a wrathful and commanding tone: "Do not rouse me
to anger, Margery. Do as I desire and dismount."

But that moment he could more easily have made me to leap into the fire
than to leave Ann in the lurch; I raised the bridle and whip, and as the
bay broke into a gallop Uncle Conrad cried out once more, in greater
wrath than before: "Do as I bid you!" and I joyfully replied "That I will
if you come and fetch me!" And my horse carried me off and away, through
the open gate.

The gentlemen tore after me, and if I had so desired they would never
have caught me till the day of judgment, inasmuch as that my Hungarian
palfrey, which my Hans had brought for me from the stables of Count von
Cilly, the father of Queen Barbara, was far swifter than their heavy
hook-nosed steeds; yet as I asked no better than to seek Ann in all peace
with them, and as my uncle was a mild and wise man, who would not take
the jest he could not now spoil over seriously, I suffered them to gain
upon me and we concluded a bargain to the effect that all was to be
forgotten and forgiven, but that I was pledged to turn the bay and make
the best of my way home at the first sign of danger. And if the gentlemen
had come to the stables in a gloomy mood and much fear, the wild chase
after me had recovered their high spirits; and, albeit my own heart beat
sadly enough, I did my best to keep of good cheer, and verily the sight
of Kubbeling helped to that end. He was to show us the way to the spot
where he had found Eppelem, and was now squatted on a very big black
horse, from which his little legs, with their strange gear of catskins,
stuck out after a fashion wondrous to behold. After we had thus gone at a
steady pace for some little space, my confidence began to fail once more;
even if Ann and her companion had been somewhat delayed by their search,
still ought we to have met them by this time, if they had gone to the
place without tarrying, and set forth to return unhindered. And when,
presently, we came to an open plot whence we might see a long piece of
the forest path, and yet saw nought but a little charcoal burner's cart,
meseemed as though a cold hand had been laid on my heart. Again and again
I spied the distance, while a whole army of thoughts and terrors tossed
my soul. I pictured them in the power of the vengeful Eber von
Wichsenstein and his fierce robber fellows; methought the covetous
Bremberger had dragged them into his castle postern to exact a gr