the ring, handed it to the magistrate and said:

"Keep this ring in memory of me and this day, on which you did me a
wrong."

He seized Gertrude's hand and kissed it; climbed up the mountain and
disappeared; was seen again and vanished in a cloud. After a while he
reappeared, high above them; but this time it was merely his gigantic
shadow thrown on a cloud. And there he stood, shaking a threatening fist
at the village.

"That was Satan himself," said the colonel.

"No, it was an Italian," said the postmaster.

"Since it is late in the evening," said the magistrate, "I'll tell you
an official secret, which will be read in all the papers to-morrow."

"Hear! hear!"

"We have received information that when it became known that the Emperor
of France was made a prisoner at Sedan, the Italians drove the French
troops out of Rome, and that Victor Emanuel is at this moment on his way
to the capital."

"This is great news. It puts an end to Germany's dreams of promenades to
Rome. Andrea must have known about it when he boasted so much."

"He must have known more," said the magistrate.

"What? What?"

"Wait, and you'll see."

And they saw.

***

One day strangers came and carefully examined the mountain through
their field-glasses. It looked as if they were gazing at the place where
Barbarossa's ring had hung, for that was the spot at which they directed
their glasses. And then they consulted the compass, as if they did not
know which was the North and which was the South.

There was a big dinner at "The Golden Horse," at which the magistrate
was present. At dessert they talked of millions and millions of money.

A short time after "The Golden Horse" was pulled down; next came the
church, which was taken down piece by piece and built up again on
another spot; half the village was razed to the ground; barracks were
built, the course of the stream deflected, the mill-wheel taken away,
the factory closed, the cattle sold.

And then three thousand Italian-speaking labourers with dark hair and
olive skins arrived on the scene.

The beautiful old songs of Switzerland and the pure joys of spring were
heard no more.

Instead of that, the sound of hammering could be heard day and night. A
jumper was driven into the mountain at the exact spot where Barbarossa's
ring had hung; and then the blasting began.

It would not have been so very difficult (as everybody knew) to make a
hole through the mountain, but it was