While the hounds were baying in the courtyard eager to be off, and the sound of trampling4 horse's hoof5 and jingling6 bridle7-rein8, with cry of groom9 and laugh of page, came through the open window, Erna and Count Stephen stood in the hall waiting for Albrecht. At a little distance stood Fastrade and Elsa, both of whom were to ride with Erna to follow the hunt; and Elsa said to her companion, pointing to the boar-spear which still stuck in the head of the deer that hung above the chimney-place:
"If the baron10 can but make such another shot as that he made when he thrust that spear into the bone from the other end of the hall, may I be there to see!"
The eyes of both Erna and of Count Stephen turned to the spear, as the damsel spoke11; and most vividly12 before the mind of the countess came up the picture of Albrecht as he had flung it on his wedding eve, full of buoyant life and of joyful14 love.
"I have noticed that spear before," Count Stephen said, turning toward his cousin. "How came it there? Did the baron in sooth throw it across the hall?"
"Yea," she answered; and then she was silent because there came over her a feeling that she had been untrue to her husband by the leaning toward her companion of which she had been half conscious in her secret heart.
"It was indeed a shrewd shot," observed Count Stephen, looking upward to the spear, which was high above their heads.
Erna did not reply. Suddenly there came into her mind, with the picture of that evening when the spear was thrown, the remembrance of the ring which had been given her by Herr von Zimmern and taken from her by Albrecht. She tried to recall exactly what had been said, but she had forgotten her husband's words, only half heard when they were spoken. She wondered why the ring had never been restored to her, and dimly she recalled to mind the fact that it had been engraved15 with symbols which had looked to her in the brief moment she had seen the jewel, strange and mysterious.
"Albrecht," she said to him when they had mounted and were riding out of the courtyard into the way which led down the hill, "dost thou not remember the ring that Herr von Zimmern would have given me on the eve of our wedding day?"
A faint shadow crossed his face. He did not look toward her, but pretended to busy himself with the bridle of his horse.
"Yes," he said, "I remember it. It was overbold of him."
"I see not that; but that is no matter now. What I was wondering was that thou didst never give me the jewel."
"Hast thou not rings enough?" he asked lightly, although Erna could see that her words troubled him. "I will give thee more jewels if so be that there were not enough in the caskets."
"But why not that ring?" Erna persisted, urged on by a secret conviction that here was some mystery. "I seem to remember that Herr von Zimmern said something about wonderful powers in that ring which other jewels have not. I would have the chance to test the matter for myself."
"The ring," Albrecht answered with a seriousness which impressed her, and which yet rendered her only the more anxious to possess the jewel, "had indeed strange powers, but they were unhallowed ones. It were not fitting that a Christian16 avail himself of the spells which have been wrought17 by sinful sorceresses."
"Thou art truly become virtuous," Erna retorted with a tone in which she had never before spoken to her husband. "Good sooth, when thou camest to Rittenberg I heard nothing of scruples18 so nice!"
Albrecht turned and regarded her with a glance so reproachful and so full of pain that she could not bear it. She struck her palfrey sharply with her whip, and dashed recklessly down the hill, crying out to Count Stephen, who had been in advance a little until she thus ran by him, to race with her. Tears of vexation were in her eyes as she dashed down the woodland path, and the sting of her own words wounded her to the quick. She became recklessly gay, and all through the afternoon when she was not separated from her cousin by the chances of the chase she jested and laughed with demonstrative merriment.
Through the thickets20 where the leaves had begun to fall, under pine boughs21 which had strewn the ground thick with brown spicy22 needles year after year until the horses' feet bounded upon an elastic23 cushion, past rocks violet in the sun and rose-hued in the half shadows, over meadows set with jewel-tinted autumn flowers, sped the hunt, the mellow24 baying of the deep-mouthed hounds ringing out upon the air, and the horn from time to time waking all the echoes into inspiring music. Erna kept well to the front. She had never ridden so recklessly, and never before had the passion of the sport so fired her blood. She was, moreover, trying to escape from the smart of the taunt25 which she had flung at her husband, and her palfrey flew so fast that sometimes she even led the way for the huntsmen to follow.
Count Stephen was never far away from her. Close behind or beside her as the ways through which they sped allowed him, he pressed forward with the countess; and Erna was well aware that he had set himself to keep with her, and that his quest that day was not simply the stag which was fleeing before the deep-baying hounds, but rather the love of the woman with whom he went crashing through the thickets where the leaves came down in showers about the horses and the wood-scents rose balsamic or musky under the beat of the swift hoofs26 of their steeds. She was so conscious of his presence that she could not look at him, but kept her face turned away, urging her palfrey forward rather as if she were fleeing than as if she were of the band of pursuers.
