Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Prince Otto

A ROMANCE 5
burner, the mountain sawyer, the wielder of the
broad axe among the congregated pines of
Grtinewald, proud of their hard hands, proud
of their shrewd ignorance and almost savage
lore, looked with an unfeigned contempt on the
soft character and manners of the sovereign
race.
The precise year of grace in which this tale
begins shall be left to the conjecture of the
reader. But for the season of the year (which,
in such a story, is the more important of the
two) it was already so far forward in the spring,
that when mountain people heard horns echoing
all day about the north-west corner of the
principality, they told themselves that Prince
Otto and his hunt were up and out for the last
time till the return of autumn.
At this point the borders of Griinewald
descend somewhat steeply, here and there
breaking into crags ; and this shaggy and track-
less country stands in a bold contrast to the
cultivated plain below. It was traversed at
that period by two roads alone ; one, the im-
perial highway, bound to Brandenau in Gerol-
stein, descended the slope obliquely and by the
easiest gradients. The other ran like a fillet
across the very forehead of the hills, dipping
into savage gorges, and wetted by the spray of
tiny waterfalls. Once it passed beside a certain