huntsmen were already assembled, all noblemen, and we joined them
in the grand state hall, where the morning meal was laid out.
Count Otto sat at the head of the table, like a prince of
Pomerania, upon a throne whereon his family arms were both carved
and embroidered. He wore a doublet of elk-skin, and a cap with a
heron's plume upon his head. He did not rise as we entered, but
called to us to be seated and join the feast, as the party must
move off soon. Costly wines were sent round; and I observed that
on each of the glasses the family arms were cut. They were also
painted upon the window of the great hall, and along the walls,
under the horns of all the different wild animals killed by Otto
in the chase--bucks, deers, harts, roes, stags, and elks--which
were arranged in fantastical groups.
After a little while his two daughters, Clara and Sidonia,
entered. They wore green hunting-dresses, trimmed with
beaver-skin, and each had a gold net thrown over her hair. They
bowed, and bid the knights welcome. But we all remained breathless
gazing upon Sidonia, as she lifted her beautiful eyes first on
one, and then on another, inviting us to eat and drink; and she
even filled a small wine-glass herself, and prayed us to pledge
her. As for me, unfortunate youth, from the moment I beheld her I
breathed no more through my lungs, but through my eyes alone, and,
springing up, gave her health publicly. A storm of loud, animated,
passionate voices soon responded to my words with loud vivas. The
guests then rose, for the ladies were impatient for the hunt, and
found the time hang heavily.
So we set off with all our implements and our dogs, and a hundred
beaters went before us. It happened that my host, Caspar Roden,
and I found an excellent sheltered position for a shot near a
quarry, and we had not long been there (the beaters had not even
yet begun their work) when I spied a large bear coming down to
drink at a small stream not twenty paces from me. I fired; but she
retired quickly behind an oak, and, growling fiercely, disappeared
amongst the bushes. Not long after, I heard the cries of women
almost close to us; and running as fast as possible in the
direction from whence they came, I perceived an old bear trying to
climb up to the platform where Clara and Sidonia stood. There was
a ruined chapel here--which, in the time of papacy, had contained
a holy image--and a scaffolding had been erected round it, adorned
with wreaths of evergreen and flowers, from which the ladies could
obtain an excellent view of the hunt, as it commanded a prospect
of almost the entire wood, and even part of the sea. Attached to
this scaffolding was a ladder, up which Bruin was anxiously trying
to ascend, in order to visit the young ladies, who were now
assailed by two dangers--the bear from below, and a swarm of bees
above, for myriads of these insects were tormenting them, trying
to settle upon their golden hair-nets; and the young ladies,
screaming as if the last day had come, were vainly trying to beat
them off with their girdles, or trample them under their feet. A
huntsman who stood near fired, indeed, at Bruin, but without
effect, and the bees assailing his hands and face at the same
time, he took to flight and hid himself, groaning, in the quarry.
In the meantime I had reached the chapel, and Sidonia stretched
forth her beautiful little hands, crying, along with her sister,
"Help! help! He will eat us. Will you not kill him?" But the bear,
as if already aware of my intention, began now to descend the