hour of anxious expectation on my part, Albertine came.

"The calm dignity, the composure with which this extraordinary woman proceeded on her trying missionwhile I, a man, felt my heart beat with an indefinable feeling of terroroverpowered me with surprise, and at last with shame. Time was valuable; without delay we hurried through the garden, and in the direction of the woods, within whose deep shadows we were soon involved. From thence the path ascends, first gradually, then more steeply towards the ruin. bertine was in her assembly dress; she slid frequently with her thin smooth shoes; it was only by exerting all my strength that I was able to support and assist her in her ascent. Her heroic perseverance, however, overcame every difficulty.

Al

"At the distance of a few steps from the ruin we were met by Hermann. Albertine's heart beat audibly. There he stood before her-the broken-down, degraded man, before the woman blooming in the lustre of almost maiden beauty. What a meeting! What feelings must have been awakened in the pure and noble heart of Albertine! Willingly could I conceal the degrading fact-but it must be spoken. Hermann appeared in a state of unnatural excitation; he had brought wine with him to the ruinfor what purpose I know not-and it soon became plain to me that he had indulged in it to excess.

"Even Albertine, who had not at first observed it, could not long be insensible to Hermann's condition. His whole behaviour had in it some

thing wild, savage, and revolting. I saw by her looks that she repented the step which she had taken; but the deed was done. I exerted myself accordingly to bring the conversation to the point, in the hope that the painful interview might the sooner terminate. Directing the old man, who had been Hermann's guide, to accompany us, we entered the ruin: he could not understand our conversation, which was carried on in French.

"What shall I say of this conversation? Its constant, ever-repeated theme was, on the one hand, Hermann's entreaties for a reconciliation and a re-union, on which he felt that his whole chance of amendment depended; on the other, Albertine's inflexible resolution not to violate the

injunction of her father. Both parties became warm-reproachful expres. sions were uttered by Hermann. There was a pause-the day had become hot. Hermann directed the guide to unpack the refreshments. We men applied ourselves to them vigorously. Albertine, at my request, ate a few morsels to repair her strength. Hermann, in spite of my remonstrances, indulged in long draughts of strong and fiery wine; his entreaties, addressed to his wife, became more urgent, and at last assumed the tone of threats, directed both against her and her child. Albertine rose-she saw it was time to depart-I watched her every look.

"Hermann perceived it, and, with a demoniac look and wildly rolling eye, exclaimed,- Ay, you are in league-I see through you.'

"Albertine cast on him a look of pity and contempt. • Herr von Nordech,' she said, ' I go.'

"So, you go!' cried Hermann in a fearful tone. He held a large twoedged knife in his hand. You go!go then-forsake me cast me back into a life which to me is hell. Life! -no; it is death itself. Go-but first see me die!' And he made a motion with the knife as if to stab himself.

"What happened afterwards? I try in vain to realize to myself the order of events in the next moment. I know only that the words thoughtlessly escaped me.

"Hermann, are you not ashamed to play off this mummery before your noble wife?'

" This reproach seemed to have inflamed him to madness. "" Wretch!' he exclaimed, do I not know how to die!'

66

Scarcely had he uttered these words when he lay at my feet in his blood, the handle of the knife convulsively clasped in his hand, the blade plunged into his heart. Albertine lay beside him, herself bleeding and insensible.

"Scarcely knowing what I did, I raised her. Her right hand bled. In the moment of the death-blow she had seized hold of the knife to stay his hand-but in vain.

"The guide drew the knife from Hermann's breast it was too late. A single slight movement of the head, a faint rattling in the throat, and Her

mann was no more.

"Albertine, the weak and tender woman, was the first who evinced

promptitude and coolness in these try. ing circumstances. The deceased was the object of her solicitude. The body, she said, could not be allowed to remain there. Her husband, the father 1 of her children, must not be left exposed and unburied at all hazards, she was resolved that his remains should find a grave in Christian earth.

