one with you; you positively throw away
your luck." "But," I rejoined, "I meant the Countess from Germany,
the lovely Lady fair--" "Oh," she interrupted me, "she went back to
Germany long ago, with your crazy passion for her. And you'd better
run after her! No doubt she is pining for you, and you can play the
fiddle together and gaze at the moon, only for pity's sake let me see
no more of you!"

All was confusion about us by this time. People from the next garden
were climbing over the fence armed with clubs, others were searching
among the paths and avenues; frightened faces in nightcaps appeared
here and there in the moonlight; it seemed as if the devil had let
loose upon us a mob of evil spirits. The lady's-maid was nowise
daunted. "There, there goes the thief!" she called out to the people,
pointing across the garden. Then she pushed me out of the gate and
clapped it to behind me.

There I stood once more beneath the stars in the deserted Square,
as forlorn as when I had seen it first the day before. The fountain,
which had but now seemed to sparkle as merrily in the moonlight as if
cherubs were flitting up and down in it, plashed on, but all joy and
happiness were buried beneath its waters. I determined to turn my back
forever on treacherous Italy, with its crazy painters, its oranges,
and its lady's-maids, and that very hour I wandered forth through the
gate.

CHAPTER IX

On guard the faithful mountains stand:
"Who wanders o'er the moorland there
From other climes, in morning fair?"
And as I look far o'er the land,
For very glee my heart laughs out.
The joyous "vivats" then I shout;
Watchword and battle-cry shall be:
Austria, for thee!

The landscape far and near I know;
The birds and brooks and forests fair
Send me their greetings on the air;
The Danube sparkles down below;
St. Stephen's spire far in the blue
Seems waving me a welcome too.
Warm to its core my heart shall be,
Austria, for thee!

I was standing on the summit of a mountain whence the first view of
Austria can be had, and I waved my hat joyfully in the air as I sang
the last verse, when suddenly from the forest behind me some fine
instrumental music joined in. I turned quickly and perceived three
young fellows in long blue cloaks, one playing a hautboy, another a
clarionet, and the third, who wore an old three-cornered hat, a horn.
They played an accompaniment to my song, which