Through Night to Light A Novel   By: Friedrich Spielhagen (1829-1911)

Through Night To Light

A NOVEL

BY FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN

FROM THE GERMAN

BY PROF. SCHELE DE VERE

Author's Edition

"Ex fumo dare lucem cogitat."

Horace

REVISED EDITION

NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1878

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by

LEYPOLDT & HOLT,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

STEREOTYPED BY DENNIS BRO'S & THORNE, AUBURN N. Y.

Through Night to Light.

Part First.

CHAPTER I.

The sun hung glaring red near the horizon. In the valleys of the mountain ranges dark blue shadows were gathering, while high on the forest crowned tops the warm evening light was still aglow. The trees were gorgeous in their gay autumn livery, but in this part of the mountain dark forests of sombre evergreens covered the narrow ravines up and down, and all the swelling heights.

On the turnpike which led in manifold windings towards the main ridge of the mountains, and was lined on both sides with unbroken rows of dwarf fruit trees, an old fashioned carriage was slowly making its way. It was one of those broad but clumsy vehicles, drawn by two raw boned, broken kneed horses, and carefully provided with a huge drag chain, which are hired in the cities for a few days' excursion into the mountains. The horses lagged, with drooping heads, heavily in their harness, and labored painfully step by step up the hill, for the road was steep and the carriage heavy. The driver encouraged them from time to time with a friendly Gee, bay! up, sorrel! as he walked slowly by their side, and the two gentlemen who had employed him for some days had gotten out at the foot of the mountain and were leisurely following at some distance behind him.

They were a couple of young men, evidently belonging to the best classes of society, that is, to the middle classes, in which intelligence and culture are nowadays almost exclusively found. They were both tall and showed the slight build and the elasticity belonging to their years. One, the smaller one, whose mouth and cheeks were nearly hid under a close, deep black beard, would probably have been thought the more interesting of the two, as his finely cut features, full of intelligence, were sure to please the more careful observer, and yet he was neither as tall nor as handsome as his companion, who at once attracted the eyes of all fair maidens and matrons in the towns and villages through which they had passed.

The two young men had for a time walked on in silence, separated as they were by the whole breadth of the turnpike, which was here covered with small broken stones, to the despair of horses and foot passengers. Now, when they had passed the bad places, they approached each other again, and the one with the black beard put his hand in a kindly manner on the other's shoulder and said affectionately: " Eh bien , Oswald, why so silent?"

"I return your question," replied the latter, turning his beautiful, earnest eyes towards his companion.