"Jumped out of the carriage," repeated Wollnow; "that was very wise, very apropos; for the fall occurred directly after, didn't it?"
"It must have taken place at that very moment."
"Let us say a few moments after, otherwise the faithful Caliban would have been obliged to join the party. The fall you have already described to me, so far as you were conscious of the precise moment--and it is astonishing how far an artist's observation extends to the gates, nay, I might say across the very threshold of death. And how long did this terrible moment, when you were so near your end, last?"
"I can hardly say; I became unconscious without pain or struggle, as quickly and imperceptibly as the lid falls over the eye; and in the same manner, without the slightest struggle, my senses returned, and I lay with my eyes fixed upon the moon, watching the yellowish brown clouds over her face grow thinner and thinner--as if I had nothing else to do--until her rays suddenly pierced the last transparent veil, and shone in their full brilliancy. At the same moment the consciousness of my situation returned, and I knew as well as if some one had told me that I had remained lying on a ledge about half way down the slope, while the carriage and horses, sliding down the precipice to the edge of the morass, were lying in one confused, terrible heap, amid which I could distinguish nothing. After this, I must have again fallen, not into an unconscious condition, but a sort of delirious state. I had a distinct vision of a horseman, who, with a speed that only occurs in dreams, dashed away from me across the marsh in the direction of Neuenhof. Like the traditional ghostly rider, he had his head bent far over the long thin neck of his flying steed, and wore a tall hat. A ghost in a tall hat, isn't it ridiculous?"
"Very ridiculous!" said Wollnow. He had risen from his seat again, and gone to the window to conceal his agitation from Gotthold. What was that the groom had said just now about the remarkable speed of the horse Brandow had ridden that night? And the spectral rider had dashed in the direction of Neuenhof, from whence Brandow had come!--Brandow, who strangely enough had worn a tall hat that night, and the tall hat was splashed with marshy water.
Wollnow turned to Gotthold again: "Do you think it impossible for any one, I mean any one of flesh and blood, to cross Dollan marsh, even on the best and fastest horse?"
"What put that into your head?" asked Gotthold in amazement.
"Oh! nothing, except that Brandow has been telling everywhere that one of the horses which broke away from the carriage and tried to make its escape across the morass was drowned in the attempt."
"Then that is surely the best proof of the impossibility."
"Certainly," replied Wollnow; "and now you must have perfect quiet, or Lauterbach will be very angry. I will come back again in two hours; until then you must sleep undisturbed."