s the moonlight showed
patches of bare, dark turf.

Grief was forgotten. Fatigue, anxiety and hunger completely engrossed the
boy's mind. He felt tempted to throw himself down in the road and sleep,
but remembered the frozen people of whom he had heard, and dragged
himself on to the nearest village. The lights had long been extinguished;
as he approached, dogs barked in the yards, and the melancholy lowing of
a cow echoed from many a stable. He was again among human beings; the
thought exerted a soothing influence; he regained his self-control, and
sought a shelter for the night.

At the end of the village stood a barn, and Ulrich noticed by the
moonlight an open hatchway in the wall. If he could climb up to it! The
framework offered some support for fingers and toes, so he resolved to
try it.

Several times, when Half-way up, he slipped to the ground, but at last
reached the top, and found a bed in the soft hay under a sheltering roof.
Surrounded by the fragrance of the dried grasses, he soon fell asleep,
and in a dream saw amidst various confused and repulsive shapes, first
his father with a bleeding wound in his broad chest, and then the doctor,
dancing with old Rahel. Last of all Ruth appeared; she led him into the
forest to a juniper-bush, and showed him a nest full of young birds. But
the half-naked creatures vexed him, and he trampled them under foot, over
which the little girl lamented so loudly and bitterly, that he awoke.

Morning was already dawning, his head ached, and he was very cold and
hungry, but he had no desire nor thought except to proceed; so he again
went out into the open air, brushed off the hay that still clung to his
hair and clothes, and walked on towards the south.

It had grown warmer and was beginning to snow heavily.

Walking became more and more difficult; his headache grew unendurable,
yet his feet still moved, though it seemed as if he wore heavy leaden
shoes.

Several freight-wagons with armed escorts, and a few peasants, with
rosaries in their hands, who were on their way to church, met the lad,
but no one had overtaken him.

On the hinge of noon he heard behind him the tramp of horses' hoofs and
the rattle of wheels, approaching nearer and nearer with ominous haste.

If it should be the troopers!

Ulrich's heart stood still, and turning to look back, he saw several
horsemen, who were trotting past a spur of the hill around which the road
wound.

Through the falling flak