But the young man leaped up, threw back his long hair, and met the dark look of his companion with one full of pride and dignity; he seized his sword, and said calmly, "What do you mean by placing yourself in that threatening position? If I do not mistake, you are the man I mentioned, the mover and leader of those rebellious hounds; away with you or I will show you how such outcasts ought to be treated!" The countryman struggled with rage; he threw His axe with a powerful swing into the tree, and stood unarmed before Albert. "Allow me," said he, "to give you another piece of advice, namely, never to let your adversary stand between you and your horse, for if I had taken immediate advantage of your order to take myself off, I should have had by far the best of it." A look at his horse proved the truth of what the man said, and Albert blushed for his inexperience. He quitted the grasp of his sword, and, without replying, seated himself again on the ground. The countryman followed his example, but at a respectable distance, and said, "You are perfectly justified in being suspicious of me, Albert von Sturmfeder; but if you knew the pain that the name you have just mentioned gives me, you would pardon my violent conduct. Yes, I am he who goes by that name; but I have an abhorrence to be called by it: my friends call me Hans--my enemies the fifer of Hardt, which they know I so much detest." "What has that name to do with you?" asked Albert; "why are you called by it? and why do you dislike it?" "Why do people call me so?" answered the other: "I came from a village of the name of Hardt; it lies in the low country, not far from Nürtingen. I follow the profession of music, and play at fairs and wakes, and when young people want to dance. For this reason I go by the appellation of the fifer of Hardt; but as this name was stained with crime and blood in an evil moment, I have dropped it, and cannot bear the sound of it any longer." Albert measured him with a searching look, and said, "I know very well the evil moment to which you allude: when you peasants rebelled against your Duke, you were one of the worst among them. Is it not true?" "I see you are acquainted with the history of an unfortunate man," said the countryman, with penitent downcast looks: "but you must not believe that I am still the same person; the Holy One saved me and changed my way of thinking, so that I may now say, I am an honest man." "Oh! tell me," interrupted Albert, "what was the cause of the insurrection? How were you saved? and how is it that you now serve the Duke?" "I will spare you this information for a more fitting occasion," he replied, "for I trust this will not be the last time we meet; allow me to ask you instead, where does this road lead to? It does not lead to Lichtenstein!" "I am not going there," said Albert, dejected; "this way leads to Franconia, to my old uncle; you can tell the lady my plans, when you go to Lichtenstein."