CIO THE BLACK MASK. 



To the bank of the Danube, the wanderer had long directed his steps 



guided by the noise of the stream ; and he had determined to follow its 



guidance to the nearest village where he might rest for the night. After 



much difficulty, he reached the bank, and the moon which hitherto had 



not shone, now suddenly broke forth and showed the stranger to be 



young and athletic ; his figure, which was tall and commanding, was 



arrayed in the ordinary hunting dress of the period ; he wore a green frock 



or kurtha, which, trimmed with fur, was fastened at the waist by a broad 



strap of black leather ; from this was suspended his jagd messer, or 



couteau de chassz, the handle and hilt of which were of silver richly 



chased and ornamented ; around his neck hung a small bugle, also of 



silver, and these were the only parts of his equipment which bespoke 



him to be of rank, save that air of true born nobility which no garb, 



however homely, can effectually conceal. His broad leafed bonnet with 



its dark o'erhanging herons feathers, concealed the upper part of his 



face : but the short and curved moustache which graced his upper lip, 



told that he was either by birth Hungarian, or one who from motives of 



policy had adopted this national peculiarity to court favour in the eyes 



of Joseph, who avowed his preference for that country on every occasion. 



The first object that met his eyes as he looked anxiously around for some 



place of refuge from that storm, which long impending, was already 



about to break forth with increased violence, was the massive castle of 



Cfervitzen, whose battlemented towers rose high above the trees 011 



the opposite side of the Danube ; between, however, roared the river, 



with the impetuosity of a mountain torrent, amid huge fragments of ice, 



which were either held by their attachment to rocks in the channel, or 



borne along till dashed to pieces by those sharp reefs so frequent in this 



part of the stream ; he shuddered as he watched the fate of many a ledge 



of ice or snow now smoothly gliding on, and in the next moment 



shivered into ten thousand pieces, and lost in the foam and surge of 



" the dark rolling river." He seemed long to weigh within himself the 



hazard of an attempt to cross the stream upon these floating islands with 



the danger of a night passed in the forest ; for he now knew too well, 



no village lay within miles of him. But at last he seemed to have taken 



his resolution ; for, drawing his belt tightly around him and throwing 



back his jagd messer, lest it should impede the free play of his left arm, 



he seemed to prepare himself for the perilous undertaking this was but 



the work of one moment the next saw him advancing upon the broad 



ledge, which, frozen to the bank, stretched to a considerable distance in 



the stream. Now arrived at the verge of this came his first difficulty, 



for the passage was only to be accomplished by springing from island to 



island over the channels of the river, which ran narrowly though rapidly 



between ; the loud crashes which every moment interrupted the silence 



of the night, as each fragment broke upon the rocks before him, told too 



plainly what fate awaited him, should he either miss his footing, or the 



ice break beneath his weight; in either case death would be inevitable. 



He once more looked back upon the dark forest he had left, and again 



seemed to hesitate ; 'twas for an instant with a bold spring he cleared 



the channel. No time was, however, given him to look back on the 



danger he had passed : for scarcely had his feet reached their landing place, 



than the ice yielding to the impulse of his fall, gave way and separated 



with a loud crash from its connection with the remaining mass, and in 



an instant was flying down the stream, carrying him along with it 



