CHAPTER LV.
Two horsemen were riding toward the boundary of Spyhov in the wind, and in rain which at moments became a downpour. These two were Tolima and Siegfried. Tolima was conducting the German lest the peasant guards, or the servants at Spyhov, who were burning with terrible hatred and desire of revenge, might slay him on the road. Siegfried rode without weapons, but unbound. The rain driven by wind was already on them. Now and then when an unexpected thunderclap came, the horses rose on their haunches. The two men rode in silence along a deep valley; often they were so near each other, because of the narrow road, that stirrup struck stirrup. Tolima, accustomed for years to guard captives, looked from moment to moment at Siegfried with watchful eye even then, as if for him it were a question that the captive should not rush away unexpectedly; and each time a quiver passed through him, for it seemed to the old man that the knight's eyes were glittering in the darkness like the eyes of a vampire or an evil spirit. He even thought of making the sign of the cross on him, but remembering that under the sign of the cross he might howl with a voice that was not human, then change, and gnash his teeth, a still greater fear possessed him. The old warrior, who could strike alone on a whole crowd of Germans, as a falcon strikes partridges, was afraid of unclean powers, and had no wish to deal with them. He would have preferred simply to show the road to the German and return, but he was ashamed of himself for this thought, and conducted Siegfried to the boundary.
There, when they reached the edge of the Spyhov forest, an interval in the rain came, and the clouds were brightened by a certain strange yellow light. It grew clearer, and Siegfried's eyes lost their former unearthly gleam. But then another temptation attacked Tolima. "They commanded me," said he to himself, "to conduct to the boundary this mad dog in the greatest security; I have conducted him, but is he to go away untouched by vengeance or punishment, this torturer of my lord and his child? Would it not
