Prest Date From an SECTN books is; Legislati If any p he shall three tin warrant State, fo 7- 3 THE LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES try, pasted GIFT OF CALIFORNIA STAT^ LIBRARY ter of all srs of the e session. Librajy, Library, issue his or of this ified that such member or officer has returned all books taken out of the Library by him, and has settled all accounts for injuring such books or otherwise. Sec. 15. Books may be taken from the Library by the members of the Legislature and its officers during the session of the same, and at any time by the Governor and the officers of the Executive Department of this State who are required to keep their offices at the seat of government, the Justices of the Supreme Court, the Attorney-General and the Trustees of the Library. BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME. TWO POWERFUL ROMANCES BY WILHELMINE VON HILLERN. ONLY A GIRL. PROM THE GERMAN, BY MRS. A. L. WI8TER. 1>imo. Fine Cloth. $8. "This Is a charming work, charmingly written, and no one who reads it nan lay it down without feeling impressed with the superior talent of its gifted author." BY HIS OWN MIGHT. FROM THE GERMAN, BY M. 8. lUrno. n,, f Cloth. $1.75. "A story of intense interest, well wrought." Boiton Commonwealth. For sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of the price by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., Publishers, 716 and 717 Market St., Philadelphia. W1LHELMINE VON HILLERN. A TWOFOLD LIFE;/ BY WILHELMINE VON HILLERN, AUTHOB OP "OXLY A OIRL," "BI HIS OWN MIGHT," ECO. It is not what the world ia to us, but what we are to the world, that is the measure of our happiness. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY M. S. f o "BT HIS OWN iaaHT. n PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1873. - Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT A CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. pr X35S TO MY HONOKED AND BELOTED MOTHER, CHAKLOTTE BIRCH-PFEIFFER. TO TOU, BEAR MOTHER, BELONGS THIS FIRST PRODUCT OP AN ASPIRATION YOU AWOKE, AND, IN LOYAL UNION WITH MY BELOVED FATHER, AIDED BY YOUB POWERFUL EXAMPLE TO DEVELOP. RECEIVE IT AS A FAINT TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR A LOVE WHICH A WHOLE LIFE WOULD NOT BE SUFFICIENT TO REPAY. THE AUTHORESS. 832704 CONTENTS. PAGE I. Mental Strife 7 II. Dual Apparitions 16 III. From Falsehood to Falsehood 25 IV. A Guardian Angel 33 V. Master and Pupil 41 VI. The Prison Fairy , . .62 VII. An Aristocrat 80 VIII. In the Prison 91 IX. Fraulein Veronica von Albin 98 X. Progress . ,..-' 107 XL A New Life . . .... . . .132 XIL The Search for a Wife 153 XIIL A Sacrifice 160 XIV. Churchyard Blossoms 176 XV. A Royal Marriage . . . . . . . .184 XVI. The Two Betrothed Brides 203 XVII. Insnared . ... . . . . . . .221 XVIIL Cornelia and Ottilie 234 XIX. The Catastrophe 254 XX. Thither . . . 273 XXL Spring Storms 287 XXIL Light and Shadow 294 XXIIL Between Heaven affd Earth 311 XXIV. Regeneration 325 I* (v) A TWOFOLD LIFE. i. MENTAL STRIPE. IN an elegant apartment which luxury and wealth had adorned with everything that the fantastic industry of our times affords, two stately figures were pacing rapidly up and down : a lady no longer young but still magnifi- cently beautiful, a true Pariftienne and lionne of society, and a young man with an aristocratic, though somewhat stern, bearing, dark hair, and strongly marked features. At times they eagerly approached re than the happiness of this moment ?" Yet a tear fell from her glazing eyes as she kissed the little one and softly whispered, " You are so sweet, so dear! Oh, it must be an immeasurable delight to cradle such a child in one's arms, protect, foster, and watch the awakening of its slumbering powers ! It is not allotted to me. I must leave you and give you up to your father. May bis soul open itself to you! may you become the innocent me- diator between him and his poor people !" She pressed the boy more and more feebly to her breast. " Farewell ! it grieves me to leave you, grieves me deeply. Yours was the only heart on which I relied. But I will not SPRING STORMS. 287 complain. I have borne you, this, too, is a mercy from God, and with a kiss upon your rosy lips it is sweet to die." The child fell from her arms, and her head sank back. " She is asleep," said the prince, dismissing the by- standers, that he might not be compelled to show any grief. That evening the bells rang out another peal, and thou- sands wept aloud under the brilliantly-lighted windows of the palace, for behind them, on a black-draped bed of state, lay the beautiful corpse of the princess, and her people's love stretched its arms towards her in vain. With her the last bond that bound the sympathies of the masses to the throne was sundered, and in the child-like ideas of the nation, Ottilie's glorified spirit rose from her death-bed as that of a saint, a martyr, who had vainly struggled and suffered