window and a figure
climbed up quietly--oh so quietly--then stopped and stared into the room.

The old man being indignant at this, rose and opened the window, upon
which the stranger climbed through noiselessly.

"Do not be frightened, Charlotte," he said, "I have come to tell you some
good news. My father will be here tomorrow."

He received no response, for the reason that Zacharias was trying to light
the lamp.

"Where are you, Charlotte?"

"Here I am," cried the old man turning with a livid face and gazing
fiercely at his rival.

The young man who stood before him was tall and slender, with large,
frank, black eyes, brown cheeks, rosy lips, just covered with a little
moustache, and a large brown, felt hat, tilted a little to one side.

The apparition of Zacharias stunned him to immovability. But as the Judge
was about to cry out, he exclaimed:

"In the name of Heaven, do not call. I am no robber--I love Charlotte!"

"And--she--she?" stammered Zacharias.

"She loves me also! Oh, you need have no fear if you are one of her
relations. We were betrothed at the Kusnacht feast. The fiances of the
Grinderwald and the Entilbach have the right to visit in the night. It is
a custom of Unterwald. All the Swiss know that."

"Yeri Foerster--Yeri, Charlotte's father, never told me."

"No, he does not know of our betrothal yet," said the other, in a lower
tone of voice; "when I asked his permission last year he told me to
wait--that his daughter was too young yet--we were betrothed secretly.
Only as I had not the Forester's consent, I did not come in the
night-time. This is the first time. I saw Charlotte in the town; but
the time seemed so long to us both that I ended by confessing all to my
father, and he has promised to see Yeri tomorrow. Ah, Monsieur, I knew
it would give such pleasure to Charlotte that I could not help coming
to announce my good news."

The poor old man fell back in his chair and covered his face with his
hands. Oh, how he suffered! What bitter thoughts passed through his brain;
what a sad awakening after so many sweet and joyous dreams.

And the young mountaineer was not a whit more comfortable, as he stood
leaning against a corner of the wall, his arms crossed over his breast,
and the following thoughts running through his head:

"If old Foerster, who does not know of our betrothal, finds me here, he
will kill me without listening to one word of explanation. That is
certain."

And he g