"Do as I order you."
The horse was led out; he opened his large eyes on Eric, distended his nostrils, and tossed back his mane as he neighed.
"That's well!" exclaimed Eric.
He mounted and rode off at a tearing trot. He felt perfectly safe on the horse, who seemed to take delight in his free rider.
Where will he go? Far away—away to the world's end. He felt buoyant, as if the weight of the body were removed, and he could fly away into the wide, wide world.
He rode now down the mountain to the village where Claus lived. All that he had experienced on this road, and all that he had thought, thronged in upon his mind at once, and he even looked to see if Roland were riding by his side.
Roland! How strange! It struck him as an immeasurably long time since Roland had left him; it was the recollection of a far-off event, that he once had instructed a youth on the verge of manhood.
He gazed at the fields, at the vineyards, as if he must ask them: How is it, how will it be when I call you mine—a bit of the world my own! Trees, meadows, vine-hills, fields and vineyards danced before his eyes.
He rode into the village.
Here all was quiet. He drew up at the field-guard's house, he knew not for what reason. The blackbird was singing alone in the still night, 'Rejoice in your life.' She got no farther on in the tune, and this melody, so old and yet so good, now accompanied Eric, and chimed in with the hoof-beats of his swift steed.