to the end. She hovered above the mourning country in a halo of glory and grief, and despair transformed the angel of peace into a goddess of freedom, who with a mighty power revealed to their oppressed hearts the consciousness of their crushed rights. XXI. SPRING STORMS. THE political atmosphere constantly grew darker and more threatening. Throngs of people had streamed from all the provinces to attend Ottilie's funeral, all with the same sorrow, the same rancor ; and, after the obsequies were over, they assembled for consultations of the most serious nature, and these consultations resulted in reso- lutions. Unions were formed and dissolved, deputations sent and dismissed, the press rose and was suppressed. The evidences of the advancing movement became more and more decided, the measures of the government yet more stringent. Suddenly a shout rang through the whole country. 288 A TWOFOLD LIFE. " Count Ottmar has formed an opposition in the ministry ! Count Ottmar has declared for the constitution !" The news ran like wildfire. Ottmar, who had been so long hated as the enemy of all progress, the powerful favorite of the prince, suddenly threw influence, position, and authority into the wavering scale, and acknowledged before the world the cause against which he had so long battled. No one took time to question the motive of this sudden change ; enough that it was so, it was help in the hour of the utmost need ; and new courage animated the elastic minds of the people. Ottmar was now the centre of universal attention ; the last hope was bound up in him. This consciousness gave him a dignity which pervaded his whole character. He was once more the old Ottmar, who strode on haughtily erect, in triumph ; but another and a nobler triumph was now depicted in his sparkling eyes, his lofty bearing ; it was not the victory of subtle arts over the hearts of feeble women, credulous princes, and less gifted diplomats; but the conquest of a manly action upon minds, and the pride of an honest purpose in lieu of treacherous fascinations. He was animated with new life. The conflict between his principles and his course of action, as well as that be- tween his love and his career, which Cornelia so greatly feared, had arisen ; and although the first impulse to his new deeds, as in the case of Albert's liberation, had been merely the selfish desire to enter the path upon which he might hope to find Cornelia, he again felt with great satisfaction the blessing of his good action. There is scarcely any soil more favorable for the efforts of man than to represent a nation, be it in whatever form it may, none in which the noblest and purest philanthropy can be better developed ; but there is also none from which personal vanity reaps a more abundant harvest. Cornelia knew this, and therefore had sought to lead Ottmar into this career. Vanity was the tie by which she endeavored to unite the egotist to a great cause, until its own nature could enter into him and raise him above himself. The moment bad now arrived when her expectation began to prove itself correct. Heinrich found himself obtaining an importance in the eyes of the SPRING STORMS. 289 whole country, which he had hitherto possessed only within the narrow circle of the court, ; saw himself be- loved where he had formerly been hated; surrounded with shouts of joy, instead of having men shrink from him in fear, and he would have been unnatural if it had not both flattered him and stirred the silent chords of benevolence within him. Thus the way was opened which he must follow if his opposition in the ministry succumbed, and he sacrificed the portfolio to his new confession of faith. " Cornelia, wonderful woman, what have you made me ?" he said to himself a hundred times, while his breast heaved with a sigh of longing. He pressed his hand upon his heart, which he felt more and more to be the centre of gravity of his nature; where the head whose lofty ideas had given him new life had so often rested and thought. "When shall I hide you here again? When, after all these tumultuous conflicts, shall I hold quiet, blissful intercourse with you? When will your sparkling eyes rest lovingly upon me, and say, 'I am satisfied with you, Heinrich ' ?" Weeks elapsed, and the people still hoped, while Ottmar saw the catastrophe he expected approach nearer and nearer, for he knew the situation of affairs too well to believe for a moment that his opposition would effect anything more than to give him the confidence he needed for his new career, and make his change of opinion easier. He was not mistaken. From the moment he acknowl- edged his real views he was excluded from all personal intercourse with the prince, and the majority in the ministry was against him. The prince, calm and im- movable in his convictions, did not suspect that in Ott- mar alone lay the pledge of his security; his eyes, which were constantly gazing into the obscurity of a long- buried past, did not