not be too zealous. And in the meantime, if I were you, I would say
nothing on the subject.'

'O, trust me, sir, for that,' cried Fritz, as he pocketed a crown.
'And you've let nothing out; for I suspected - I might say I knew it
- from the first. And mind you, when a guide is required,' he
added, 'I know all the forest paths.'

Otto rode away, chuckling. This talk with Fritz had vastly
entertained him; nor was he altogether discontented with his bearing
at the farm; men, he was able to tell himself, had behaved worse
under smaller provocation. And, to harmonise all, the road and the
April air were both delightful to his soul.

Up and down, and to and fro, ever mounting through the wooded
foothills, the broad white high-road wound onward into Grunewald.
On either hand the pines stood coolly rooted - green moss
prospering, springs welling forth between their knuckled spurs; and
though some were broad and stalwart, and others spiry and slender,
yet all stood firm in the same attitude and with the same
expression, like a silent army presenting arms.

The road lay all the way apart from towns and villages, which it
left on either hand. Here and there, indeed, in the bottom of green
glens, the Prince could spy a few congregated roofs, or perhaps
above him, on a shoulder, the solitary cabin of a woodman. But the
highway was an international undertaking and with its face set for
distant cities, scorned the little life of Grunewald. Hence it was
exceeding solitary. Near the frontier Otto met a detachment of his
own troops marching in the hot dust; and he was recognised and