mounts. The dogs
+followed close behind us, their tongues lolling from their mouths, and
+eyeing at intervals their fallen foe, as if not yet sure that he was
+beyond renewing the combat.
+
+As we reached the eventful fork in the forest path, the Count drew up:
+
+"Here's where you went astray," he said; "you didn't see the bit of red
+flannel, torn from the lining of Sebalt's jacket, that we pinned to the
+tree, just here, within the left-hand path? By Jove, it's gone! This
+stiff breeze must have drawn it against the knife's edge and cut it
+through. Look! There it is, caught in the thicket."
+
+Sure enough, a long strip of red flannel was fluttering in the twigs of
+the underbrush a few feet away.
+
+"I shudder when I think how we might be returning now!" exclaimed the
+Count, and a look of gloom settled for a moment upon his face.
+
+Gideon rode up to the tree, and pulling out his hunting-knife, restored
+it to his belt. We looked thoughtfully along the fateful path for
+several minutes still. Then we resumed our homeward course.
+
+It was towards two o'clock when we trooped into the courtyard. We
+presented a somewhat less spirited appearance than at our setting out
+at daybreak, but we were victorious and happy, nevertheless.
+
+While the huntsmen and hostlers were busy in removing the boar and
+caring for the dogs and horses, the Count continued to the lodge gate,
+and Odile and I followed him leisurely, along the rugged path.
+
+As we passed the lodge room, wherein we could descry the dwarf and a
+half-dozen other figures seated about the fireplace, Offenloch stepped
+out, and bowing to the Count, he said:
+
+"Some musicians from the Forest, monsieur! They ask permission to play
+in the Castle this evening in return for food and a night's lodging."
+
+"Good!" said the Count; "music is just what we want, and such as these
+fellows play! For I was just sending for you, Offenloch, to bid you
+prepare a feast to-night worthy of the triple event to be celebrated.
+Tell all the people of the Castle to be present in the dining-room at
+eight o'clock, and see that no one of them all is missing. These players
+shall furnish us music. Let nothing be wanting to every one's pleasure."
+
+The delighted butler smiled expectantly, and withdrew to carry out his
+master's instructions.
+
+We continued to the drawing-room, where we took leave of one another to
+prepare for the evening's festivities. A few minutes later I found
+myself in my chamber. I was pretty thoroughly used up with the unusual
+experiences of the morning, and throwing off my borrowed clothes, I lay
+down on my bed, where I presently fell into a leaden slumber.
+
+I woke some hours later, much refreshed, to find the sun set and my
+tower chamber dark. After five minutes of yawning and stretching, I got
+up, and striking a light, I set about to prepare myself for the feast.
+
+Meanwhile I reflected--in that state of complete happiness which life
+cannot offer twice, and which it does not often fall to our lot that
+first time to embrace--upon the circumstances of my present. It seemed
+like the touch of the genie's hand that I should now find myself
+installed for all time at Nideck, the accepted lover of its mistress,
+and beloved by its master, the Count.
+
+I was still reflecting in this wise as I went down the stairs to the
+dining-room. I found a gay company assembled there. Many of the faces
+were new to me, as I had never penetrated to the remoter parts of the
+Castle; but all were gay and laughing, and bespoke impatient expectation
+of the amusement in store for them. The arrangements for the repast were
+elaborate and complete, and worthy of their projector, Offenloch.
+
+Hardly had the members of the household finished greeting me, when Odile
+appeared on the Count's arm, her exquisite beauty well set off by a rich
+gown of black brocade that made her complexion dazzling by contrast, and
+in her hair a single band of jewels.
+
+They proceeded to the head of the table, and the Count motioned me to
+him. Then, with Odile on his right hand and I at his left, he addressed
+the gathering:
+
+"My friends," said he, "you shall now know the purpose of your being
+called hither to-night. It is to celebrate the greatest of all events in
+the lives of three of us; namely, the saving of your mistress's life
+this morning, as you have doubtless already heard, and the restoration
+of your master's health, both the work of Monsieur de la Roche beside me
+here" (I experienced much more embarrassment than gratification at this
+unexpected eulogy), "and lastly, that which is fraught with like
+significance for us all, the betrothal of your mistress and our
+benefactor!"
