While these thoughts were passing through my head I had been alternately
walking and trotting, as a man should who has a long journey before, and
a willing horse beneath, him. The woods were very open at this point,
and beside the road there lay a great heap of fagots. As I passed there
came a sharp sound from among them, and, glancing round, I saw a face
looking out at me--a hot, red face, like that of a man who is beside
himself with excitement and anxiety. A second glance told me that it was
the very person with whom I had talked an hour before in the village.

'Come nearer!' he hissed. 'Nearer still! Now dismount and pretend to be
mending the stirrup leather. Spies may be watching us, and it means
death to me if I am seen helping you.'

'Death!' I whispered. 'From whom?'

'From the Tugendbund. From Lutzow's night-riders. You Frenchmen are
living on a powder magazine, and the match has been struck that will
fire it.'

'But this is all strange to me,' said I, still fumbling at the leathers
of my horse. 'What is this Tugendbund?'

'It is the secret society which has planned the great rising which is to
drive you out of Germany, just as you have been driven out of Russia.'

'And these T's stand for it?'

'They are the signal. I should have told you all this in the village,
but I dared not be seen speaking with you. I galloped through the woods
to cut you off, and concealed both my horse and myself.'

'I am very much indebted to you,' said I, 'and the more so as you are
the only German that I have met today from whom I have had common
civility.'

'All that I possess I have gained through contracting for the French
armies,' said he. 'Your Emperor has been a good friend to me. But I beg
that you will ride on now, for we have talked long enough. Beware only
of Lutzow's night-riders!'

'Banditti?' I asked.

'All that is best in Germany,' said he. 'But for God's sake ride
forwards, for I have risked my life and exposed my good name in order to
carry you this warning.'

Well, if I had been heavy with thought before, you can think how I felt
after my strange talk with the man among the fagots. What came home to
me even more than his words was his shivering, broken voice, his
twitching face, and his eyes glancing swiftly to right and left, and
opening in horror whenever a branch cracked upon a tree. It was clear
that he was in the last extremity of terror, and it is possible that he
had cause, for shortly afte