flinging himself before the woman with a piercing cry, "My mother!" then
the dog taking another spring, and Sperver, quick as lightning, raising
his gun, and bringing down the poor animal dead at the young man's feet.

This was but the work of a second. The gulf had been illuminated with a
momentary flash, and the wild echoes were vibrating with the explosion
from rock to rock, till it died in the far distance. Then silence again
settled on the gloomy scene, as darkness after the lightning.

When the smoke of the explosion had cleared away I saw Lieverlé lying
outstretched at the foot of the rock, and the woman fainting in the arms
of the young man. Sperver, pale with concentrated rage and excitement,
and eyeing the young baron darkly, dropped the butt of his gun to the
ground, his features discomposed, and his eyes half-hid in his gloomy
frown.

"Seigneur de Bluderich," he cried, with his hand extended, "I have killed
my best friend to save the life of that unhappy woman, your mother! Thank
God that her life is bound up with that of the Count of Nideck! Take her
away! take her hence, and never let her return here again; if you do I
cannot answer for what old Sperver may be driven to do!"

Then, with a glance at the poor dog--

"Oh! Lieverlé, Lieverlé!" he cried, "was it to end thus? Come, Fritz, let
us go. I cannot stay here. I might do something that I should have to
repent of!"

And, laying hold of Fox by the mane, he was going to throw himself into
the saddle, but suddenly his feelings of distress overcame all restraint,