rested for some time on a bench near the fountain, cooling his hot
brow in the spray that filled the air around him; then walked aimlessly
down the principal avenue, and at last plunged into the more secluded
portions of the park, where only a faint glimmer of moonlight pierced
through the branches of the tall trees. Neatly kept paths ran in
various directions, here and there stood a bench, a summer house, an
umbrella-like tent, all tokens that the wanderer was not in the wild
forest. Even the stream he now found, flowed between low, regularly
formed banks, and was crossed at intervals by small bridges. Edwin
turned into the narrow gravel walk beside the noiseless water, but the
brook suddenly made a wide curve and ran under a high palisade, which
surrounded a pond. At this spot the woods were less dense, and the
stars were mirrored in the smooth surface of the little lake. Edwin
walked around the enclosure, hoping to find an entrance. He thought of
a bath here was tempting, and he saw at the end of the pond, under some
tall shrubbery, a little building that was evidently used for this
purpose. But a small entrance gate, which after some search he at last
found, was securely locked, and he was about to give up his intention
and return to the path, when he perceived a place in the palisade where
the stakes stood so far apart that a deer, in case of necessity, could
pass through. Urged on by his desire to bathe, he endeavored to widen
the hole, and at last with some difficulty, succeeded in forcing his
way through the opening.

He now went directly to the little building, but found it locked. The
shore here, which was overgrown with bushes and marshy plants, was not
suitable for bathing, but the opposite side, where a meadow sloped
gently down to the water, seemed very well adapted to the purpose, and
he bent his steps toward it. A feeling of strange delight stole over
him, as he walked on through the soft night air, beside the still, dark
water, from which no sound was heard save the melancholy croaking of a
frog. A few tall trees stood at the end of the little lake, and some
low bushes clustered around their roots. He determined to undress
behind this natural screen.

But he had not even commenced, when he saw on the opposite shore dark
figures approaching along the path by which he himself had come. As
they neared the palisade, he also heard low voices, which grew more
audible as they reached the little gate. Directly