The woman who blocked my way and against whom I meditated this crime was connected in my mind with Alpine scenery and Alpine events.

It was at Lucerne I had first met her, young and fresh, but giving no promise of the woman she has since become; and in the visions which came and went before my eyes, it was not herself I saw so much as the surroundings of those days, and the feats of prowess by which I had hoped to win her approbation.

Among these was the shooting at a small target with a bow and arrow.

I became very proficient in this line.

I shot as by instinct.