He sat motionless, his forehead resting between his hands. Behind him lay
a dark gaunt form extended on the ground. Farther on, his horse, half
lost in the shade, reared his neck, gazed on us with eyes fixed, ears
erect, and nostrils distended.
I stood rooted to the ground.
How did the Baron de Zimmer happen to be in that lonely wilderness at
such a time? What did he want here? Had he lost his way?
The most contradictory conjectures were passing in confusion through my
excited brain, and I could not tell what conclusion to arrive at, when
the baron's horse began to neigh, and the master raised his head.
"Well, Donner, what is the matter now?" said he.
Then he, too, directed his gaze our way, straining his eyes through the
darkness.
That pale face, with its strongly-marked features, thin lips, and thick
black eyebrows meeting together, and forming a deep hollow on the brow in
the form of a long vertical wrinkle, would have struck me with admiration
at any other time; while now an inexplicable anxiety laid hold of me, and
I was filled with vague apprehensions.
Suddenly the young man exclaimed--
"Who goes there?"
"I, monseigneur," answered Sperver, coming forward--"Sperver, chief
huntsman to the lord of Nideck.
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