The hill was covered with thick-growing firs from the plain to the castle wall, but two broad avenues ran in straight lines, one to seaward, and the other down into the depths of the vast forest, until it opened on to the post road, which afforded the only practicable carriage route to the station of Trelitz on the main Berlin-Koenigsberg Railway.
The longer he looked, the more surprisingly distinct the picture became, and, curiously enough, the less his wonder grew.

He saw three men on horseback riding at a canter up the avenue from the forest.

Their costumes showed plainly enough that they had just come back from the chase.

As they rode on they seemed to come quite close to him, until he could see their features with perfect distinctness.

By the changing expression of their faces he could tell they were laughing and chatting; but, singularly enough, he could not hear a word that they were saying, which, considering the minuteness with which he saw everything, struck him as being distinctly curious.
He watched them ride up to the old Gothic gateway in the wall which ran round the castle, suiting itself to the irregularities of the hill.