"Where to?"
"To the Engadine, I believe. If you make haste, you may easily overtake him."
"Good, forward then to Saint Mary's," cried the first speaker.
"You had better come with us," cried his companion to the two wayfarers. "So stout a lad can surely fight, and so pretty a wench can surely kiss. We will take you on horseback, and when we have caught the shaveling we will make merry together out of the ducat. Come, little one, I will lift you into the saddle."
"Get away with you, we are not for the like of you; my brother is ill, I must get him home."
"Your brother is it? Then all the more you belong to me!" said the rider with a laugh.
"Do not come near me, I am a witch!" screamed Beata.
The man spurred his horse forward, and tried to snatch at her from his saddle. But she had quickly drawn a knife from the folds of her dress, and she plunged it into the horse's flank, so that he started aside with a leap.
"Good God, she really is a witch!" cried the others. "Let us be off or she will bewitch our horses."
And thereupon the whole troop rode off; the danger was past.