thought that you are drivers."

"Thank you very much," Hector said; "that would certainly be a
capital plan. We were afraid of going through the forests alone."

"Yes, and you were right. They are full of marauders. A party
of troopers arrived here from Eichstadt yesterday evening. They
stopped to get a drink at a cabaret in the forest, and on entering
found seven men lying dead, and no one living to say how they got
there. That some, if not all, were robbers was evident from the
fact that, on the bodies being searched, articles evidently plundered
from travellers were found upon all of them. An examination was
made of the house, and considerable quantities of plunder found
hidden. Searching in the forest behind, several mounds of earth,
evidently graves, were discovered. The landlord himself was among
the killed, for one of the troopers, who had before stopped at
the house, recognized him. It was supposed that the brigands were
killed by some other party with whom they had quarrelled. Three
of them were shot and two killed by tremendous blows from an axe,
and as neither pistols nor axes were found in the room it is clear
that those within had been killed by some other band."

The next morning, when the column started, Hector and Paolo fell in
among the carts, and rendered good service on the road by helping
to move them when the wheels of the waggons stuck fast at spots
where the road crossed marshy valleys. So bad was the journey
that it occupied two days. Then the waggons were parked outside
the walls of Hall, a guard being placed round them to prevent
desertion. The troops slept inside the town. At daybreak the next
morning their march was arrested by an officer riding out from the