ll the borders of the
forest. Curls fluttered on divine heads, graceful arms uplifted garlands
and cymbals, and laughter, sparkling, Olympian laughter, rippled and
rolled among them....

In front floats a goddess. She is taller and handsomer than all the
rest;--on her shoulders is a quiver; in her hands is a bow; upon her
curls, caught high, is the silvery sickle of the moon....

Diana, is it thou?

But suddenly the goddess halted ... and immediately, following her
example, all the nymphs came to a halt also. The ringing laughter died
away. I saw how the face of the goddess, suddenly rendered dumb, became
covered with a deathly pallor; I saw how her feet grew petrified, how
inexpressible terror parted her lips, strained wide her eyes, which were
fixed on the remote distance.... What had she descried? Where was she
gazing?

I turned in the direction in which she was gazing....

At the very edge of the sky, beyond the low line of the fields, a golden
cross was blazing like a spark of fire on the white belfry of a
Christian church.... The goddess had caught sight of that cross.

I heard behind me a long, uneven sigh, like the throbbing of a broken
harp-string,--and when I turned round again, no trace of the nymphs
remained.... The broad forest gleamed green as before, and only in
spots, athwart the close network of the branches, could tufts of
something white be seen melting away. Whether these were the tunics of
the nymphs, or a vapour was rising up from the bottom of the valley, I
know not.

But how I regretted the vanished goddesses!

December, 1878.

ENEMY AND FRIEND

A captive condemned to perpetual incarceration broke out of prison and
started to run at a headlong pace.... After him, on his very heels,
darted the pursuit.

He ran with all his might.... His pursuers began to fall behind.

But lo! in front of him was a river with steep banks,--a narrow, but
deep river.... And he did not know how to swim!

From one shore to the other a thin, rotten board had been thrown. The
fugitive had already set foot upon it.... But it so happened that just
at this point, beside the river, his best friend and his most cruel
enemy were standing.

The enemy said nothing and merely folded his arms; on the other hand,
the friend shouted at the top of his voice:--"Good heavens! What art
thou doing? Come to thy senses, thou madman! Dost thou not see that
the board is completely rotten?--It will break beneath thy