vi.] THE RED BARON. 309

 

Smith to accompany me, but he had excused him-
self upon various grounds, the real reason of course
being that he wished to stay with Christina. In an
ill-omened hour I permitted this, and leaving a dozen
men, which in those days were ample to guard the
castle of a man so much dreaded as I was, I rode forth
with the rest upon the expedition which I had planned.

‘My worthy neighbour had somehow or other got
an inkling of my intention, so that Ihad not the plea-
sure of taking him by surprise, asI had fully intended
to have done. There was, and is, (though it has been
widened and improved since the days I speak of) a
certain pass some twelve miles from this castle,
through which you emerge from the mountains imme-
diately upon the only place for some miles where you
can conveniently cross the river. It was at that time
rather an easy pass to defend. The passage between
the sides of the mountain were narrow ; the rocks rose
perpendicularly on either side, and between the mouth
of the passage and the river a space of some thirty or
forty yards intervened, and on either side of the road
the ground, naturally rough and rugged, sloped up-
wards, and at the distance of a very few yards was
covered with thick brushwood and stunted trees such
as often grow on the side of our mountains.

‘Nothing could have been more easy than to
defend this pass. A few rocks and trunks of trees
placed at the river end would have checked the ad-
vance of troops. The cliffs above the passage might
have been held, whence rocks could have been rolled
down upon the invaders, and as the passage would
not allow more than half a dozen men to walk abreast,