down of itself this morning, just as the clock was chiming seven.”
“At seven!” exclaimed William, remembering that the old soldier had taken leave of him exactly at that hour.
“To be sure, and a right time truly for spirits to play their pranks!” replied the old forester, patting his dame gaily upon the cheek as he spake. But the latter only shook her head and expressed her hope with a sigh that all might yet be right.
In a few days William had so accustomed himself to the use of the enchanted bullets that he no longer felt any misgiving of heart in using them. He daily expected to meet the old soldier again in the forest; and there was need he should for his stock of bullets was now reduced to a single brace, and the day of trial was at hand. One day, therefore,—the duke’s head Jäger being expected next day,—William positively refused to accompany the old forester to the wood, in order to save his two enchanted bullets for the trial-shot, and any other opportunity which might offer of displaying his skill before the head Jäger. But in the evening, in place of the Jäger himself, came an order for the delivery of a quantity of game at the duke’s palace, and an intimation that the preparations for his own reception might be put off for seven days.
William almost sunk to the earth at this intelligence, but the good people attributed his emotion to the disappointment he felt in the delay thus interposed to his marriage. He was now, however, obliged to sacrifice one of his balls in hunting; the other he wore to keep for the trial shot before the head Jäger.