+
+At this point the Count was interrupted by a chorus of cheers that were
+prolonged for several moments. As the noise subsided he went on:
+
+"It is well known to you all how dear to me the thought has been of
+feeling that the ancient line of Nideck, which has held an honorable
+place in the history of Alsace for many centuries, should continue to
+flourish long after I, Count Hermann, shall have passed away. That time
+is not far distant, and when it comes it rejoices me to think that I
+shall hand over to these young people beside me here the future of my
+race. Your young master has endeared himself already to your hearts, and
+he will continue to do so during the years which are to come. Your
+devotion to me in the past has been complete, and the memory of it is
+one of the proudest of my possessions; and now I ask you to extend this
+devotion to those who shall succeed me when I in turn pass on the Castle
+and its lands. And now but one more word. This night shall be devoted to
+revelry, and there should be no downcast eye among us! He who rejoices
+most shall best prove his loyalty to his house. Eat, drink, and be
+merry! The Count of Nideck requires it of you!"
+
+He paused, and a chorus of shouts greeted his message of good-will. The
+old housekeeper wiped her eyes with a corner of her apron, while some of
+the younger maids were reduced even to whimpering; the men maintained a
+sturdy silence, but it was evident that all, especially the old steward,
+the dwarf, and the master of the hounds, were no less affected than the
+women.
+
+Ere we resumed our seats, the ancient wassail-bowl of the Nidecks,
+blackened by centuries past, was filled to overflowing with sparkling
+wine from the Drachenfels, and went the round of the table, each one
+draining all he could at a breath. The generous draught served to
+increase the already growing hilarity. The happy eyes and faces sparkled
+more brightly under its magic spell. Then, in response to a signal from
+the Count, we seated ourselves about the board.
+
+The table fairly groaned beneath its burden of dishes ranged everywhere
+with lavish profusion. Bottles of all shapes and sizes, cobwebbed and
+redolent of the Castle's earthen vaults, were dotted all about, with
+glasses of as various patterns beside them, and long-stemmed pipes lay
+beside the plate of each smoker, while an army of small dishes, the
+contents of which I could not even guess, were ranged the length of the
+board. Directly in the centre of it all, in an enormous platter of
+flowered china, rested the head of the ill-favored boar, swimming in a
+lake of white wine sauce.
+
+The meal progressed; the merriment increased. To-night there was license
+everywhere, and each one enjoyed himself after his own manner. Healths
+were emptied with marvellous rapidity till I felt my head reeling with
+the fumes of the wine and the intoxication of happiness.
+
+An hour passed. The Count, Odile, and I, were toasted at intervals of
+every few minutes. I wondered how long this state of things could
+continue successfully. I looked about me.
+
+There was Sperver, a little distance down the table, with his thin
+forehead and bristling gray head, his eyes shining and his mustache wet
+with wine; at his right sat Knapwurst and on his left Marie Lagoutte.
+His cheeks were a good deal flushed, and on his breast sparkled the
+badge of his office; it was a pleasure to see his honest, happy face.
+Marie Lagoutte was even more loquacious than was her wont; her large,
+cotton cap was pushed very much to one side, and she drank first with
+one and then with another with the greatest impartiality.
+
+Knapwurst, squatting in his armchair, his head on a level with Sperver's
+elbow, looked like an enormous cabbage. Then came Tobias Offenloch, so
+red that he looked as though he had dipped his face in the wine before
+him. His wig rested against the chair-back, and his wooden leg was stuck
+straight out before him under the table. Further on, Sebalt's long,
+melancholy face stood out in grotesque relief, smiling faintly into his
+glass.
+
+There were, besides the musicians, the serving-men and women, domestics
+and hangers-on,--all that little world, in short, which lives and
+flourishes around great families as the moss, the ivy, and the
+convolvulus cling about the forest oak. Their eyes were moist with
+wine-begotten tears. The Vine of Bacchus wept freely everywhere. The
+light of the great bronze lamp shed over all its beautiful amber tint
+and left in the shadows the old gray walls where hung in wreaths the
+trumpets, bugles, and horns of the former lords of the Castle. The scene
+was like a glimpse from ages past.
