matters, and shared as a volunteer in the encounter
in which the insurgents had been defeated. His defense of the castle had
made him a marked man: he was equally hated and admired by the two
conflicting parties.

Weeks had passed away since the relief of the castle, when Lenore
appeared at the house door, before which Anton and the forester were
holding a consultation. She looked across the court-yard, where a pump
now stood, and over the palings, from which the earth had been cleared
away, to the landscape, now bright with the fresh green of early summer.
At last she said with a sigh, "Summer is come, Wohlfart, and we have not
noticed it!"

Anton looked anxiously at her pale face. "It is delightful now in the
woods," said he. "I was at the forester's yesterday, and since the rain
the trees and flowers are in full beauty. If you would but agree to go
out!"

Lenore shook her head. "What do <i>I</i> signify?" said she, bitterly.

"At least hear the news which the forester has just brought," continued
Anton. "The man you shot was the wretched Bratzky. You did not kill him.
If you have reproached yourself on that score, I can set your mind at
rest."

"God be praised!" cried Lenore, folding her hands.

"That night when the forester came to us, he thought he had seen the
rascal sitting in the bar with his arm tied up. Yesterday he was taken
prisoner to Rosmin."

"Ay!" said the forester; "a bullet does a fellow like him no harm; he
aims higher than that;" and he laid his own hand on his throat with a
significant gesture.

"This has weighed on me day and night," whispered Lenore to Anton; "I
have looked on myself as one under a curse. I have had the most fearful
dreams and visions of the man as he fell, hands clenched, and the blood
gushing from his shoulder. Oh, Wohlfart, what have we gone through!" And
she leaned against the door, and fixed her tearless eyes on the ground.

A horse's hoof rung on the pavement. Fink's bay was led out.

"Where is he going?" hurriedly asked Lenore.

"I do not know," replied Anton; "he has been a great deal out of late; I
see nothing of him the whole day long."

"What is he doing here with us?" said Lenore; "this unhappy house is no
place for him."

"If he would only be careful," said the forester. "The Tarow people are
mad at him; they have sworn to send a bullet after him, and he always
rides alone, and late at night."

"It is in vain to warn him," added Anton. "Do be ration