were at a loss to know which direction the fugitives had taken;
a half a score of the retainers leaped from their horses, and
began hurrying about hither and thither, and up and down, like
hounds searching for the lost scent, and all the time Baron
Henry sat still as a rock in the midst of the confusion.

Suddenly a shout was raised from the forest just beyond the
road; they had come upon the place where the horses had been
tied. It was an easy matter to trace the way that Baron Conrad
and his followers had taken thence back to the high-road, but
there again they were at a loss. The road ran straight as an
arrow eastward and westward - had the fugitives taken their way to
the east or to the west?

Baron Henry called his head-man, Nicholas Stein, to him, and the
two spoke together for a while in an undertone. At last the
Baron's lieutenant reined his horse back, and choosing first one
and then another, divided the company into two parties. The
baron placed himself at the head of one band and Nicholas Stein
at the head of the other. "Forward!" he cried, and away
clattered the two companies of horsemen in opposite directions.

It was toward the westward that Baron Henry of Trutz-Drachen
rode at the head of his men.

The early springtide sun shot its rays of misty, yellow light
across the rolling tops of the forest trees where the little
birds were singing in the glory of the May morning. But Baron
Henry and his followers thought nothing of the beauty of the
peaceful day, and heard nothing of the multitudinous sound of