Still there was notice
taken of some peculiarities, exaggerated perhaps by envy, which seemed to
draw a mystical distinction between the beautiful Hermione and the mere
mortals with whom she lived and conversed. In the merry dance she was so
unrivalled in lightness and agility, that her performance seemed that of
an aerial being. She could, without suffering from her exertion, continue
the pleasure till she had tired out the most active revellers; and even
the young Duke of Hochspringen, who was reckoned the most indefatigable at
that exercise in Germany, having been her partner for half an hour, was
compelled to break off the dance and throw himself, totally exhausted,
on a couch, exclaiming he had been dancing not with a woman, but with an
_ignis fatuus_. Other whispers averred, that while she played with her
young companions in the labyrinth and mazes of the castle gardens at
hide-and-seek, or similar games of activity, she became animated with the
same supernatural alertness which was supposed to inspire her in the
dance. She appeared amongst her companions, and vanished from them with
a degree of rapidity which was inconceivable; and hedges, treillage, or
such like obstructions, were surmounted by her in a manner which the most
vigilant eye could not detect; for, after being observed on the other side
of the barrier at one instant, in another she was beheld close beside the
spectator.
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