"I must confess to you," said Blanden, "that I know no solution of this enigma. Certainly I entertain no doubt that it is yonder mysterious beauty who made me look upon Lago Maggiore in a doubly entrancing light; but how she found her way to the most remote of Masuren's lakes is inexplicable to me; and if no other feeling, curiosity at least urges me most pressingly to interest myself in her again." "And may a poor mortal, then, whose path such charming adventures do not cross, not learn what the circumstances of the case are?" "That you shall--and on this evening. I feel a need myself to bring those days once more before my mind. Yet to do so I need leisure and quiet, which the day's bustle will not permit. Look, there comes Wegen in his one-horse trap, he brings us news how matters look amongst the Ph[oe]acians." His lively friend came in briskly and eagerly, a cigar in his mouth. "These wind-falls in your forest--colossal! Trees lie about like toothpicks which have fallen out of an overturned case. The storm has even played havoc with an old oak yonder upon the dam, and hurled its head to the ground, as my Friederich does the plume of feathers on his hat, when I decline some entertainment; but how are you going on?" "Blanden has had wonderful dreams," said Kuhl. "Nothing new, nothing new," replied Wegen, stroking his moustache, "that occurs nightly with me. Friederich says it arises from the grey peas which I am passionately fond of eating in an evening; a man feels like an East Prussian when he sees such a dish before him. Lately I dreamed I was man[oe]uvring with the Landwehr; I had to lead a company of sharpshooters. The signal sounds; my company stands like a wall; I rush furiously upon it; the fellows stick together and I cannot tear them asunder, give myself what trouble I may. The colonel rides up--'Thunder and lightning! Wegen, what are you doing?' and I awake bathed in perspiration! Horrible dreams! But even waking one does not meet with anything pleasant." "What has happened, then?" asked Blanden. "Well, Schön has fallen into disgrace; he relinquishes his post; the enemies of the constitution in Berlin bear away the victory."