rode away at an easy pace. She did not look behind her, nor to the
right or left. The sun was already behind the tops of the trees. Its
broken rays shone through the branches, like so many threads of light,
and between the boughs glowed the sky, forming a golden background.

Irma halted and beckoned to Baum, who had been following her, to come
nearer. He rode up.

"How much money have you with you?"

"Only a few florins."

"I must have a hundred florins; ride back and get them for me."

Baum hesitated. He wanted to say that he was not allowed to leave the
countess, but he could not muster courage enough to do so.

"Why do you hesitate? Don't you understand me?" said Irma harshly.
"Ride back immediately."

Baum was scarcely out of sight, when Irma whipped her horse, leaped
over the ditch at the side of the road, hurried across the mountain
meadow and into the woods. She rode at full gallop, over the very road
Bruno had taken a few days before. The horse was spirited and fresh,
and proud of its beautiful rider. They knew each other, and it galloped
on right merrily, as if in the chase. And there really is a chase; for
hark! there's a shot. But Pluto stands fire, and is not so easily
frightened. Away he dashed, more wildly than before. The rays of the
setting sun shone through the forest shades, lighting up the trees and
mosses with their roseate glow. And still she rode on, ever urging her
horse to greater speed.

She had reached the crest of the mountain ridge; below, lay the broad
lake, glowing with purple.

"There!" cried Irma. "There thou art, cold death!"

Pluto stopped, thinking that his mistress had spoken to him. "You're
right," said she, patting his neck; "it's far enough."

She alighted and turned the horse's head. He looked at her once more,
with his large, faithful eyes, for she had thrown back her veil.

"Go home. You're to live; go home!"

The horse did not move. She raised her whip and struck it. It started
off, with mane and tail fluttering in the evening breeze, as it hurried
away along the mountain crest.

Irma paused and looked after it. Then she sat down on the edge of a
projecting rock and gazed at the vast prospect and the setting sun.

"O light! O lovely sky! This is the last time I gaze upon you, before I
sink into the night of death--"

For a moment, she was wholly absorbed in the view that opened before
her. She no longer knew whence she had come, or whither she would go.
Her