"The guide suggested the scheme of carrying the body down from the ruin and placing it in the neighbourhood of the chapel beneath, where it was certain in a short time to be discovered, and would be taken for the body of some one who had been rob-bed and murdered on the mountain; in which case it would obtain interment in consecrated ground, which would be denied to it if known to be the remains of a suicide. We thought the plan feasible. With the assistance of the guide I stripped the body of its upper garments, purse, watch, and portfolio. The clothes we concealed in a pit behind the ruin, covering them carefully with stones. The watch, the purse, the marriage-ring, and the portfolio, Albertine, at my request, took into her possession. The seal-ring we were obliged to leave on the right hand; it could not be drawn off without mutilation. We tore to pieces the silk cravat which Hermann wore, and bound it tightly round the body to stanch the torrent of blood which still flowed from the wound, and by which my clothes were already sullied-then -raising the body in our arms, we carried it from the ruin and deposited it on the greensward before the chapel.

"It was now full time to make the best of our way to Hilgenberg. The guide undertook to conduct Albertine to some surgeon who would dress her wound. I supported her in her descent. Bitterly did she now express her regret that she had violated her promise to her father, under the terror of being separated from her child; perhaps though she did not confess it under the influence of old attachment to her husband. But never, never!' she exclaimed, shall he have the misery of knowing that I have violated his injunctions; the idea of such disobedience on the part of a beloved daughter would be his death. Come what will-nay, though I should be myself suspected of being a murderess though the arm of the law should be extended to persecute me

I will be silent; silent to the scaffoldto the grave!'

" I exerted all my eloquence to dissipate this unhappy idea by which Albertine was haunted, but without success. In a tone which cut me to the heart, she repeated, that her last prayer to me was that, as long as her father lived, I would reveal to no one that she had seen Hermann. I promised solemnly what she required. The guide, touched by her grief, promised, with tears in his eyes, to do the

same.

"Already we were beginning to emerge from the wood. My clothes, I knew, were spotted with blood; but on Albertine's dress there was only a few specks, which might easily be accounted for by the wound in her hand. At this moment she discovered that she had dropped her glove. We saw how important it was to recover it; I offered to re-ascend for that purpose, thinking. I should have no difficulty in overtaking her. My search was long and vain: the glove was not to be found. When I again reached the road, Albertine was gone. She had proceeded on her way, accompanied by her guide. I reached my quarters about dusk; and I saw her no more till I met her here. Thank God! my coming was not too late!"

"Thanks to God, indeed!" said the worthy president. "I believe your story: it bears on its face the stamp of truth. But the forms of law must be complied with. The evidence of the woodman will be necessary to confirm your statement. Where is he?"

" I have kept my eye upon him," said Nordech. "His name is Florian Krauss; and he inhabits a small cottage in the village of Zellenbach."

"He shall be summoned. One other circumstance I should wish explained. The purse of the deceased was dropped into the poor's-chest of the chapel, with this scrap of writing. How does that cohere with your plan of representing the deceased as having been robbed?"

Nordech looked at the paper with surprise. " I cannot explain it," he replied; "except that Albertine, solely occupied with her own scheme of procuring Christian burial for her husband, may have forgotten our arrangement, and dropped the purse into the box while she remained in the chapel, during the time we re moved the body."

1

MUCH inconvenience as the intrusion of the French had caused us, yet we had grown so accustomed to it that we could not but miss it, nor we

= children fail to feel as if the nurse were dead. Moreover, it was not appointed that we should return to entire domestic unity. New lodgers : were already agreed on; and after some sweeping and scouring, planing and waxing, painting and whitewashing, the house was completely arranged again. The Chancery director Moriz, with his family, very ■worthy friends of my parents, came into occupation. He was not a native of Frankfort, but an able lawyer and man of business, and conducted the legal affairs of many smaller princes, counts, and noblemen. I had never ■ seen him otherwise than cheerful, obliging, and diligent at his law-papers. His wife and children, gentle, ■quiet, and kind, certainly did not increase the society in our house, for they stayed by themselves; but a stillness, a peace had returned, which for a long time we had not enjoyed. I now occupied once more my garret-room, in which the ghosts of the many pictures sometimes hovered before me, which I tried to frighten away by work and study.

The counsellor of legation Moriz, a brother of the Chancery director, came frequently from henceforth to our house. He was even more a man of the world, of striking appear■ance, and with suitably pleasing manners. He, too, managed the affairs of different persons of rank; and on occasions of meetings of creditors and imperial commissioners, came often into contact with my father. Both hung much together, took commonly the part of the creditors; but found, to their vexation, that the greater number of the agents in such matters are usually gained over to the debtors. The Counsellor of Legation willingly imparted his acquirements, was fond of mathematics; and because NO. CCXCV, VOL. XLVII,

these had no place in his present mode of life, he procured himself a pleasure by helping me on in this study. Thus I was enabled to draw my architectural designs more accurately than before, and to profit more by the instruction of a drawing-master who also gave us daily an hour's lesson.

