e was
dark thick blood coming oozing from under the ring. Seeing this, Herr
Dapsul let the file fall upon the floor, sank half fainting into the
armchair, and cried, in utter despair, "Oh--oh--oh--oh! It is all over
with me! Perhaps the infuriated gnome may come this very hour and bite
my head off unless the sylphide saves me. Oh, Anna, Anna,
go--fly!"

As her father's extraordinary talk had long made her wish herself far
enough away, she ran downstairs like the wind.

CHAPTER III.

SOME ACCOUNT IS GIVEN OF THE ARRIVAL OF A REMARKABLE PERSONAGE IN
DAPSULHEIM, AND OF WHAT FOLLOWED FURTHER.

Herr Dapsul Von Zabelthau had just embraced his daughter with many
tears, and was moving off to ascend his tower, where he dreaded every
moment the alarming visit of the incensed gnome, when the sound of a
horn, loud and clear, made itself heard, and into the courtyard came
bounding and curvetting a little cavalier of sufficiently strange and
amusing appearance. His yellow horse was not at all large, and was of
delicate build, so that the little rider, in spite of his large
shapeless head, did not look so dwarfish as might otherwise have been
the case, as he sate a considerable height above the horse's head. But
this was attributable to the length of his body, for what of him hung
over the saddle in the nature of legs and feet was hardly worth
mentioning. For the rest, the little fellow had on a very rich habit of
gold-yellow atlas, a fine high cap with a splendid grass-green plume,
and riding-boots of beautifully polished mahogany. With a resounding
"P-r-r-r-r-r-r!" he reined up before Herr von Zabelthau, and seemed to
be going to dismount. But he suddenly slipped under the horse's belly
as quick as lightning, and having got to the other side of him, threw
himself three times in succession some twelve ells up in the air,
turning six somersaults in every ell, and then alighted on his head in
the saddle. Standing on his head there, he galloped backwards,
forwards, and sideways in all sorts of extraordinary curves and ups and
downs, his feet meanwhile playing trochees, dactyls, pyrrhics, &c., in
the air. When this accomplished gymnast and trick-act rider at length
stood still, and politely saluted, there were to be seen on the ground
of the courtyard the words, "My most courteous greeting to you and your
lady daughter, most highly respected Herr Dapsul von Zabelthau." These
words he had ridden