+
+The roof rang with songs and shouts, and ballads long lain dormant in
+the minds of the singers now came forth and woke the startled echoes of
+the Castle.
+
+For my part, I did little else but listen and occupy myself with the
+faces about me; for thanks to the exercise of the morning and my long
+inhaling of the old wine, smelling of vervain and cypress, that mounted
+to my brain, and clothed all things for me in vague, unreal beauty, I
+was in that wholly receptive mood which disaffects even the semblance of
+effort.
+
+So I listened with entire complacency to the singularly successful
+efforts of the entertainers, who were elated to an unusual degree by
+every circumstance of the occasion.
+
+The evening wore on. The boar's head had disappeared; the array of small
+dishes was reduced to a mass of indistinguishable debris; one set of
+bottles had been emptied and replaced by another, and our pipe-bowls
+were aglow.
+
+At this point the Count suggested that we should have music. The
+musicians, having enjoyed their fill of food and wine, and burned out a
+generous pipe, hastened to comply.
+
+Taking up their instruments, they moved over before the hearth, where
+seats had been arranged for them in the form of a semicircle. They
+seated themselves, and began to put their instruments in tune.
+
+It was a picturesque sight, these sons of the Black Forest seated in the
+dim light of the hall,--the old harper, bent with years, leaning over
+his instrument; next him a short, thick-set fellow, whom his comrades
+called Black Pierre, passively supporting his 'cello, and gazing about
+him curiously at the unfamiliar objects in the room; at his side the
+handsome, jovial-looking flute player, a picture of rugged health and
+careless good humor; while next in line came a man of medium stature,
+whose indistinctive features were rendered more so by the large creases
+in his cheeks, made by supporting his violin, which he held firmly
+beneath his square chin, while he tightened the horse-hair of his bow;
+and finally, to complete the semicircle, the clarinet player, a slight,
+sunburned boy, scarce turned eighteen, unmistakably a member of one of
+those numerous Gypsy bands whose camps are always to be found in the
+plateau of the Rothalps between Alsace and Lorraine.
+
+The music began, and in justice to the vagabond players it must be said
+that it was of no ordinary degree of excellence. All the fire and pathos
+of their lawless natures was blended in the melody; now low and sad and
+tender as the reveries of old age itself; then rising and swelling into
+a burst of passion and longing that bewildered and electrified you; then
+in the midst of all this followed a lively measure, persuasive and
+careless, that in turn gave way to a waltz, foolish, palpitating,
+wanton.
+
+I sat enchanted, my eyes roving over the faces of those around me.
+Odile, too, seemed to find the strains a fitting accompaniment to her
+thoughts, for she nodded approvingly at me from time to time, and once I
+thought I saw a tear hang on her eyelash. However, that may have been
+mere imagination, as I invariably become sentimental with my third
+bottle.
+
+After a little the music began again. This time it was Schiller's
+"Brigands," and this more ambitious undertaking was rendered with a
+spirit and understanding hardly to be looked for in those who rarely
+aspired higher than the audiences of the inns, or the woodcutter's
+gatherings in the shambles of the forest.
+
+I glanced once more about me. Everyone's eyes were fastened on the
+flooring. Even the frowzy scullion, who winced as he became conscious of
+my gaze, and passed the back of his hand across his nose apologetically,
+seemed lifted for the moment from his pots and kettles to loftier
+thoughts. Other pieces followed; there were those to suit every mood and
+fancy. The Count was enthusiastic in his applause at the end of each
+number, and demanded more, while the others expressed their satisfaction
+with clapping and stamps on the stone floor.
+
+When at last the music came to an end, the players were rewarded with
+generous gold pieces by the master, and returned well satisfied to the
+table to wear away what little was left of the night, in wine and
+conversation.
+
+The hour was late. The old clock ticked on in the chimney-corner, and
+groaned in its casing as its heavy weights ran out their length. The
+fire fell on the hearth; the great yule logs of the early evening had
+given out their substance, and now were crumbling away into ruddy embers
+and soft, flaky ashes. And still the merriment continued, still glasses
+were filled and drained, and still the call for songs and stories went
+on.