This good old man was certainly but half an artist. We had to make strokes and put them together, from which eyes and noses, lips and ears, and finally, entire faces and heads, were to arise. But in this process there was no thought of the forms in nature or in art. We were long tormented with this quid pro quo of the human structure; and it was believed at last that we had made great progress, when the so-called Passions of Le Brun were given us to copy. But neither did these caricatures improve us. Then we wavered away into landscapes, foliage, and every thing that is practised, without consistency or method, in common teaching. At last we got into accurate imitation and neatness of strokes, and troubled ourselves no further about the merit or the taste of the original.

In this attempt my father led the way, that he might show it to us. He had never drawn; but now, as his children pursued this art, he would not lag behind, but even in his old age would give them an example how they ought to proceed. He copied, therefore, some heads of Piazzetta, after his well-known plates in small octavo, and executed them with English black-lead on the finest Dutch paper. In these he not only preserved the greatest neatness of outline, but even imitated most accurately the hatching of the copperplate, with a light hand, only too slightly, as, from wishing to avoid hardness, he gave no gradation to his drawing. Yet they were all of them soft and accurate. His persevering unwearied labour proceeded so far, that he drew the whole of that large collection, number by number;

20

608

while we children jumped from one head to another, and selected only

those which pleased us..

About this time, also, the project which had been long under consider

ation for teaching us music, was exe. cuted; and assuredly the last decisive impulse to it deserves some notice. That we were to learn the harpsichord was determined; but there had always been a dispute as to the choice of a mas

ter. At last I went once by accident into the room of one of my companions who was taking a harpsichord lesson, and I found the teacher a most delightful man. For every finger of the right and left hand he had a nickname, by which he pointed it out most amusingly when it was to be used. The black and white keys were also figuratively named, and even the tones appeared under metaphorical titles. Such a various company worked most merrily together. Fingering and time

appeared to be quite easy and obvious; and, while the scholar was animated into the pleasantest temper, every

thing else succeeded admirably.

Scarcely had I reached home before I entreated my parents to be in earnest

at last, to give us this incomparable man for master on the harpsichord. They still delayed a little, and made some enquiries, and heard nothing bad of the master, but also nothing parti

cularly good. Meanwhile, I had repeated to my sister all the funny names: we could hardly wait for the lesson, and succeeded in securing that the man should be employed.

The reading the notes began first; and as no jokes were introduced in this, we comforted ourselves with the hope that when we should reach the instrument, and have to deal with the fingers, the hidden merriment would come to light. But neither the keys nor the fingering seemed to give occasion for any comparisons. The black and white keys remained as dry as the notes themselves, with their strokes upon and between the five lines, and there was not a syllable said either of thumbkin, or pointling, or gold-finger. The man's face changed as little in his dry teaching as it had before changed in his dry jesting. My sister reproached me most bitterly for having deceived her, and believed that it had really been a mere invention of mine. Barned lite myself confounded and

little, although the man went

est

He

Pleasantly. vowed that he would leave his parents no rest till they had given him so admirable a man for master.

Thus the way to two arts was early enough opened to me, ccording to the

theory of edu azard, without

principles of a modern cation, by mere hapany belief that naturalta lent could help me any further forward. My father maintained that every

One must learn

to draw; and therefore held in particular honour the Emperor Maximilian, who had made this an expess command. He also held me more steadily to it than to music, which, the contrary, and even out of her lesson-hours kept he recommended specially to my sister, her a good part of the harpsichord.

ay fixed to the

this way exmore I wished

Employed even

anner of the From my earve of enquiry often thought cruelty, if ong with obthis way and and devour

But the more I was cited to press on, the to press myself, and my play-hours in all strangest occupations. liest days I had felt a l into natural things. Iti to show a tendency children, after playing jects, and handling ther that, at last break, tea them. But this may a 1 festation find out of curiositys hang to. gether, and what is

o be a mani the desire to

Deir internal

to pieces, to xed into the

Birds, to ob-
feathers into
t, children

☑e they gain