fearful and trembling, her face covered with tears, and opposite
her, her pale, woe-begone lover.

"I have been walking all night," said he, with a faint and hollow
voice. "I did not know that Berlin was so far from Potsdam, and had
I known it, I would not have dared to take a wagon or a horse; I had
to slip away very quietly. While by Count Puebla's order my room was
guarded, and I thought to be in it, I descended into the garden by
the grape-vine, which reached up to my window. The gardener had no
suspicion of how I came there, when I required him to unlock the
door, but laughed cunningly, thinking I was bound to some
rendezvous. And so I wandered on in fear and pain, in despair and
anger, and it seemed to me as if the road would never come to an
end. At times I stopped, thinking I heard behind me wild cries and
curses, the stamping of horses, and the rolling of wheels; but it
was imagination. Ah! it was a frightful road; but it is past. But
now I will be strong, for this concerns my name, my life, my honor.
Why do you laugh, Rosa?" said he, angrily; "do you dare to laugh,
because I speak of my name--my honor?"

"I did not laugh," said Rosa, looking with terror at the disturbed
countenance of her lover.

"Yes, you laughed, and you were right to laugh, when I spoke of my
honor; I who have no honor; I who have shamed my name; I upon whose
brow is the sign of murder: for I am guilty of the ruin of a man,
and the chains on his hands are cursing my name."

"My God! He is mad," murmured Rosa.