And now and then, too, she had a strange sense that she was not alone with her companion, but as if some unseen creature were following and were watching her. She tried to shake off the notion; but when the thickets rustled27 after they had both drawn28 rein to listen for the hounds and to recover again the trail which they had for a moment lost, she had started and shivered, remembering the sprites of the wood that have the power of walking invisible. Then she would glance at the count and backward to where Fastrade strove to urge her palfrey forward lest she lose track of her mistress altogether, and with a new smile upon her lips would once more rush madly forward.
The hunt was not long. It was swift and dashing, the stag seeming to exhaust himself in one grand burst at the outset; and before the light of the autumn afternoon had waned29 the yelping30 of the hounds and the baying of the beagles told that they were almost upon their prey31. Erna and Count Stephen were riding desperately32, following the trail; but now the countess, who knew the country better than her companion, suddenly struck off along the side of a hill which the hunt had crossed.
"Come this way," she called back over her shoulder to her cousin. "We shall intercept33 them thus at the end of the valley. The stag has doubled."
He followed without hesitation34, and in brief space they burst through a thicket19 to find themselves at the head of a little valley carpeted with turf still green and untouched by the frost, and set around with beech35 trees whose leaves were shining with the slanting36 beams of the sun, which shot through a break in the hills at their left hand. The whole vale was illumined with the red light, and into it, just as they came out of the wood, dashed a superb stag of ten, the dogs already at his throat; and close upon his track, almost within arm's length, madly rode Albrecht.
"I thought the baron had been behind," Count Stephen exclaimed in astonishment37.
"His woodcraft is too good," Erna returned. "It is idle to match with him; he has outridden us. He must have cut across our track at the last turning. Mother of God!"
Her cry was one of mingled38 astonishment and of dread39. Her husband had taken advantage of a stumble which the unhappy stag made, the good dog Gelert being already at the beast's throat, to drive his horse abreast40 of the deer, to leap from his saddle, and to seize the fleeing animal by its mighty41 horns. The pair on the hillside opposite drew rein involuntarily, and Erna tried to call out to Albrecht, in the vain hope that he might free himself from a position of so much danger. Before she could speak, however, he had thrown all his force into one powerful effort, and before their eyes had twisted the head of the stag half-way around. The creature dropped with its neck broken, falling among the yelping hounds and at the feet of Rupert, the master of the pack, as suddenly as if an arrow had reached his heart.
"By the wounds of God!" cried Count von Rittenberg, pricking42 his horse forward down the hillside; "what a giant is this!"
Erna hastened after, her heart beating, and all her body burning with the sudden rush of blood that for one breathless instant had seemed to gather itself into her heart, leaving her cold and lifeless. She had never seen her husband as in this act he had revealed himself to her, and she was divided between wonder and a fearful admiration43. He had seemed a creature more than human as he bent44 the mighty neck of the great stag, and there was in her proud sense of his prowess not a little feeling of dread and too of strangeness, as if this hunter were not only the husband she knew, but some strange being whose true nature she had never before suspected. As her palfrey carried her across the narrow valley, she remembered the taunt she had flung at him as they left the castle, and it flashed through her mind that anger at herself might have mingled with the excitement of the chase to move him.
The hunt was all about the dead stag by the time Erna reached the spot. Albrecht came forward to help her dismount. His eyes were shining, his cheek was flushed, and under the open collar of his hunting-jacket, pushed back from his throat, his chest rose and fell. He had never looked handsomer, and as he swung his wife down from her palfrey, she brushed his hand with a quick kiss. The restless fancies which had been weaving themselves about her and drawing her nearer as in a net toward Count Stephen seemed to be snapped and swept aside in an instant, and her heart was as truly her husband's as on the day when she had wed13.
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1
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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2
hazes
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| n.（烟尘等的）雾霭( haze的名词复数 )；迷蒙；迷糊；（尤指热天引起的）薄雾v.（使）笼罩在薄雾中( haze的第三人称单数 )；戏弄，欺凌（新生等，有时作为加入美国大学生联谊会的条件） | |
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3
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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4
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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5
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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6
jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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7
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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8
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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9
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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10
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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11
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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12
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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13
wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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14
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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15
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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16
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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17
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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18
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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21
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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22
spicy
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| adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的 | |
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23
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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24
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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25
taunt
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| n.辱骂，嘲弄；v.嘲弄 | |
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26
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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27
rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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29
waned
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| v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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30
yelping
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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31
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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32
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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33
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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34
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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35
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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36
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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37
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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38
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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39
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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40
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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41
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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42
pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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43
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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44
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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