"I've never got there from this side, but always from across the river, where I know every inch of the way. If we get a bit nearer the water I can, perhaps, get my bearings."
They turned away to the right, and soon they saw the great flood of the noble river rolling steadily on towards the sea. Vessels were moving slowly down the stream, picturesque in the fleeting moonlight, and a great raft, such as had passed the cavern when Tyndale was waiting for the coming of the Marburg, was floating after them. On the other side was a ruined castle, scorched and blackened by fire, and Engel knew it instantly.
"A mile and a half higher up the river and we are there!" he exclaimed; and with low laughter he added, "And then I shall see my Mary, and have her in my arms!"
He hugged himself in his delight.
"You know, Herman, I'd have married her a year ago, but her father wouldn't hear of my taking her to that poverty-stricken hut, and I've been saving for years to get enough to buy a mill. A hundred golden crowns more, and the thing's done."
He stopped at that, and the exultation passed.
"A hundred golden crowns want a lot of getting," he said gloomily, a few moments later. "We shall be older than we are, and older than I like to think, by the time I've got them, at the rate I'm going."
"They'll come all right, Otto," said Herman confidently. "Your ship will come home unexpectedly. See if she doesn't."
The forester flung aside his gloom, and every yard they travelled lifted his spirits. He was thinking of the girl he loved, and he was soon to see her.
The forest came to an abrupt ending. Before them was a broad sweep of open country, at least two hundred acres of fine grazing land, dotted with trees and sleeping horses and cattle, and in the centre of all, standing on a high mound, a fine old mill, whose arms were motionless.