o
shadowy. When I look upon you, I feel all the time that we cannot
approach each other at all, that there lies between us a dreadful
immensity of distance, and father--mother!"

With a wild stare he looked around him, as if he saw ghosts everywhere.
Manna held his hand more firmly; he became more tranquil; nay, he even
smiled thankfully.

Griffin came bounding along just at this moment; he was overjoyed to
see his young master once more, and jumped up on him again and again.
Roland caressed him and said:--

"Yes, dear Griffin, when I had lost and forgotten you, then you found
your way home. Ah, dear Griffin, don't you know a way home for me now?
I am not your master, I am nothing."

The dog seemed to understand Roland's sad looks and words; he looked up
at him so affectionately, as if he wanted to say:--Ah! do not pine thy
young life away.

Brother and sister stood side by side on the bank of the Rhine. Roland
exclaimed,--

"I see my face in the water, sister, there is no brand upon my
forehead--no brand--and still----"

He wept bitterly, for the first time.

"Come, let us go on," said Manna consolingly.

"On, on! Yes, our path is long, unendingly long," rejoined Roland, as
he allowed himself to be led away by his sister.

They entered the courtyard of the villa. The servants were slowly
leading away the horses with their blankets on.

Roland opened his mouth: he wanted to cry out: Take off the blankets!
Take off the blankets, and hide the shame with them! Let the horses all
spring out into the open air. We have no more right over them, they are
no longer ours! But he could not utter the words.

Then he looked up at the green-houses, at the trees, as if he wanted to
ask them all if they knew to whom they belonged.

He asked Manna to go into the stable with him. He looked into the
servants' faces as if begging respect from them, and he thanked them
for saluting him, and for asking him what his commands were. Men still
saluted him, men still obeyed him! In the stable, he caressed his pony
and wept upon his neck.

"O Puck! shall you ever carry such a light-hearted youth again?"

The dogs were jumping round him; he nodded to them, and said
sorrowfully to Manna:--

"The brutes are altogether the happiest creatures in the world; they
inherit nothing from their parents, nothing but life--no house, no
garden, no money, no clothes. Ah, my good Puck, what a fine long mane
you have!"

There was something r