Imre watched them in silence. He seemed unconscious what they were about. When they had finished the graves they proceeded to open the large pit, but the sight was too horrible, and they carried Imre away by force. He could not have looked on what was there and still retain his senses. In a short time, one of his comrades approached and told him that there were only eleven bodies in the grave. "Then one of them must be alive!" cried Imre, a slight gleam of hope passing over his pale features; "which is it?--speak! Is there not a young girl with golden locks among them?" "I know not," stammered his comrade, in great embarrassment. "You do not know?--go and look again." His friend hesitated. "Let me go--I must know," said Imre impatiently, as the young man endeavored to detain him. "O stay, Imre, you cannot look on them; they are all headless!" "My God!" exclaimed the young man, covering his face with both hands, and, bursting into tears he threw himself down with his face upon the earth. His comrades questioned the Wallachian closely as to what he knew about the young girl. First he returned no answer, pretending to be drunk and not to understand: But on their promising to spare his life, on the sole condition that he would speak the truth, he confessed that she had been carried away to the mountains, where the band were to cast lots for her. "I must go!" said Imre, starting as if in a trance. "Whither?" inquired his comrades. "To seek her! Take off your dress," he continued, turning to the Wallachian, "you may have mine in exchange," and, hastily putting on the tunic, he concealed his pistols in the girdle beneath it. "We will follow you," said his comrades, taking up their arms; "we will seek her from village to village." "No, no, I must go alone! I shall find her more easily alone. If I do not return, avenge this for me," he said, pointing to the moat; then, turning to the Wallachian, he added sternly: "I have found beneath your girdle a gold medallion, which my grandmother wore suspended from her neck, and by which I know you to be one of her murderers, and, had I not promised to spare your life, you should now receive the punishment that you deserve. Keep him here," he said to his comrades, "until I have crossed the hills, and then let him go." And taking leave of his friends, he cast one glance at the eleven heaps, and at the burning castle of his ancestors, and hastened toward the mountains. The hoary autumn nights had dyed the leaves of the forest. The whole country looked as if it had been washed in blood. Deep amidst the wildest forest the path suddenly descends into a narrow valley, surrounded by steep rocks at the foot of which lies a little village half concealed among the trees.