"They are disguised Jesuits; that's what they look like to me."
"Well, if they intend to seek a quarrel with the people at the Manor, they will find their match."
"I am on my way now to the Inspector on business; I will give him a hint."
"Do not meddle with what does not concern you," said the landlord, warningly. But the citizen only held the boots he carried, tighter under his arm, and drove round the corner.
Our two friends left, disgusted with the lack of courtesy they encountered at the Dragon. They inquired the way to the manor of an old woman at the opposite gate of the city. Behind the town the path rose from the gravel bed of the brook to the woody height. They entered a clearing of underbrush, from which, here and there, rose up high oaks. The rain of the last evening still hung in drops on the leaves--the deep green of summer glistened in the sun's rays--the song of birds and the tapping of the woodpecker above broke the stillness.
"This puts one in different frame of mind," exclaimed the Doctor, cheerfully.
"It requires very little to call forth new melodies in a well-strung heart, if fate has not played on it with too rough a hand. The bark of a few trees covered with hoary moss, a handful of blossoms on the turf, and a few notes from the throats of birds, are sufficient," replied the philosophic Professor. "Hark! that is no greeting of nature to the wanderer," added he, listening attentively, as the sound of distant voices chanting a choral, fell softly on his ear. The sound appeared to come from above the trees.
"Let us go higher up," exclaimed the Doctor, "to the mysterious place where old church-hymns murmur through the oaks."
They ascended the hill some hundred steps, and found themselves on an open terrace, one side of which was surrounded by trees. In the clearing stood a small wooden church surrounded by a graveyard; some distance beyond on a massive extent of rock rose a great old building, the roof of which was broken by many pointed gables.
"How all harmonizes!" exclaimed the Professor, looking curiously over the little church up to the Manor-house.