"The sound of guttural voices in loud altercation, mingled with savage laughter, informed us that we were in the immediate vicinity of those enterprising worthies who had abducted the baron's daughter. Then, we saw the gleam of a red wavering light between the stems and branches of the trees. This came from a huge fire around which they were all bivouacked, drinking, sleeping, or making merry, and being apparently without any proper watch or scout, as we were enabled to approach them by a forest path unchallenged and unseen. The reason of this seeming confidence was soon explained, when we found one of their number lying across the narrow way stretched upon his musket, either sottishly drunk or in profound slumber; but _which_ we never had time to discover, for, quick as thought, the servant of the baron, a bloodthirsty Westphalian boor, dispatched him by one slash of his short and sharp _couteau de chasse_. "The father was by my side as we advanced. Bare-headed, he was praying with his clenched hands pressed upon his breast. The poor old man was full of agony and terror. "'They are twenty in number, you say?' asked Chateaunoir. "'Exactly twenty, mein herr,' replied the old servant, wiping his hunting-knife on the grass with grim care before he sheathed it. "'Then ten of _us_ are enough for them,' replied our heroic young colonel; 'let the ten gentlemen next me dismount and take their pistols with them. You are sure, my friend, that your young mistress is still among them?' "'Sure as I live, mein herr,' replied the boor. The baron groaned. "'See!' exclaimed a Mousquetaire, 'there is a white dress amid their circle. "'_Christi kreutz!_ it is my young lady!' whispered the servant, in a breathless voice. "I placed my gloved hand on the baron's mouth lest he might utter a cry, and spoil all. "'Where--where?' asked Chateaunoir. "'At the foot of that elm-tree, and, _mein Gott!_ she is tied to it with a cord.' "Creeping forward after Chateaunoir (for he would allow no man to precede him) I saw a very remarkable scene.