The distant gleam which had first caught Jacob's eye soon widened into a warm and ruddy glow, in which the polished beech-trunks stood up like the pillars of some great building. Still drawing nearer, we saw that there were two fires built a score of paces apart, in a slight hollow. Round the one a number of men were moving, whose black figures sometimes intervened between us and the blaze. Two or three dogs sprang up and barked at us, and a horse neighed out of the darkness beyond. The other fire seemed at first sight to be deserted; but as the dogs ran towards us, still barking, first one man, then another, rose beside it, and stood looking at us. The arrival of a second party in such a spot was no doubt unexpected.
Judging that these two were the leaders of the party, I went forward to announce my lady's rank. One of the men, the shorter and younger, a man of middle height and middle age and dark, stern complexion, came a few paces to meet me.
'Who are you?' he said bluntly, looking beyond me at those who followed.
'The Countess Rotha of Heritzburg, travelling this way to Cassel,' I answered; 'and with her, her excellency's kinsman, the noble Rupert, Waldgrave of Weimar.'
The stranger's face lightened strangely, and he laughed. 'Take me to her,' he said.
Properly I should have first asked him his name and condition; but he had the air, beyond all things, of a man not to be trifled with, and I turned with him.
My lady had halted with her company a score of paces from the fire. I led him to her bridle.
'This,' I said, wondering much who he was, 'is her excellency the Countess of Heritzburg.'
My lady looked at him. He had uncovered and stood before her, a smile that was almost a laugh in his eyes. 'And I,' he said, 'have the honour to be her excellency's humble and distant cousin, General John Tzerclas, sometimes called, of Tilly.'