BOOK III - FORTUNATE MISFORTUNE
CHAPTER I - PRINCESS CINDERELLA
THE porter, drawn by the growing turmoil, had vanished from the
postern, and the door stood open on the darkness of the night. As
Seraphina fled up the terraces, the cries and loud footing of the
mob drew nearer the doomed palace; the rush was like the rush of
cavalry; the sound of shattering lamps tingled above the rest; and,
overtowering all, she heard her own name bandied among the shouters.
A bugle sounded at the door of the guard-room; one gun was fired;
and then with the yell of hundreds, Mittwalden Palace was carried at
a rush.
Sped by these dire sounds and voices, the Princess scaled the long
garden, skimming like a bird the starlit stairways; crossed the
Park, which was in that place narrow; and plunged upon the farther
side into the rude shelter of the forest. So, at a bound, she left
the discretion and the cheerful lamps of Palace evenings; ceased
utterly to be a sovereign lady; and, falling from the whole height
of civilisation, ran forth into the woods, a ragged Cinderella.
She went direct before her through an open tract of the forest, full
of brush and birches, and where the starlight guided her; and,
beyond that again, must thread the columned blackness of a pine
grove joining overhead the thatch of its long branches. At that
hour the place was breathless; a horror of night like a presence
occupied that dungeon of the wood; and she went groping, knocking
against the boles - her ear, betweenwhiles, strained to aching and
yet unrewarded.
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