And now he was on the vast heath, which extended behind the village as far as Fashwitz. He saw the moonshine glitter mysteriously on the black water in the deep peat cuttings; he heard from time to time the hoarse cry of a marsh-bird, whom he had frightened from his nest; otherwise not a sound, nothing but the dull thunder of Almansor's hoofs and the night-wind as it swept wailing and complaining across the heath.
And now, while he was in the very heart of the heath was not that another horse he heard, or was it merely the echo? It came nearer and nearer; Almansor pointed his ears and went faster and faster, as if he were trying to escape from death. And yet it came closer and closer. Oswald turned round, and vague horror seized him as he saw behind him a black figure on a black horse, whose hoofs did not seem to touch the ground.
A second more and the black horseman was by his side; the horses were racing head by head and snorted at each other with wide open nostrils.
"What do you wish?" asked Oswald, mastering his terror.
"Not much!" replied the black horseman, in a deep, hollow voice. "Wish only to report that my mistress has been back since day before yesterday; thought the young gentleman might not know it. No harm done, sir! Beg pardon! Good-night and good luck!"
The horseman threw his horse around, Almansor raced on, and the next moment Oswald was quite alone once more.
Was it the offspring of his overwrought imagination? Was it reality? Was it a phantom? Was that really old Baumann on Brownlock? Oswald could not tell to save his life.
And again houses and gardens, hedges and trees flew by him on the right and on the left, spectre-like, in the pale moonlight. A dog snapped with a yell at Almansor's hoofs. The next moment all had vanished, and boundless fields of grain waved and whispered on both sides of the high road.
Then lights began to shine from afar; they came nearer and nearer. A bell struck loud once; already a quarter to eleven! and once more houses right and left, trees, and hedges, and gardens. Then a dark town-gate, and then Almansor's hoofs on the hard pavement.
"Where does Doctor Braun live?"