as well as a lady's
saddle allowed; but Anton, who was one of the infantry, looked over from
his post at the bright face with dissatisfaction. She had never pleased
him so little. Yet, as she sprang forward with the rest, wheeled her
horse round, waved her sword, her bright hair floating in the wind, her
eyes beaming with courage, she was enchantingly beautiful. But what
would have charmed him in mere play seemed unfeminine now that this
drilling had become a matter of life and death; and as soon as it was
over, and Lenore came up to him with glowing cheeks, waiting that he
should address her, he was silent, and she had to laugh and say to him,
"You look so morose, sir; do you know that the expression is very
unbecoming?"

"I am not pleased at your being so willful," replied Anton. Lenore
turned away without a word, gave her horse to a servant, and walked back
in dudgeon to the castle.

Since that time she took no share in the drilling, indeed, but she was
always present when the men assembled, and looked on longingly from a
little distance; and when Anton was away, she would ride off in secret
with Karl to the other villages, or walk alone through woods and fields,
armed with a pocket pistol, and delighted if she could stop and
cross-question any wayfarer.

Anton remonstrated with her on that subject too.

"The district is disturbed," he said. "How easily some rascal or other
might do you an injury! If not a stranger, it might be some one from our
own village."

"I am not afraid," Lenore would reply, "and the men of our village will
do me no harm." And, in fact, she knew how to manage them better than
Anton or any one else. She alone was always reverentially saluted, even
by the rudest among them; and whenever her tall figure was seen in the
village street, the men bowed down to the ground, and the women ran to
the windows and looked admiringly after her. And she had the pleasure,
too, of hearing them tell her so in Anton's hearing. One Sunday evening,
Karl, the forester, and the shepherd sat watching in the farm-yard while
the peasants were assembled drinking in the tavern, Sunday being the
most dangerous day for those in the castle. Karl had furnished a room
for military purposes in the late bailiff's house. Thither Lenore
herself now carried a bottle of rum and some lemons, that the sentinels
might brew themselves some punch. The shepherd and the forester grinned
from ear to ear at the attention. Karl placed a