g the
long hours of solitude.

"I looked through all your house, and then entered the stables and
gladdened my heart by the sight of your beautiful horses."

"Thunder and lightning! You have then seen my horses," cried Halber,
thoroughly provoked. "Did no wish arise in your heart to mount one and
seek your liberty?"

Frederick Trenck smiled. "The wish, indeed, arose in my heart, but I
suppressed it manfully. Do you not see, dear Halber, that it would be
unthankful and unknightly to reward in this cowardly and contemptible
way the magnanimous confidence you have shown me."

"Truly, you are an honorable gentleman," cried Halber, greatly touched;
"I had not thought of that. It would not have been well to flee from my
house."

"To-morrow he will fly," thought the good-natured soldier, "when once
more alone--to-morrow, and the opportunity shall not be wanting."

Von Halber left his house early in the morning to conduct his prisoner
to Berlin. No one accompanied them; no one but the coachman, who sat
upon the box and never looked behind him.

Their path led through a thick wood. Von Halber entertained the prisoner
as the lieutenant had done who conducted Trenck the day he left Coslin.
He called his attention to the denseness of the forest, and spoke of
the many fugitives who had concealed themselves there till pursuit was
abandoned. He then invited Trenck to get down and walk with him, near
the carriage.

As Trenck accepted the invitation, and strolled along by his side in
careless indifference, Von Halber suddenly observed that the ground was
covered with mushrooms.

"Let us gather a few," said he; "the young wife of one of my friends
understands how to make a glorious dish of them, and if I take her a
large collection, she will consider it a kind attention. Let us take our
hats and handkerchiefs, and fill them. You will take the right path into
the wood, and I the left. In one hour we will meet here again."

Without waiting for an answer, the good Halber turned to the left in
the wood, and was lost in the thicket. In an hour he returned to the
carriage, and found Trenck smilingly awaiting him.

He turned pale, and with an expression of exasperation, he exclaimed:

"You have not then lost yourself in the woods?"

"I have not lost myself," said Trenck, quietly; "and I have gathered a
quantity of beautiful mushrooms."

Trenck handed him his handkerchief, filled with small, round mushrooms.
Halber threw them w