"All expressed themselves willing to help him, not for the sake of the reward, but because any way none of them would have been able to sleep from excitement.
"He ordered all the lights to be brought that could be found, and now they commenced the search once more--below in the cellars, through all the rooms down stairs and up stairs, in the garrets, up into the old tower,--Harald always ahead, searching every nook and corner, with his eyes everywhere, giving his orders with a firm voice, indefatigable, till morning broke.
"Now the women were sent to bed, but the men followed him still, as many as could stand it. With these he searched the shrubbery, the garden, from the fosse to the drawbridge, and the fosse itself. It was raining that day as fast as it could come down, and the servants were nearly exhausted; but Harald, for the first time in his life, I believe, spoke to them kindly, and besought them not to give it up, and promised them a mint of money. Thus they stood it till noon; but then they had to give it up. Now Harald took the others, who had rested in the mean while, and with these he went out on the moor near Fashwitz, and into the forest of Berkow, and down to the sea-shore.
"Towards evening they came back, dripping with rain and the moor-water, in which they had been wading about for hours. The men were so tired they slept as they walked, but Harald's strength was unbroken. He told me to bring a few bottles of wine, and while he poured them down his throat he said to me, 'Listen, old one; I do not believe she has drowned herself. It would be too horrible; it would drive me mad. She cannot have intended to avenge herself on me so cruelly; she was too good for that, and she was too fond of me. Did she ever tell you that she would leave me? Did she ever speak to you of a man who was at all times ready to receive her at his house?'
"I thought I ought to leave Harald some little hope, and said:
"'Yes, Maria has often told me so, especially of late.'
"'You see,' he said, and put the glass out of which he had been drinking, so violently down on the table that it broke into pieces; 'now the hounds scent the track. Now we'll have a regular fox-chase.'
"He pulled the bell-rope till the handle came off. 'Order horses!' he cried to old Jake, who came in, 'instantly!'
"I begged him to sleep at least a few hours, for I saw that his eyes were burning with fever, and he trembled in all his limbs.
"'Pshaw!' he said, 'I sleep? I have other things to do than to sleep. I do not know how long I shall be away, old one, but I shall either bring her back or,--will you make haste!' he cried into the hall; 'I'll teach you how to hurry, you scamps!'