“And he came alone?” asked the mistress.  “Then he does not bring Erick?  Who may he be?”

Meanwhile the tall, strange gentleman had entered the pastor’s study below, with the words:  “Colonel von Vestentrop, of Denmark.  The gentleman will excuse me if I interrupt him.”

The pastor was so surprised that for a moment he could not collect his wits.  Erick’s grandfather!  There stood the man bodily before him, whose existence had been to him a mere fairy tale, and the man looked so stately and so commanding, that everyone who beheld him must be inspired with respect.  But at the same time there was something winning in his expression, which was familiar to the reverend gentleman from Erick’s dear face.  And this gentleman had traveled so far to fetch his grandson, and Erick had disappeared.

All this passed through the pastor’s head with lightning speed; he stood for a moment like one paralyzed.  But the colonel did not give much time to the surprised man to recover himself.  He quickly took the offered easy chair, drew the pastor down on another, looked straight into his eyes and said:  “Dear Sir, you sent through the French pastor in Copenhagen a letter addressed to me, in which you inform me of things of which I do not believe one single word.”

The surprise of the pastor increased and was reflected in his face.

“Please understand me rightly, dear Sir,” the speaker continued, “not that I mean that you would make an incorrect statement; but you yourself have been duped, your kindness has been shamefully misused.  Because I knew that, I did not wish to answer your letter in writing, for we would have exchanged many letters uselessly and yet would never have come to an understanding.  Behind all this is a clever fellow, who wants to trick you and me for the sake of gain.  So I have let everything rest until I could combine the present explanation with a journey to Switzerland.  So here I am, and I will tell you, in as few words as possible, the unfortunate story which led to this deception.  But let me look at once at the object in question.  I want to see what the boy is like, whom the man dares to place before my eyes as my grandson.”

The pastor had now to tell of the unfortunate accident of Erick’s disappearance, how they had searched so far in vain, but how everything was being done to find the dear boy; therefore he might make his appearance at any moment.

The colonel only smiled a little, but that smile was a little sarcastic and he said:  “My good Sir, let us stop the seeking.  The boy will not return.  The fellow who has placed him in your hands has calculated wrongly this time.  He, no doubt, hoped that I, at such a distance, would credulously accept everything that he wanted, and would do what he wished.  Now he has found out that I myself was on the way to see you; and to bring before my eyes some foundling as my daughter’s child, that he did not dare to do.  On that account the child has disappeared, Reverend Sir; that man knows me.”