He pointed to a hillock at a couple of gunshots from the castle.
"Do you see there a rock half-buried in the snow, with a ragged bush by its side?"
"Quite well."
"Do you see anything near?"
"No."
"Well, there is a reason for that. You have driven away the Black Plague! Every year at the second attack there she was holding her feet between her hands. By night she lighted a fire; she warmed herself and boiled roots. She bore a curse with her. This morning the very first thing which I did was to get up here. I climbed up the beacon tower; I looked well all round; the old hag was nowhere to be seen. I shaded my eyes with my hand. I looked up and down, right and left, and everywhere; not a sign of the creature anywhere. She had scented you evidently."
And the good fellow, in a fit of enthusiasm, shook me warmly by the hand, crying with unchecked emotion—
"Ah, Fritz, how glad I am that I brought you here! The witch will be sold, eh?"
Well, I confess I felt a little ashamed that I had been all my life such a very well-deserving young man without knowing anything of the circumstance myself.
"So, Sperver," I said, "the count has spent a good night?"