darkness.

That pale face, with its strongly-marked features, thin lips, and thick
black eyebrows meeting together, and forming a deep hollow on the brow in
the form of a long vertical wrinkle, would have struck me with admiration
at any other time; while now an inexplicable anxiety laid hold of me, and
I was filled with vague apprehensions.

Suddenly the young man exclaimed--

"Who goes there?"

"I, monseigneur," answered Sperver, coming forward--"Sperver, chief
huntsman to the lord of Nideck."

A flash shot from the baron's quick eye; not a muscle of his countenance
quailed. He rose to his feet, gathering his pelisse over his shoulders. I
drew towards me the horses and the dog, and this animal suddenly began
howling fearfully.

Is not every one, more or less, subject to superstitious fears? At these
dismal sounds I trembled, and a cold shudder crept through my whole body.

Sperver and the baron stood at a distance of fifty yards from each other;
the first immovable in the midst of the deep glen, his gun unslung from
his shoulder, the other erect upon the level platform outside of the
cave, carrying his head high, fixing on us a haughty eye and a proud look
of superiority.

"What do you want here?" he asked aggressively.