k folds as formerly, but yet there still are valleys
where the stroke of the axe has never yet been heard, and rocky ranges
which have never yet been smitten by the rays of the sun."

"Here two men murdered the one the other," said the postilion with the
gayest air in the world, whilst the carriage stopped to give the horses
breath, on account of the heaviness of the road, and as he spoke he
pointed with his whip to a heap of twigs and pieces of wood which lay to
the left of the road, directly before the travellers, and which
presented a repulsive aspect. It is customary for every passer-by to
throw a stone or a piece of wood upon such a blood-stained spot, and
thus the monument of murder grows under the continued curse of society.
Thus it now stands there, hateful and repulsive amid the beautiful
fir-trees, and it seemed as if the earth had given forth the ugliest of
its mis-shaped boughs, and the most distorted of its twisted roots,
wherewith to build up the heap. From the very midst of this abomination,
however, a wild-rose had sprung forth and shot upwards its living twigs
from among the dry boughs, whilst, like fresh blood-drops above the
pile, shone its berries illuminated by the sun, which now in its descent
threw a path of light over the broad road.

"When this wild-rose is full of flowers," said Jeremias, as he regarded
it with his expressive glance, "it must awaken the thought, that that
which the state condemns with justice, a Higher Power can cover with the
roses of his love."

The sun withdrew his beams. The carriage set itself again in motion, but
at the very moment when the horses passed the heap, they shyed so
violently that the carriage was backed into a ditch and overturned.

"Farewell life!" cried Petrea, internally; but before she herself knew
how, she was out of the carriage, and found herself standing not at all
the worse upon the soft heather. With the Assessor, however, it did not
fare so well; a severe blow on the right leg made it impossible for him
to support himself upon it without great suffering. His old servant,
who had acted as coachman on the journey, lay in a fainting fit at
a few paces from him, bleeding profusely from a wound in the head,
whilst the little post-boy stood by his horses and cried. Time and
situation were not the most agreeable. But Petrea felt herself after
the fright of the first moment perfectly calm and collected. By the
help of the rain-water, which was there in