"Once I fancied so! But it was not near enough to speak, and it was night."
"Do you long very much to see her again?" came the next question.
"I? Little one! I scarcely know! She is a mystery to me!"
"Perhaps that is why you would like to see her!" she conjectured. "Now when you have brought me to a safe place _I_ shall never cease to wish to see _you_ again."
"You must have a long patience, Fräulein Elspeth, for I may never come this way again."
"But what is this?" asked Nigel. "It seems to me that the rocks close in and that there is no passage, though I suppose the brook runs out by some crevice. Do we have to climb the rocks?"
"We are coming to the Dragon's Gorge. After that we shall have the wide forest again."
"We must wait till the men come up with us!" said Nigel.
"I could wait all day!" sighed the maiden, gazing at him with large eyes and then dropping her eyelids.
In a minute or two they heard the sound of hurrying feet, in another Sergeant Blick and his men came panting up as fast as they could run.
"The Bohemians!" said Blick. "Count von Teschen!" Presently the jingle and clatter of men and horses echoed along the rocky walls.
"No horses can get through the Dragon's Gorge," said Elspeth. "Come!" She led them to the rocks, and there a narrow passage disclosed itself, the width of a broad man, no more. It was as if the rocks had once been one and been split asunder by some mighty rent. The brook flowed to the opening, and the rocks' sides were covered with mosses and ferns up and up, through which there was an eternal trickle of water, and high above all were the tree-tops.
"The question is, are they pursuing us, or are they merely making for the Wartburg?" Nigel asked Sergeant Blick. Elspeth answered--
"They would never have come this way to _ride_ to the Wartburg."
"Then they must never come through!" said Nigel. "Fräulein Elspeth, lead these men through to the other end! Blick, stay here with me."
Then Nigel peered out from the mouth of the rocky passage. He espied Count von Teschen and his troop of Bohemians riding along. Then, as they in their turn made out the impossibility of going further, there was a general hubbub of voices.
Count von Teschen was inclined to turn back and seek another way, but evidently some of his ruffians were for a pursuit on foot, thinking the rock passage but a temporary obstacle. Five or six of them dismounted and throwing the reins on their horses' necks rushed forward splashing into the brook, and then one entered the Dragon's Gorge. He had no sooner peered round the first bend than he fell forward, for Blick's musket butt was heavy and the arm that swung it strong. He fell face downwards into the stream.