“Do not attempt to follow me a single step.  Your protection would be as unendurable as is your presence.  How often have I to repeat that?”

“Ah, how angry she can get,” said the count with a malicious laugh.  “Ah, I must be repaid for those hard words.  I must have a kiss from those rosy lips which speak so harshly.”

He made a movement to take her in his arms, as the girl drew back, really alarmed now, but in the same moment he lay sprawling upon the sward, a heavy blow, well aimed, having thrown him to the damp ground, where he lay, a most contemptible object!

Marietta turned, more alarmed than ever, in the direction from which the blow had come, and the angry, hot expression on her face was succeeded by one of boundless surprise, when she saw who it was that had come to her aid so suddenly, and now stood by her side gazing grimly at the prostrate man whom he had put in this humiliating position with such evident satisfaction.

“Herr von Eschenhagen—­you?”

Count Westerburg had in the meantime risen with some difficulty, and now advanced threateningly toward his new enemy.

“Sir, what do you mean by this?  Who has given you the right—­who has given you the right—­”

“Stay where you are!  Don’t advance a step nearer this lady,” interrupted Willibald, placing himself in front of Marietta, “or I’ll send you flying under those trees, and you won’t get up from the second blow as soon as you did from the first.”

The count, who was neither very large nor very rugged, and who had felt already the weight of this young giant’s fist, measured Willibald for a minute, but that was long enough to convince him that a hand to hand scuffle could only result one way.

“You will give me satisfaction—­if you are capable of giving satisfaction,” he began in a half-suffocated voice.  “Probably you don’t know that you have before you a—­”

“A low scoundrel whom it will give me pleasure to discipline,” said Willibald, composedly.  “Remain where you are, if you please, or I shall be obliged to do it on the spot.  My name is Willibald von Eschenhagen of Burgsdorf, and I am to be found at the residence of the Prussian ambassador, if you have anything more to say.  I beg you to accept my protection, Fraeulein, and I’ll pledge myself that you’ll not be insulted again.”

And then something unheard of, almost past belief, happened.

Herr von Eschenhagen, without awkwardness or embarrassment, with the grace of a gentleman of the old school, offered Fraeulein Volkmar his arm and led her away, without troubling himself farther about the low scoundrel!

Marietta had accepted his arm, but she spoke no word; as soon as they were out of hearing she began, with an agitation which was anything but natural to her:  “Herr von Eschenhagen—­”

“Yes, Fraeulein?”

“I—­I am very grateful to you for your protection.  But the Count—­you have insulted him deeply—­he will challenge you, and you will accept his challenge?”