et a detachment of his own troops marching in
the hot dust; and he was recognised and somewhat feebly cheered as he
rode by. But from that time forth and for a long while he was alone with
the great woods.

Gradually the spell of pleasure relaxed; his own thoughts returned, like
stinging insects, in a cloud; and the talk of the night before, like a
shower of buffets, fell upon his memory. He looked east and west for any
comforter; and presently he was aware of a cross-road coming steeply
down hill, and a horseman cautiously descending. A human voice or
presence, like a spring in the desert, was now welcome in itself, and
Otto drew bridle to await the coming of this stranger. He proved to be a
very red-faced, thick-lipped countryman, with a pair of fat saddle-bags
and a stone bottle at his waist; who, as soon as the Prince hailed him,
jovially, if somewhat thickly, answered. At the same time he gave a
beery yaw in the saddle. It was clear his bottle was no longer full.

"Do you ride towards Mittwalden?" asked the Prince.

"As far as the cross-road to Tannenbrunn," the man replied. "Will you
bear company?"

"With pleasure. I have even waited for you on the chance," answered
Otto.

By this time they were close alongside; and the man, with the
country-folk instinct, turned his cloudy vision first of all on his
companion's mount. "The devil!" he cried. "You ride a bonny mare,
friend!" And then his curiosity being satisfied about the essential, he
turned his attention to that merely secondary matter, his companion's
face. He started. "The Prince!" he cried, saluting, with another yaw
that came near dismounting him. "I beg your pardon, your Highness, not
to have reco'nised you at once."

The Prince was vexed out of his self-possession. "Since you know me," he
said, "it is unnecessary we should ride together. I will precede you, if
you please." And he was about to set spur to the grey mare, when the
half-drunken fellow, reaching over, laid his hand upon the rein.

"Hark you," he said, "prince or no prince, that is not how one man
should conduct himself with another. What! You'll ride with me incog.
and set me talking! But if I know you, you'll preshede me, if you
please! Spy!" And the fellow, crimson with drink and injured vanity,
almost spat the word into the Prince's face.

A horrid confusion came over Otto. He perceived that he had acted
rudely, grossly presuming on his station. And perhaps a little shiver of
physi