"No, that would be the hardest thing in the world to me," said Hofer. "He might deceive himself about me; but I could not deceive him. Whenever a man has put to me the question, 'Are you Hofer?' I have never yet said 'No;' and I cannot begin now."
Anna was going to remonstrate; but he smiled rather sadly at her and said—
"It would be to little good, dear—we are already discovered by Franz."
Here Johann burst into a loud fit of crying, and flung himself on the straw; while Anna stood speechless.
"We had better go somewhere else, then," said she, after a moment.
"Where? We dare not descend into the valleys; and if we stray about the mountains, Rudolf will not know where to find us, and we shall perish with hunger. Patience, dear wife! Rudolf may come again in a few days, and we can then concert fresh measures with him; or the emperor's safeguard may arrive in the meantime, and we can then avail ourselves of it."
"Ah, I hope we shall!"
"No doubt of it. Cheer up, Johann! Perhaps you will be staring at the pretty things in the shop-windows of Vienna in another fortnight. Come here, and see me carve this horn, and I'll tell you a story about what I used to do when I was a little boy."
While Hofer amused this wayward little son with one story after another, rewarded therein by beguiling himself of his own heavy thoughts, Anna stood musing, with her eyes wistfully fixed on her husband's rifle.
"It has brought down many a man in battle," thought she; "and why not now, if spies come lurking about him to make a prey of him? He would not do it, I know; but, I declare, if I espy any one prowling about that has no business here, I'll see if I can't manage to hit him myself!"