by rain, appeared before him.

His heart throbbed faster, and he thought that he had seen no fairer
prospect in all the wide tract of earth over which he had wandered during
the past five years. Below him were green meadows and fields, pleasant
villages, and the clear, full current of the Danube, along whose left
bank extended a beautifully formed mountain chain, whose declivity toward
the river presented a rich variety to the eye, for sometimes it was
clothed in budding groves, sometimes displayed picturesque bare cliffs,
and again vineyards in which labourers were working. From the farthest
distance the steeples of Ratisbon offered the first greeting to the
resting horseman.

What a wealth of memories this pleasant landscape awoke in the mind of
the returning traveller! How often he had walked through these charming
valleys, climbed these heights, stopped in these villages! It was
difficult for him to turn from this view, but he let his bay horse have
its way when the companion whom he had left behind overtook him here, and
the animal followed the other's black Brabant steed, with which it had
long been on familiar terms. He rode slowly at his friend's side into
the valley.

Both silently feasted their eyes upon the scene opening with increasing
magnificence before them.

As they reached the village of Winzer, the victorious sun was approaching
the western horizon, and diffused over it a fan of golden rays. The gray
cloud bank above, which a light breeze was driving before it, was
bordered with golden edges. The young green foliage, refreshed by the
rain, glittered as richly and magnificently as emerald and chrysoprase,