+
+At length, at that hour when fatigue begins to assert itself over
+inclination, when vitality is low, and the shadows become deeper,
+colder, and the night more mysterious, then it was that the Count
+exclaimed:
+
+"Each one shall sing a final song except Knapwurst, for he has a voice
+like a bull-frog, but he is first in story-telling in all Alsace! When
+it comes his turn he shall tell us a story. Sperver, you shall begin
+with the song of Black Hatto the Burgrave!
+
+  "I am the king of these mountains of mine."
+
+And the steward, rising and standing like the figure of the wild
+huntsman in the heather, thundered forth the song with wonderful effect.
+The entire room joined in the chorus, and the old suits of mail fairly
+creaked and trembled with the sound.
+
+"Bravo!" cried the Count. "Nobly done, Sperver! It is your turn now,
+Becker! Sing what you like!"
+
+Becker, whose arm had stolen unperceived around Gretchen's waist, got
+up hastily, in some embarrassment, and steadying himself against the
+table, complied with a species of madrigal, proclaiming the virtues of
+lasses of the present, and claiming in a loud refrain that they were
+quite the equal of those of the olden times. And in truth they were,
+judging from the fair faces at intervals about the board, sitting with
+their eyes veiled by long, drooping lashes, as sleep and the wine were
+now stealing over them. The kennel-keeper's tribute to their charms
+served to arouse them, however, and they stole shy and gratified glances
+at each other as he sang.
+
+After Becker, the Gypsy youth followed with a herdsman's jodel, and so
+the round was gradually completed.
+
+The clock struck two from its niche in the corner. The last embers
+flared up and fell. The lamp burned low.
+
+"A story from Knapwurst now!" exclaimed the Count; "and then the day is
+done!"
+
+A complete silence succeeded; Knapwurst's quaint relations were
+favorites, it seemed.
+
+The dwarf, half-tipsy as a result of his liberal potations, rested his
+elbows on the table, and with his fists dug into his hollow cheeks, and
+his eyes staring out of his head, he began in a harsh, monotonous voice:
+
+"Bernhard Hertzog relates that the Burgrave Hugh, surnamed the Wolf, the
+founder of Nideck, having become old, used to cover his head with a sort
+of hood that fell down about his shoulders, which he wore over his
+steel helmet when engaged in combat; when he wished to breathe more
+easily, he removed the helmet and covered his head with the hood alone,
+the scallops of which hung down about his waist. Up to the age of
+eighty-two, Hugh still wore his armor, though he could hardly breathe in
+it. Then he sent for Otto of Burlach, his chaplain; Hugh, his eldest
+son; Berthold, his second son; and his daughter, Bertha, of the red
+hair, the wife of a Saxon chief named Zaan, and said to them, 'Your
+mother, the she-wolf, has bequeathed to you her claws; her blood is
+mixed with mine, and it will be born again among you from century to
+century, and weep among the snows of the Black Forest. Some will say,
+'It is the moaning of the wind!' Others, 'Hark! The owl hoots!' But it
+is your blood, mine, and the blood of the she-wolf who made me to murder
+Elfreda, my first wife before God and the Holy Church! Yes, she has
+perished by my hand. Cursed be the she-wolf, for it is written, 'I will
+visit the crime of the father upon the children, unto the third and
+fourth generations;' aye, until justice be done.' And old Hugh died.
+From that day the north wind has sobbed, and the owl has hooted, and the
+lost traveller by night knows not that it is the blood of the she-wolf
+bemoaning her crime. 'And she will bemoan it,' says Hertzog, 'from
+century to century, until that day when Hugh's first wife, Elfreda,
+shall reappear in the form of an angel at Nideck, to pardon and
+console.'"
+
+The dwarf paused, and silence succeeded, which lasted for a full minute;
+then he continued, with drunken gravity, pointing his long forefinger at
+Odile:
+
+"There is she who was to return to pardon and console. She has returned.
+At this moment she is sitting beside the Count, our master! Look, sirs!
+Do you not recognize her? Is it not she? Henceforth the lords of Nideck
+may rest in peace, for justice is done, and the good angel of this noble
+house has returned."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Count of Nideck, by Ralph Browning Fiske
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