"Thou wert attached to my Forester ?" 1. "Lord Emich, we were friends, if one of so humble station may use the word, when speaking of a youth that served so near the person of our master. Like his, my own family once knew better days, and we often met in the chase, which I was wont to cross, coming or going to the pastures. I loved poor Berchthold, nobly-born Count, and still love his memory." "I believe thou hast better stuff in thee, than some idle and silly deeds would give reason to believe. 1 have remembered thy good will on various occasions, and especially thy cleverness in making the signals, on the night these walls were overturned, and thou wilt find thyself named to the employment left vacant by my late Forester's unhappy end." Gottlob endeavored to thank his master, but he was too much troubled by real grief for the loss of his friend, to find consolation in his own preferment. "My services are my Lord Count's," he answered, "but, though ready to do as commanded, I could well wish that Berchthold were here to do that for me, which "Listen!-Hark !"-cried a hundred voices. Emich started, and bent forward in fixed attention. The day was clear and cloudless, and the air of the hills pure as a genial breeze and a bright sun could bestow. Favored by such circumstances, and amid a silence that was breathing and eloquent, there were borne across the valley the well known cries of hounds on the scent. In that region and age, none dared hunt, and indeed none possessed the means of hunting, but the feudal Lord. Since the late events, his chases had been unentered with this view, and the death of Berchthold, who had especial privileges in this respect, had left them without another who might dare to imitate his habits. "This is at least bold!" said Emich, when the cries had passed away: "hath any other near dogs of that noble breed?" "We never heard of other!" "None would dare use them;" were the answers. "I know those throats-they are, of a certainty, the favorite hounds of my poor Forester! Have not the dogs escaped the leash, to play their gambols at will among the deer ?" "It is "In that case, Lord Count, would tried hounds remain abroad for weeks?" answered Gottlob. now a sennight since these cries have been first heard, and yet no one has seen the dogs, from that hour to this, unless as some one of our hinds says, they have in sooth been seen running madly on the scent." ""Tis said, mein Herr Graf," put in another," that Berchthold, himself, hath been viewed in their company, his garments floating in the wind, while he flew along, keeping even pace with the dogs, an' he had been swift of foot as they !" "With Father Johan at his heels, cowl undone, and robe streaming like a penon, by way of religious amusement!" added the Count, laughing. "Dost not see, dotard, that the crackling bones of thy monk are still in the ruin?" The hind was daunted by his master's manner, but nothing convinced. There then succeeded a long and expecting silence, for this little by-play near the Count had not in the least affected the solemn attention of the mass. At length the throats of these mysterious dogs again opened, and the cries indeed appeared like those of hounds rushing from beneath the cover of woods into the open air. In a few moments they were repeated, and beyond all dispute, they were now upon the open heath that surrounded the Teufelstein. The crisis grew alarming for the local superstitions of such a place, in the commence ment of the sixteenth century. Even Emich wavered. Though he had a vague perception of the inconsistency of living dogs being hunted by a dead Forester, still there were so many means of getting over this immaterial difficulty, when the greater point of the supernatural chase was admitted, that he found little relief in the objection. Descending from the wall, he was in the act of beckoning the priests and Heinrich to his side, when a general shout arose among the male spectators, while the women rushed in a body around Ulrike, who was kneeling, with Lottchen and Meta, before the great crucifix of the ancient court of the convent. In the twinkling of an eye, Emich re-occupied his place on the wall, which shook with the impetus of his heavy rush. "What meaneth this disrespectful tumult?" angrily demanded the baron. "The hounds!-mein Herr Graf!-the hounds!" answered fifty breathless peasants. 66 Explain this outcry, Gottlob," "My Lord Count, we have seen the dogs leaping past yonder margin of the hill,-here,-just in a line with the spot where the Teufelstein lies. I know the dear animals well, Herr Emich, and believe me, they are truly the old favourites of Berchthold." "And Berchthold!" continued one or two of the more decided lovers of the marvellous," we saw the late Forester, great Emich, bounding after the dogs an' he had wings!" The matter grew serious, and the Count slowly descended to the court, determined to bring the af fair to some speedy explanation. CHAPTER XVII. "By the Apostle Paul, shadows to-night Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard, Richard III. THE Consultation that now took place was between the principal laymen. The connection which the Church had so long maintained with supernatural agencies, determined Emich, who was jealous of its again obtaining its lost ascendency in that country, to exclude the officiating priests altogether from the decision he was about to take. Were we to say that the Count of Hartenburg gave full faith to the rumors concerning the spirit of his late Forester, having been seen engaged in the chase, as when in the flesh, we should probably not do entire credit to his intelligence and habits of thinking, but were we to say, that he was altogether free from superstition and alarm on this difficult point, we should attribute to him a degree of philosophy and a mental independence, which in that age was the property only of the learned and reflecting, and not always even of them. Astrology, in particular, had taken strong hold of the imaginations of those who even pretended to general science; and when the mind once admits of theories of a character so little in accordance with homely reason, it opens the avenues to a multitude of collateral weaknesses of the same nature, which seem to follow as the necessary corollaries of the main proposition. The necessity of a prompt solution of the question was admitted by all of those whom the Count consulted. Many had begun to whisper that the extraordinary visitation was a consequence of the sacrilege, and that it was hopeless to expect peace, or exemption from supernatural plagues, until the Benedictines were restored to their Abbey and their former rights. Though Emich felt convinced that this idea came originally from the monks, through some of their secret and paid agents, he saw no manner of defeating it so effectually as that of demonstrating the falsity of the rumor. In our time, and in this land, a weapon that was forged by a miracle, would be apt to become useless of itself; but in the other hemisphere, there still exist entire countries, that are yet partially governed by agents of this description. At the period of the tale, the public mind was so uninstructed and dependent, that the very men who were most interested in defeating the popular delirium of the hour, had great difficulty in overcoming their own doubts. It has been seen that Emich, though much disposed to throw off the dominion of the Church, so far clung to his ancient prejudices, as secretly to distrust the very power he was about to defy, and to entertain grave scruples not only of the policy, but of the lawfulness of the step his ambition had urged him to adopt. In this manner does man become the instrument of the various passions and motives that beset him, now yielding, or now struggling to resist, as a stronger inducement is presented to his mind; always professing to be governed by reason and constrained by principles, while in truth he rarely consents to consult the one, or to respect the other, until both are offered through the direct medium of some engrossing interest, that requires an immediate and active attention, Then indeed his faculties become suddenly enlightened, and he eagerly presses into his service every argument that offers, the plausible as well as the sound; and thus it happens that we frequently see whole communities making a moral pirouette in a breath, adopting this year a set of principles that are quite in opposition to all they had ever before professed. Fortunately, all that is thus gained on sound principles is apt to |