I climbed up the beacon tower; I looked well
all round; the old hag was nowhere to be seen. I shaded my eyes with my
hand. I looked up and down, right and left, and everywhere; not a sign of
the creature anywhere. She had scented you evidently."
And the good fellow, in a fit of enthusiasm, shook me warmly by the hand,
crying with unchecked emotion--
"Ah, Fritz, how glad I am that I brought you here! The witch _will_ be
sold, eh?"
Well, I confess I felt a little ashamed that I had been all my life
such a very well-deserving young man without knowing anything of the
circumstance myself.
"So, Sperver," I said, "the count has spent a good night?"
"A very good one."
"Then I am very well pleased. Let us go down."
We again traversed the high parapet, and I was now better able to examine
this way of access, the ramparts of which arose from a prodigious depth;
and they were extended along the sharp narrow ridge of the rock down to
the very bottom of the valley. It was a long flight of jagged precipitous
steps descending from the wolf's den, or rather eagle's nest, down to the
deep valley below.
Gazing down I felt giddy, and recoiling in alarm to the middle of the
platform, I hastily descended down the path which led to the main
building.
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