, and that his departed spirit had sent you
this summons, and was waiting for you in the Mordmuehle with his
outstretched bony arms, to draw you into the dark subterranean bridal
chamber?"

At this instant the speaker was interrupted by a loud and
long-continued blast of a bugle, which was answered from the mill, the
wheels of which were really revolving with a terrible noise, and
emitted a thousand silvery sparks which were reflected by the
moonlight: a tall man came out from the mill. The foremost of the four
attendants approached him with respect, and a moment after Tugendreich
was in the arms of Axel, reclining her burning cheeks against his
beating heart.

"Come into the mill, beloved girl," he whispered imploringly, "we are
not quite safe here from discovery. You, reverend sir, will bear us
company. I thank you for having conducted the Fraeulein hither."

The magister followed the two lovers, shaking his head in doubts at the
suspicious dwelling.

"Let every thing proceed as I have already ordered," said Axel, in a
tone of command, to the tall figures who had posted themselves outside
the door like statues, "and do not stop the wheels of the mill until
the Fraeulein is again safe."

He now conducted his beloved into the only habitable room of the mill,
which being well lighted with lanterns, looked tolerably cheerful,
while a camp table, set out with flasks and cake, invited the weary and
hungry magister, who sat down a camp-stool near to it. Axel
affectionately took the Fraeulein to the window; and whilst they were
conversing confidentially, the magister, who was enjoying the repast,
made his reflections on the decent preparations which Axel had made for
the rendezvous, and which were not in unison with the plain jacket of a
Swedish dragoon that he wore. But his ideas became more and more
confused; soon he had hardly a clear conception of what passed through
his mind; and when, at length, the effect of the long walk, his age,
the night, and the generous wine closed his eyelids, the creatures of
his imagination assumed the shape of substantial and significant
dreams, from which the old seer had already received many prophetic
warnings. The village clock now struck one, and Axel gently disengaged
himself from Tugendreich, in whose tears the rays of the setting moon
were shining.

"I must go, dearest," said he. "Only this one blissful hour could I
withdraw myself from my duty. I would ask you to acco