!"

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FOREST OF OPPENHEIM.

The hunt to which Charles the Emperor had galloped off with the buoyancy
of youth, took place in a vast forest located at the very gate of
Aix-la-Chapelle. The autumn sky, at first radiant, had been gradually
overcast by one of the mists that are so frequent at the season and in
that northern region. Obedient to the Emperor's orders, none of his
courtiers attached himself to his steps. The hunters scattered. The more
daring and venturesome did not quit the pack, now fretting in their
leashes to start in pursuit of the deer across the thickets. The less
daring and less enthusiastic sportsmen contented themselves with
following at a distance the sound of the horns or the barking of the
hounds; they straggled behind, or waited to see the deer dash across
their path with the hounds and hunters at his heels. From the very start
of the hunt, Charles, carried away by his ardor for the sport, left his
daughters to themselves, unable as they were to follow him through the
thickest of the jungle, into which the Emperor of the Franks plunged
like the hottest of his huntsmen. For an instant, separated from his
grandfather in the rush and crush of the tumultuous assembly, where
nearly a hundred horses, gathered in a small space, were excited by the
din of the horns, to which they added their own impatient neighing,
champed their bits and reared wildly, Vortigern raised himself in his
stirrups and searched with his eyes for Amael, when suddenly his own
horse took the bit in his mouth and galloped off rapidly with his rider.
When the young Breton finally succeeded, by dint of violent efforts, to
master his mount, he found himself at a considerable distance from the
chase. Seeking to penetrate with his eyes the mist that spread ever
further and thicker over the forest, the young man perceived that he was
on a long avenue whose issues it was impossible to distinguish. He
listened, expecting to hear from the distance the noise of the chase,
which would have guided him in his efforts to joint it. The profoundest
silence reigned in this part of the forest. A moment later, however, the
tramp of two horses rapidly approaching from behind, struck his ears,
and immediately after, a cry, uttered in anger rather than fear. An
instant later, Vortigern detected a vague form across the mist. By
degrees the form became distinct, and soon the blonde Thetralde was
disclosed to the wondering eyes