He carried a gun over his shoulder, but his thoughts were not bent on sport.  He went on heedlessly, with no idea of direction, and with no thought of the distance which he was putting between himself and Rodeck, which was each moment becoming greater.

Prince Adelsberg was right when he said he knew this wild, mountain scenery was to his friend’s taste.  The very air had for him a certain sorcery.  He stood still at last and took some long, deep breaths, but the cloud on his brow had not yet disappeared; it grew darker instead, as he leaned against a tree and cast his eyes around him.

The beauty of the sunny, autumn day, the picturesqueness of the grand old wood, could not bring to this handsome, joyless face one expression of peace or content.

He saw this country for the first time; his boyhood’s home lay far to the north, and yet this place, so different from his father’s birthplace and his own, brought back the past with all its painful recollections, and awakened anew within him feelings he had thought long dead and buried.  Feelings and thoughts which had never troubled him during the long years in which by land or sea, he had drunk of that freedom for which he had sacrificed so much.

The old German woods!  They whispered here in the South, just as they had done in the North; the same wind moved the branches of the fir and the oak, and whistled through the tops of the distant pine trees.  Yes, these were the self-same voices which had once told all their secrets to the willful boy lying on the mossy bank of the Burgsdorf fish pond.

There was a stir and sound as of some one moving between the trees.  Hartmut looked up indifferently, expecting to see an animal of some kind spring out, but he saw instead the fluttering of a light gown between the low bushes, and from a little side path, which he had not before noticed, a young lady stepped out, almost in front of him, and stood hesitatingly, evidently uncertain what direction to take.

Rojanow was roused from his dreaming by this unexpected apparition, and the stranger caught sight of him at once.  She appeared surprised, too, but only for a second, then she stepped forward, and said, with a slight bow: 

“May I beg you, sir, to show me the way to Fuerstenstein?  I am a stranger here and have lost my way, and am, I fear, far from the place I seek.”

Hartmut had taken in at a glance the young lady’s appearance; and resolved immediately to become her guide.  He did not know the way for which she inquired, and only had a vague idea of the direction in which the castle lay, but that troubled him little.  He bowed gracefully as he said: 

“I place myself quite at your disposal, Fraeulein.  Fuerstenstein is some distance from here, and it would be impossible for you to find the way alone.  I must, therefore, beg you to allow me to accompany you.”

The lady had expected nothing more than that the way would be pointed out to her; this stranger’s offer was not altogether agreeable, but she feared she might lose her way a second time, and the perfect politeness with which the offer was made, scarcely left her any choice.  After a moment’s hesitation she bowed slightly and said: