On the countenance of Sperver was an expression of suppressed wrath, on
that of his companion bitter irony. This worthy sportsman, whose woeful
physiognomy had struck me on my first arrival at Nideck, was as thin and
dry as a lath. His hunting-jacket was girded tightly about him by his
belt, from which hung a hunting-knife with a horn handle; long leathern
gaiters came above his knees; the horn went over his shoulder from
right to left, the wide-expanded opening under his arm; on his head a
wide-brimmed hat, with a heron's plume in the buckle. His profile, coming
to a point in a reddish tuft, looked not unlike a goat's.
"Yes," cried Sperver, "I have got strange things to tell you."
He threw himself in a chair, seizing his head between his clenched hands,
while dismal Sébalt calmly drew his horn over his head and laid it on the
table.
"Now, Sébalt," cried Gideon, "speak out."
"The witch is hanging about the castle."
This piece of intelligence would have failed to interest me before seeing
Marie Lagoutte, but now it struck more forcibly. There certainly was some
mysterious connection between the lord of Nideck and that old woman. I
knew nothing of the nature of this connection, and I felt that, at
whatever cost, I must know it.
"Just wait a moment, friends," said I to Sperver and his comrade. "I want
to know, first of all, where does this Black Pest come from?"
Sperver stared at me with astonishment.
"Come from? Who can tell that?"
"Very well, you can't. But when does she come within sight of Nideck?"
"As I told you, ten days before Christmas, at the same time every year."
"And how long does she stay?"
"A fortnight or three weeks."
"Is she ever seen before? Not even on her way? Nor after?"
"No."
"Then we shall have to catch her, seize upon her," I cried. "This is
contrary to nature. We must find out where she comes from, what she wants
here, what she is."
"Lay hold of her!" exclaimed Sperver; "seize her! Do you mean it?" and he
shook his head. "Fritz, your advice is good enough in its way, but it is
easier said than done. I could very easily send a bullet after her,
almost at any time; but the count won't consent to that measure; and as
for catching in any other way than by powder and shot, why, you had
better go first and catch a squirrel by the tail! Listen to Sébalt's
story, and you shall judge for yourself."
The master of the hounds, sitting on the table with his long legs
crossed, fixed his eyes mournfully upon me, and began his tale.
"This morning, as I was coming down from the Altenberg, I followed the
hollow road to Nideck. The snow filled it up entirely. I was going on my
way, thinking of nothing particular, when I noticed a foot-track; it was
deep down, and went across the road. The person had come down the bank
and gone up on the other side. It was not a soft hare's foot, which
hardly leaves an impression, it was not forked like a wild boar's track,
it was not like a cloven hoof, such as the wolf's--it was a deep hole. I
stopped and stooped down, and cleared away the loose snow that fell
round, and came upon the very track of the Black Pest!"
"Are you sure it was that?"
"Of course I am. I know the old woman by her foot better than by her
figure, for I always go, sir, with my eyes on the ground. I know
everybody by their tracks; and as for this one, a child might know it."
"What, then, distinguishes this foot so particularly?"
"It is so small that you could cover it with your hand; it is finely
shaped, the heel is rather long, the outline clean, the great toe lies
close to the other toes, and they are all as fine as if they were in a
lady's slipper. It is a lovely foot. Twenty years ago I should have
fallen in love with a foot like that. Whenever I come across it, it has
such an effect upon me! No one would believe that such a foot could
belong to the Black Plague."
And the poor fellow, joining his hands together, contemplated the stone
floor with doleful eyes.
"Well, Sébalt, what next?" asked Sperver impatiently.
"Ah, yes, to be sure! Well, I recognised that track and started off in
pursuit. I was hoping to catch the creature in her lair, but I will tell
you the way she took me. I climbed up the bank by the roadside, only two
gunshots from Nideck. I go along the hill, keeping the track on my right;
it led along the side of the wood in the Rhéthal. All at once it jumps
over the ditch into the wood. I stuck to it, but, happening to look a
little to my left, I saw another track which had, been following the
Black Plague. I stopped short: was it Sperver's? or Kasper Trumpfs? or
whose? I came to it, and you may fancy how astounded I was when I saw
that it was nobody from our place! I know every foot in the Schwartzwald
from Fribourg to Nideck. That foot was like none of ours. It must have
come from a distance. The boot--for it was a kind of well-made, soft
gentleman's boot, with spurs, which leave a little print behind them--the
boot was not round at the toes, but square. The sole was thin, and bent
with every step, and it had no nails in it. The walk was rapid, and the
short steps were like those of a young man of twenty to five-and-twenty.
I noticed the stitches in the side leather at once, and I think I never
saw finer."
"Who can this be?" Sperver exclaimed.
Sébalt raised his shoulders and extended his hands, but said nothing.
"Who can have any object in following the old woman?" I asked Sperver.
"No one on earth can tell," was the reply.
And so we sat a few minutes meditating over what we had heard.
At last he went on again with his narrative:--
"I kept following the track; it went up the next ridge through the
pine-forest. When it doubled round the Koche Fendue I said to myself,
'Ah, you accursed plague! If there was much game of your sort there would
not be much sport; it would be preferable to work like a nigger!' So we
all three arrive--the two tracks and I--at the top of the Schnéeberg.
There the wind had been blowing hard; the snow was knee-deep--but no
matter! I must get on! I got to the edge of the torrent of the Steinbach,
and there I lost the track. I halted, and I saw that, after trying up and
down in several directions, the gentleman's boots had gone down the
Tiefenbach. That was a bad sign. I looked along the other side of the
torrent, but there was no appearance of a track there--none at all! The
old hag had paddled up and down the stream to throw any one off the scent
who should try to follow her. Where was I to go to?--right, or left, or
straight on? Not knowing, I came back to Nideck."
"You haven't told us about her breakfast," said Sperver.
"No, I was forgetting. At the foot of Roche Fendue I saw there had been a
fire; there was a black place; I laid my hand upon it, thinking it might
be warm, which would have proved that the Black Plague had not gone far;
but it was as cold as ice. Close by I saw a wire trap in the bushes. It
seems the creature knows how to snare game. A hare had been caught in it;
the print of its body was still plain, lying flat in the snow. The witch
had lighted the fire to cook it; she had had a good breakfast, I'll be
bound."
At this Sperver cried indignantly--
"Just fancy that old witch living on meat while so many honest folks in
our villages have nothing better than potatoes to eat! That's what upsets
me, Fritz! Ah! if I had but--"
But his thoughts remained untold; he turned deadly pale, and all three of
us, in a moment, stood rigid and motionless, staring with horror at each
other's ghastly countenances.
A yell--the howling cry of the wolf in the long, cold days of winter--the
cry which none can imagine who has not heard the most fearful and
harrowing of all bestial sounds--that fearful cry was echoing through the
castle not far from us! It rose up the spiral staircase, it filled the
massive building as if the hungry, savage beast was at our door!
Travellers speak of the deep roar of the lion troubling the silence of
the night amidst the rocky deserts of Africa; but while the tropical
regions, sultry and baked, resound with the vibrations of the mighty
voice of the savage monarch of the desert, making the air tremble with
the distant thunder of his awful cry, the vast snowy deserts of the North
too have their characteristic cry--a strange, lamentable yell that seems
to suit the character of the dreary winter scene. That voice of the
Northern desert is the howl of the wolf!
The instant after this awful sound had broken upon the silence followed
another formidable body of discordant sounds--the baying and yelling of
sixty hounds--answering from the ramparts of Nideck. The whole pack gave
voice at the same moment--the deep bay of the bloodhound, the sharp cry
of the pointer, the plaintive yelpings of the spaniels, and the
melancholy howl of the mastiffs, all mingling in confusion with the
rattling of dog-chains, the shaking of the kennels under the struggles
of the hounds to get loose; and, dominating over all, the long, dismal,
prolonged note of the wolf's monotonous howl; his was the leading part
in this horrible canine concert!
