The view from this place was particularly beautiful.

The road made a kind of terrace halfway up the mountain, on one side rising sheer up for a hundred feet to its summit, thickly wooded all the way, on the other side sloping to the wide valley, where the Gutach flowed, at times tumbling over rough stones, or again spreading itself softly like oil, through flat meadow land.

Below lay the little town of Hornberg, with its crooked streets and alleys, its stately square, framing an old church, several inns, and prosperous-looking houses and shops.

Beyond the valley rose a high, steep hill, with a white path climbing in zigzags through its wooded sides.

On the summit a white house with many windows was perched, seeming to hang perpendicularly a thousand feet above the valley.