perceive the feeling of the nation which had assembled menacingly about the liberal min- ister. But Ottmar felt this invisible power hovering around his brow with whispers of promise, and knew that he was the real ruler of the moment; for with him fell the last barrier th,at withheld the rising flood from the steps of the throne, and with a proud smile he at N 25 290 A TWOFOLD LIFE. last bailed his overthrow in the ministry as the first real triumph of his life. " May you never be compelled by force, your High- ness, to acknowledge the spirit you now deny !" were his last words, as he left the council of ministers. He did not suspect how soon, for the first time, he was to know and estimate at its full power the spirit that, with scornful menace, he had held up as a ghost before the eyes of the prince. On the evening of the same day the rumor that Ottmar had sent in his resignation spread through the city, so that undoubtedly the question of the constitution had been unfavorably decided. The streets were deserted, but the public-houses were filled to overflowing; con- versations were carried on in a low tone, and several arrests were made. The next morning the newspapers confirmed the report that Count Ottmar's resignation had been sent in and accepted ; and further remarked that the government, spite of its eagerness to accede to all just and reasonable demands, could not suffer itself to be borne on by the extreme views of this man, etc. This was too hard a blow for the newly-excited hopes of the nation. Ottmar himself, by his previous conduct, had uncon- sciously increased its expectations to such an extent that they could only be crushed by a terrible rebuff, but not subside peacefully. A nation which has long pleaded and had its most reasonable demands rejected, its highest expectations dis- appointed, is a terrible power when, with its last hope, its last fear is cast aside. Scarcely had the news of Ott- mar's withdrawal from the ministry spread abroad, when all the machines stood still, all the looms stopped. A strange bustle began to make itself heard in the streets. Workmen ran busily to and fro, groups formed and separated. Crowds of men, engaged in earnest conver- sation, surged up and down. Towards evening the strange mysterious rabble, the vermin which always crawl forth when the soil of popular order is disturbed, began to mingle with the throng. The questions and SPRING STORMS. 291 interference of the police were answered with contempt *or a slap in the face. At last, with the gathering dark- ness, the aimless tumult assumed purpose and direction ; Ottmar's house was the point towards which the pulsing life of the whole city streamed. A cheer was raised for the discharged minister, the fallen representative of the people. A few hasty charges from the patrol dispersed the scarcely organized, defenceless crowd; but the result was that the following day it assembled again, and the scene was repeated ; this time with a cheer for Ottmar and a hiss for the government. The advancing soldiers found a part of the crowd armed, and a struggle ensued. When the first wounded man fell a furious yell burs.t forth, and the resistance became desperate, until a second detachment of mounted gendarmes dashed upon the com- batants with drawn sabres and forced them asunder. The first blow dealt upon such occasions opens the artery of a whole nation, and the wild blood streams forth until strength is utterly exhausted, and the arm yields feebly to the bandage which often only conceals a new fetter. On the third day the city looked as if some public festival were being celebrated. An inexplicable concourse of strangers thronged the streets; the trains arrived crowded with the inhabitants of the provinces ; new bauds constantly flocked to the city ; the soldiers were consigned to the barracks, the places of business closed. Still the demon of insurrection, imprisoned in every thr-obbing heart, waited until the scattered masses ob- tained a definite form, and then burst forth with all his long-repressed power; one mind in a many-limbed, gigantic body. Roaring and shouting he rushed forward with the wings of the storm, ever swelling and increas- ing, destroying all peaceful life as he dashed along. The breezes fled before and around him, the earth shook and whirled its stones upward to the glittering palaces ; while shattering and crashing, groaning and roaring, was the accompanying harmony to the terrible, howling, and shouting song of fury of the unchained revolution. Pale terror stared hollow-eyed at the passing desola- tion, while the Nemesis of the insulted law dashed after 292 A TWOFOLD LIFE. on snorting steeds. But the ghost of fratricide rested with paralyzing power upon the pursuers, and unreached, unchecked, a part of the mighty crowd rushed on to the arsenal. The guard stationed for its defense fell at the first tremendous assault; the huge doors yielded, and with an exultant roar of "Arms !" the combatants rushed in over the treasured emblems of battle-traditions centu- ries old, to prepare for the most important conflict the victory of the new over the old time. Vengeance hastened after with lightning and thunder; and the infuriated forces, crashing and shrieking, rushed upon each other and struggled in the most terrible of all conflicts the narrow, crowded battle of the streets. Re- peated volleys of artillery and new bands of soldiers at last forced a way through the throng before the arsenal was plundered. But, as a wave which the tempest lashes asunder always rushes together with redoubled violence, the crowd divided and grew denser here and there before the regular weapons of the troops. Hotter and more deadly grew the struggle. Darkness was grad- ually added to the thick smoke of the powder, which en- veloped the noisy city and absorbed every ray of light. Barricades, those terrible fortifications of the populace, had risen, and around them the conflict raged, so that the walls of the houses groaned and trembled, and with the last gleam of day the last appearance of definite pur- pose vanished, darkness shrouded the heated brains, and both within and without all outline of form and plan vanished. Murder was no longer committed for the sake of a certain object, but became the object itself. Nature asserted her rights, not in a peaceful, normal manner, but with horrible degeneracy, stupefaction in the place of sleep, the delirium of fury instead of dreams. The ani- mal developed itself in forms of hideous distortion, and the most dangerous madness took possession of the soul : joy in cruelty, pleasure in destruction. Hour after hour elapsed in a wild tumult of excesses and crimes; anar- chy writhed and twisted horribly beneath the superior force of fresh bodies of troops, clung giddily to her bul- warks, and defended them with convulsive energy as her last support. The struggle now became monotonous. SPRING STORMS. 293 Signals, volleys of artillery, and fierce howls, like those of wild beasts, alternated at regular intervals, while above them rose the notes of the alarm-bells, and only the crash of falling barricades, the glare of burning houses, inter- rupted the terrible rhythm with which the yielding revo- lution was uttering its last sighs. Limb after limb began to die, street after street became quiet. At last, towards morning, the over-taxed strength was exhausted, the thirst for blood slaked. Death was glean- ing in the houses where battle had cast its mangled vic- tims, and trembling hands were busied in binding up wounds, while compassion and horror struggled for the mastery. The last shot died away, the insurrection was quelled. Silence spread over the scene the lassitude of death. Slowly the ever-patient heavens flushed with the rosy hues of dawn, and the still reeking city lay purple in its blood. Ottmar stood at the window gazing silently, now at the glowing sky and now at the blood-stained earth. Horror had stupefied him. In the angles of the streets soldiers, who had fallen asleep while standing in the ranks, leaned against each other, shoulder to shoulder. Now and then a body covered with straw was borne past; pallid women stepped noiselessly over the barri- cades, urged on by the courage of despair, and crept along the streets to seek their husbands and sons; invisible angels of death floated through the air, guided them into the right path, and hovered around them when, in some lifeless body, they were forced to recognize a relative. Heinrich gazed motionless at these changing scenes of misery ; but his inmost heart was strangely stirred. The spirit of murdered freedom celebrated in him its resurrection, built a temple in his soul, raised its arches heavenward, and led him away from this sorrowful scene of his former unhallowed labors to his own home, where the lists stood open to the missionaries of national hnp- piness, where he could obey the call which had appealed to his conscience in the death-cry of an ill-used country. All the frivolity and brilliancy that had formerly charmed him was swallowed up in the streams of blood he had seen flow, all striving and struggling to assert his own 25* 294 A TWOFOLD LIFE. merits vanished in the newly-awakened consciousness of the duties devolving- upon every talented man for the de- velopment and culture of the masses. The solemnity of the moment had seized upon him and stripped off all that was false and superficial. He could not answer with sophisms the great question propounded by the times ; he must at last be himself again, must acknowledge the truth, and from amidst all the horrors of vengeance, the rushing streams of blood, once more arose in its pure beauty the thought of the eternal rights of man he had so grievously profaned. XXII. LIGHT AND SHADOW. A RADIANT morning sky arched over a green island which lay in the midst of a broad, ruffled lake. Blue mountain-peaks, veiled in mist, bounded the