Sperver sprang from his seat and ran out upon the platform to see if a
wolf had dropped into the moat. But no--the howling came from neither.
Then turning to us he cried--
"Fritz! Sébalt!--come, come quickly!"
We flew down the steps four at a time and rushed into the fencing-school.
Here we heard the cry of the wolf alone, prolonged beneath the echoing
arches the distant barking and yelling of the pack became almost
inaudible in the distance; the dogs were hoarse with rage and excitement,
their chains were getting entangled together. Perhaps they were
strangling each other.
Sperver drew the keen blade of his hunting-knife. Sébalt did the same;
they preceded me down the gallery.
Then the fearful sounds became our guide to the sick man's room. Sperver
spoke no more; he hurried forward. Sébalt stretched his long legs. I felt
a shuddering horror creep through my whole frame--a horrible presentiment
of something shocking and abominable came over us.
As we approached the apartments of the count we met the whole household
afoot--the gamekeepers, the huntsmen, the kennel-keepers, the scullions
were all mingled and jostling each other, asking--
"What is the matter? Where are those cries coming from?"
Without stopping we ran into the passage which led into the count's
bedroom, where we met poor Marie Lagoutte, who alone had had the courage
to penetrate thither before us. She was holding in her arms the young
countess, who had fainted, her head falling back, her hair flowing down
behind her; she was carrying her away as fast as she could.
We passed her so rapidly that we scarcely had time to witness this sad
sight. But it has since returned to my memory, and the pale face of Odile
lying on the ample shoulders of the good servant still makes a vivid
impression upon my memory, resembling the poor lamb presenting its throat
to the knife without a complaint, dying with fear before the stroke
falls.
At last we had reached the count's chamber.
The howling came from behind his door.
We stole fearful glances at one another without attempting to account for
the hideous noise, or explaining the presence of such a wild guest in the
house. Indeed, we had no time; our ideas were in dire and utter
confusion.
Sperver hastily pushed the door open, and, knife in hand, was darting
into the room; but he stood arrested on the threshold motionless as a
stone.
Never have I seen such a picture of horror as he displayed standing
rooted there, with his eyes starting from his head, and his mouth wide
open and gasping for breath.
I gazed over his shoulder, and the sight that met my eyes made the blood
run chill as snow in my veins.
The lord of Nideck, crouching on all fours upon his bed, with his arms
bending forward, his head carried low, his eyes glaring with fierce
fires, was uttering loud, protracted howlings!
He was the wolf!
That low receding forehead, that sharp-pointed face, that foxy-looking
beard, bristling off both cheeks; the long meagre figure, the sinewy
limbs, the face, the cry. The attitude, declared the presence of the wild
beast half-hidden, half-revealed under a human mask!
At times he would stop for a second and listen attentively with head
awry, and then the crimson hangings would tremble with the quivering of
his limbs, like foliage shaken by the wind; then the melancholy wail
would open afresh.
Sperver, Sébalt, and I stood nailed to the floor; we held our breath,
petrified with fear.
Suddenly the count stopped. As a wild beast scents the wind, he lifted
his head and listened again.
There, there, far away, down among the thick fir forests, whitened with
dense patches of snow, a cry was heard in reply--weak at first; then the
sound rose and swelled in a long protracted howl, drowning the feebler
efforts of the hounds: it was the she-wolf answering the wolf!
Sperver, turning round awe-stricken, his countenance pale as ashes,
pointed to the mountain, and murmured low--
"Listen--there's the witch!"
And the count still crouching motionless, but with his head now raised
in the attitude of attention, his neck outstretched, his eyes burning,
seemed to understand the meaning of that distant voice, lost amidst the
passes and peaks of the Schwartzwald, and a kind of fearful joy gleamed
in his savage features.
At this moment, Sperver, unable or unwilling to restrain himself any
longer, cried in a voice broken with emotion--
"Count of Nideck--what are you doing?"
The count fell back thunderstruck. We rushed into the room to his help.
It was time. The third attack had commenced, and it was terrible to
witness!