believed in this prediction which promised me a crown; and when chance
discovered my daughter, I seemed to see in this unhoped-for fortune a
providential design! Yes; I went so far as to think that your aversion for
me would yield to your love for your child; and that you would give me your
hand in order to restore her to the rank which was her due."

"Well! let your execrable ambition be then satisfied and punished! Yes,
notwithstanding the horror you inspired me with; yes, from attachment--what
do I say! from respect for the frightful misfortunes of my child, I should
have, although decided to live afterward separated from you--I should have,
by a marriage which would legitimatize my child, rendered her position as
dazzling, as lofty as it had been miserable!"

"I was not deceived, then! Woe! it is too late!"

"Oh! I know it; it is not for the death of your child you weep; it is the
loss of that rank which you have pursued with untiring pertinacity! Well!
may these infamous regrets be your last punishment!"

"The last; for I shall not survive!"

"But, before you die, you shall know what has been the existence of your
child since you abandoned her."

"Poor child! very miserable, perhaps!"

"Do you recollect," said Rudolph, with terrible calmness, "that night when
you and your brother followed me to the city?"

"I do recollect; but why this question? your look freezes me."