Already the storm of war had retired many weeks from the neighbourhood of Fulda, and the robber band appeared also to have left the country, perhaps out of fear of a more vehement pursuit. The inhabitants of the little city of Schlüchten rejoiced themselves in the prospect of the enjoyment of a more refreshing rest than they had for a long time been favoured with. One afternoon a heavily loaded travelling-carriage rolled slowly into the city, and aroused universal attention as it drew up before the Gasthaus Zum-Stern. A swarm of lounging Bauers collected about it, and out of every window peered curious countenances. But how much greater was the astonishment as the people learned from the coachman and valet, who, both of them clad in military costume, looked, in their mustaches, most formidable fellows, that their master, a Graf of high standing, had been attacked on the way by robbers, and now lay severely wounded in the carriage; and that they only owed their escape and life to the fortunate interposition of a patrol party belonging to the Graf's own regiment. At this intelligence the whole city was thrown into an uproar, and not the least the landlord of the Star, who with his loud and eager orders for the proper care of the noble gentleman, made the heads of all his people dizzy. The stranger Graf was finally lifted out of the carriage by his servants, aided by some of the others. He was a tall, stately man, pale with the loss of blood; his eyes were closed, and many deep wounds in the head were only rudely and hastily bound up. While he was carried to his bed and given into the care of the surgeon, who was called in, the Amtmann was hastily sent for; and, from the statements of the coachman, who caused at the same time his own arm-wounds to be bound up, dictated to his clerk a long protocol. The whole police corps, with an addition of some armed Bauers, immediately set out in pursuit of the robbers, without, however, being able to discover the least trace of them. In the meantime the stranger lay in the most frightful delirium. The servants forbade any one, besides the surgeon, from entering the room; such, they said, being the orders of their lord. The surgeon wondered sometimes at the fearful phantoms that haunted the imagination of the strange nobleman, which the servants calmly remarked proceeded entirely from the last battle, and from the attack of the robbers.