"Ho! Kasper! Frantz!"
And seeing forms approaching in the darkness, he began to ask:
"Is it you?"
"Yes, it is us."
"Nothing wrong with you?"
"No."
The old huntsman's voice, usually so rough, trembled like a woman's.
"Here we are all three, then, together again!" said he, in a low tone.
And he, whom no one had ever accused of being softhearted, bestowed a hearty embrace upon his sons, who were greatly surprised by his emotion. They heard a sound in his breast as of inward sobbing; they were much moved by it, and said to themselves: "How he loves us! We should never have believed this!"
They themselves felt touched to the very quick.