The vast plain lay spread before me bathed in a light almost equal to
that of day. On the right lay extended wide the dark line of the Black
Forest with its craggy rocks, its gullies, its passes stretching away as
far as the sight could reach.
The night air was keen and sharp, but perfectly calm, and I felt myself
awakened to the highest degree, almost as if my senses were volatilised
by the still and ice-cold air.
My first examination of the horizon was for the figures of the count
and his strange companion. I soon distinguished their tall dark forms
standing out sharply against the star-spangled purple heavens. I nearly
overtook them at the bottom of the ravine.
The count was moving with deliberate steps, the imaginary winding-sheet
dragging slowly after him. There was an automatic precision in the
movements of both.
I kept six or eight yards behind them down the hollow road to the
Altenberg, now in the shade, now in the full light, for the moon was
shining with astonishing brilliancy. A few clouds floated idly across the
zenith, seeming to want to clasp her in their long arms, but she ever
eluded their grasp, and her rays, keen as a blade of steel, cut me to the
marrow of my bones.
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