The black horse was saddled; Landolin unchained his dog and mounted.

Thoma had come out into the yard, and her father gave her his hand,
saying, "If we were not in mourning you should fasten a sprig of
rosemary on my coat with a red ribbon." The cows were just then let out
to drink, and Landolin cried, "Thoma, you shall have the prize cow. May
God keep you! Peter, give me your hand. I'll often come up from the
saw-mill to see you."

He urged his horse forward, so that it reared and struck sparks from
the paving-stones at the very spot where Vetturi had fallen.

Landolin mastered it with a strong hand. His son and daughter watched
him from the gateway as he let the horse prance down the road; their
father appeared again in all his old stateliness; and where the road
bends into the forest toward the valley he turned around and lifted his
hat in greeting.

As Thoma turned again toward the house an open carriage drove up from
the other side, and in it sat the judge's wife with her brother the
counselor. They stopped and got out. They had come to comfort the
mourners, and the judge's wife heard, to her great joy, on what mission
Landolin had gone.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

While Landolin was riding to the valley, Peter had saddled the other
horse for himself, had dressed himself in his Sunday clothes, and now,
wrapped in his mantle and noticed by no one, took the road to the city,
across the bridge that was almost covered by the water.

At the Crown Inn he ordered a pint of beer without dismounting. Then he
trotted up the opposite hill to the plateau where Titus lived.

Peter did not look around much, but once he stopped to observe a
strange sight; for on the rocks by the roadside were a large number of
hawks. There were evidently young ones among them, whom the old ones
were talking to, and encouraging to fly. They tried it, and in their
outcries there must have been great pride and happiness; the nest was
so narrow, the air is so wide, and prey that can be caught and killed
is flying everywhere. And when the young ones have learned to fly, they
care no more for the old ones.

"Where are you going so soon?" Peter was asked. The questioner was
Fidelis, his former servant, who was now in Titus' service.

"Glad I've met you. Is Titus at home, and----?"

He was probably about to say, "and his daughter too." But he kept that
part of it back. Fidelis said "Yes;" and without wasting anothe