n closely as to what he knew
about the young girl. First he returned no answer, pretending to be
drunk and not to understand; but on their promising to spare his life,
on the sole condition that he would speak the truth, he confessed that
she had been carried away to the mountains, where the band were to
cast lots for her.

"I must go!" said Imre, starting as if from a trance.

"Whither?" inquired his comrades.

"To seek her! Take off your dress," he continued, turning to the
Wallachian, "you may have mine in exchange;" and, hastily putting on
the tunic, he concealed his pistols in the girdle beneath it.

"We will follow you," said his comrades, taking up their arms; "we
will seek her from village to village."

"No, no, I must go alone! I shall find her more easily alone. If I do
not return, avenge this for me," he said, pointing to the moat; then,
turning to the Wallachian, he added sternly, "I have found beneath
your girdle a gold medallion which my grandmother always wore
suspended from her neck, and by which I know you to be one of her
murderers, and, had I not promised to spare your life, you should now
receive the punishment that you deserve. Keep him here," he said to
his comrades, "until I have crossed the hills, and then let him go."

And taking leave of his friends, he cast one glance at the eleven
heaps, and at the burning castle of his ancestors, and hastened
towards the mountains.

* * * * *

The hoary autumn nights had dyed the leaves of the forest. The whole
country looked as if it had been washed in blood.

Deep amidst the wildest forest the path suddenly descends into a
narrow valley surrounded by steep rocks, at the foot of which lies a
little village half concealed among the trees.

It seemed as if the settlers there had only cleared sufficient ground
to build their dwellings, leaving all the rest a dense mass of forest.
Apart from the rest, on the top of a rock, stood a cottage, which,
unlike the others, was constructed entirely of large blocks of stone,
and only approachable by a small path cut in the rock.

A young man ascended this path. He was attired in a peasant's garb,
and although he evidently had travelled far, his step was light and
fleet. When he had ascended about half way, he was suddenly stopped by
an armed Wallachian, who had been kneeling before a shrine in the
rock, and, on seeing the stranger, rose and stood in his path.

The latter pron