attention, and which was derived from the combination of fearless
frankness and good humour, with sprightly looks and a handsome face
and person. It seemed, too, as if his whole demeanour bespoke one
who was entering on life with no apprehension of the evils with
which it is beset, and small means for struggling with its hardships,
except a lively spirit and a courageous disposition; and it is
with such tempers that youth most readily sympathizes, and for whom
chiefly age and experience feel affectionate and pitying interest.

The youth whom we have described had been long visible to the two
persons who loitered on the opposite side of the small river which
divided him from the park and the castle; but as he descended the
rugged bank to the water's edge, with the light step of a roe which
visits the fountain, the younger of the two said to the other,
"It is our man -- it is the Bohemian! If he attempts to cross the
ford, he is a lost man -- the water is up, and the ford impassable."

"Let him make that discovery himself, gossip [an intimate friend
or companion (obsolete)]," said the elder personage; "it may,
perchance, save a rope and break a proverb [refers to the old saw,
'Who is born to be hanged will never be drowned.']."

"I judge him by the blue cap," said the other, "for I cannot see
his face. Hark, sir; he hallooes to know whether the water be deep."

"Nothing like experience in this world," answered the other, "let
him try."

The young man, in the meanwhile, receiving no hint to the contrary,
and taking the silence of those to whom he applied as an encouragement