Page:Maria Felicia.pdf/63

 dazzling. Her father confessed to himself in a fever of hope and fear that he had never seen her so beautiful before.

Maria Felicia left the racers far behind. In the airy gallop the cap slipped off her head, and the diamond star above her forehead glittered in all the colors of the rainbow. In the fearful speed she bowed over the neck of her black horse, and her hair flowed with his long mane in one waving, silky mass. The wind blowing in the folds of her dark blue velvet gown, puffed them out until they shone like the wings of a swallow. The noble horse and its beautiful rider looked like one being, a winged mythical being, bravely flying in the air over the dewy grass.

One racer after another, tired out, abandoned the race. Maria Felicia was left alone. Noticing this, she laughed gayly, and leaping down from the breathless horse, twisted the reins over her shoulder, threw over him a cover that was brought by the equerry, and carefully led the horse around to cool.

The Emperor at the same time sprang from