er, his strength seemed on the point of failing, his brain seemed to
be on fire. Round and round he went like some trapped animal; then he
threw himself madly upon a mass of tangled underwood and succeeded in
breaking through to a more open space. This also seemed unfamiliar,
and in the dim light of the stars the tall trees shut him in as if with
towers of impenetrable shadow; silence seemed to lay everything under a
spell of terror, ominous of coming evil.

Wearied in body and mind, Hermann flung himself down on the sward and
quickly fell asleep. But suddenly a plunging in the brushwood aroused
him, and with the instinct of the huntsman he sprang up instantly,
seizing his spear and whistling to his dogs, which, however, crouched
nearer to the earth, their hair bristling and eyes red with fear.
Again their master called, but they refused to stir, whining, with eyes
strained and fixed on the undergrowth. Then Graf Hermann went forward
alone to the spot whence proceeded the ominous sound, his spear poised,
ready to strike.

He was about to penetrate into the brushwood when suddenly there emerged
from it a majestic-looking man, who seemed as if hotly pursued. He was
dressed in ancient garb, carrying a large crossbow in his right hand. A
curved hunting-horn hung at his side, and an old-fashioned hunting-knife
was stuck in his girdle.

With a stately motion of the hand he waved Hermann aside, then he raised
the horn to his lips and blew upon it a terrible blast so unearthly in
sound that the forest and mountains sent back echoes like the cry of
the lost, to which the hounds gave tongue with a howl of fear. As if
in answer to the echoes, there suddenly appeared hundreds of skeleton
stags, of enormous size, each bestridden by a skeleton hunter. With one
accord the ghostly riders spurred on their steeds, which with lowered
antlers advanced upon the stranger, who, with a scream for mercy, sought
frenziedly for some means of evading his grisly pursuers.

For the space of an hour the dreadful chase went on, Graf Hermann rooted
to the spot with horror, overcome by a sense of helplessness. There in
the centre he stood, the pivot round which circled the infernal hunt,
unable to stay the relentless riders as with bony hands rattling against
their skeleton steeds they encouraged them to charge, gore, and trample
the hapless stranger, whose cries of agony were drowned by shrieks of
fiendish glee and the incessant cracking of whips. O