Once he thought he saw them, for there were a number of men seen advancing slowly on horseback, but when they had nearly reached the foot of the mountain, they suddenly struck off in a different direction.
The last rays of the sun departed. The bats began to flit by in the twilight. The road grew dimmer and dimmer to sight, and nothing seemed to be stirring in it except, now and then, a peasant lagging homeward from his day’s labor.
While the old castle was in this nervous state, very different things were happening to the bridegroom.
The young count was riding along on horseback in a jog-trot fashion toward the bride he had never seen.
“There is no haste necessary,” he said to his attendants; “we will be there all in good time. Let us enjoy the scenery.”
At the inn where he stopped for refreshment, he met another young nobleman with whom he had been good friends several years before while both were in the army.
“And which way do you travel?” asked the count’s friend.
“We go through the East pass, and upward through the mountain road,” he replied.
“How fortunate!” exclaimed his friend. “I am going in the same direction.”
So they agreed to travel together, and soon set off, the count leaving word for his servants to follow and overtake him later.