to Godesberg, but
putting in at the first creek on the opposite bank, fled into the Duke
of Nassau's territory; where, as they have little to do with our tale,
we will leave them.

But they little knew how expert a swimmer was young Otto. He had
disappeared, it is true; but why? because he HAD DIVED. He calculated
that his conductors would consider him drowned, and the desire
of liberty lending him wings, (or we had rather say FINS, in this
instance,) the gallant boy swam on beneath the water, never lifting his
head for a single moment between Godesberg and Cologne--the distance
being twenty-five or thirty miles.

Escaping from observation, he landed on the Deutz side of the river,
repaired to a comfortable and quiet hostel there, saying he had had
an accident from a boat, and thus accounting for the moisture of his
habiliments, and while these were drying before a fire in his chamber,
went snugly to bed, where he mused, not without amaze, on the strange
events of the day. "This morning," thought he, "a noble, and heir to
a princely estate--this evening an outcast, with but a few bank-notes
which my mamma luckily gave me on my birthday. What a strange entry
into life is this for a young man of my family! Well, I have courage and
resolution: my first attempt in life has been a gallant and successful
one; other dangers will be conquered by similar bravery." And
recommending himself, his unhappy mother, and his mistaken father to the
care of their patron saint, Saint Buffo, the gallant-hearted boy
fell presently into such a sleep as only the young, the healthy, the
innocent, and the extremely fatigued can enjoy.

The fatigues of the day (and very few men but would be fatigued after
swimming wellnigh thirty miles under water) caused young Otto to sleep
so profoundly, that he did not remark how, after Friday's sunset, as
a natural consequence, Saturday's Phoebus illumined the world, ay, and
sunk at his appointed hour. The serving-maidens of the hostel, peeping
in, marked him sleeping, and blessing him for a pretty youth, tripped
lightly from the chamber; the boots tried haply twice or thrice to call
him (as boots will fain), but the lovely boy, giving another snore,
turned on his side, and was quite unconscious of the interruption. In a
word, the youth slept for six-and-thirty hours at an elongation; and the
Sunday sun was shining and the bells of the hundred churches of Cologne
were clinking and tolling in pious festivit