He was terrified as
he saw me; one word revealed to him all. Post horses were immediately
fetched. I took only one of my people with me, an arrant knave, called
Rascal, who had contrived to make himself necessary to me by his
cleverness and who could suspect nothing of today's occurrence. That
night I left upward of thirty miles behind me. Bendel remained behind
me to discharge my establishment, to pay money, and to bring me what
I most required. When he overtook me next day, I threw myself into his
arms, and swore to him never again to run into the like folly, but in
future to be more cautious. We continued our journey without pause,
over the frontiers and the mountains, and it was not till we began to
descend and had placed those lofty bulwarks between us and our former
unlucky abode, that I allowed myself to be persuaded to rest from
the fatigues I had undergone, in a neighboring and little frequented
Bathing-place.
CHAPTER IV
I must pass in my relation hastily over a time in which how gladly
would I linger, could I but conjure up the living spirit of it with
the recollection. But the color which vivified it, and alone can
vivify it again, is extinguished in me; and when I seek in my bosom
what then so mightily animated it, the grief and the joy, the innocent
illusion--then do I vainly smite a rock in which no living spring now
dwells, and the god is departed from me.
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