almost-im- measurable surface of water. Who can describe all the changeful lights upon the tide when the young rays of the morning sun play upon the dancing wavelets the rising and falling, the sparkling and flashing, the con- fused blending of the reflections? A fresh breeze swept over the lake to the island and rustled the leaves of the lofty trees; with that exception, a deep silence, a sub- bath-like peace, brooded over the scene. A girlish figure stood upon the shore, gazing, in a trance of delight, at the starry shimmer of the waves, and in- haling with parted lips the cool breath of the water ; I'H \\ v leaves and blossoms kissed her floating robes, and dragon -flies sported upon the tide at her feet. Her eyes followed with a longing look a bird of prey which soared in a majestic flight towards the pure, vaulted firmament. Just then the sound of the matin-bell rang out upon the silence, and at the same moment a tall man, in long, dark robe, appeared in the doorway of a peasant's house near by, and, standing motionless, gazed at the LIGHT AND SHADOW. 295 slender figure, whose marvelous proportions were sharply- outlined against the sparkling lake! "Cornelia!" he called at last. She turned and hurried towards him. " My dear Severinus ! Oh, how happy I am ! Here the free Ger- man air blows once more; here I again hear the rustling of German oaks and pines. Home surrounds me in this fresh, simple nature, speaks in the familiar language, looks from the kindly blue eyes. I live once more, I am awake, and what surrounds me is charming, bright reality." " Have you only been dreaming while in our glorious Italy ?" asked Severinus, gravely. " Yes, Severinus ; a beautiful, wonderful dream, but a dream after all. I was torn from my native soil ; my heart could not take root anywhere ; no dear relations with my past existed ; no new ones were formed with the present. What I saw and experienced only en- riched my intellect, not my heart ; it afforded me pleasure without making me happy ; occupied my mind without obtaining any hold upon my nature. I gazed, admired, learned, and reveled in a wealth of beauty ; but I was not myself, my individual life had no connection with my surroundings. What is this except a dream ijito which we bring nothing, and from which we take only a memory ?" " I had hoped you would not return so empty from a country of the loftiest revelations. I expected your great soul would there find its only true home, and the sorrow of finding myself mistaken shall be the last the world can prepare for me." "Oh, do not talk so, Severinus, dear, pious father ! Do not look at me so sadly ; do not be so stern and bitter, but enjoy with me the blessing of this peaceful morning. Let holy nature be the church in which our souls can unite in adoration of our common God. See, my friend, clearness of vision is as unavoidable a necessity to me as light and air; in clearness of vision God shows himself to me, while you only perceive him in mysteries. In order to see him I open my spiritual eyes ; you close yours. I receive his manifestations with sharpened, you 296 A TWOFOLD LIFE. with artificially deadened, senses. I see him in each of these light clouds floating over the sunny sky ; you darken your churches, and shroud yourselves in clouds of incense, that in the mysterious, rich-hued twilight you may paint a vague, fanciful picture. His natural and moral laws everywhere announce themselves to me in shining characters, and I serve him by cheerful obedi- ence to them; you collect from the ambiguous writings of the Bible a book of church regulations, to which you slavishly submit, and exhaust your heurts and minds in the superhuman effort of satisfying all your self-created duties." " I hope this is not the only result of your observation of our sublime worship. It must be the short residence; on this dull German soil which has loosened the strings that resounded so clearly in Rome." " Do not cherish such a fancy, Severinus," said Cor- nelia, as she walked up and down the shore with him. " The forms of your worship, as I saw them in Rome, delighted me ; nay, their grundeur and poesy aroused a wild enthusiasm. But it was the revelation of art, not that of the Deity, at which I gazed. All your miracles, all your lofty precepts, proved nothing except the gran- deur of the human intellect, and in this the existence and influence t>f a God, which I never ^doubted, and which had been just as clearly revealed to me in every creation of genius. My God, to whom I pray in childish adora- tion, has remained the same ; he has come from Rome with me the same as he went. You neither strengthened nor shook my belief; I cherish the deepest reverence for your worship of Ood; it is more beautiful, more sublime, than ours; my heart has opened to much that revealed a character of sincere piety, but I still see in it only a transitory form, liable to alter with the changes of cen- turies; while I bear within me the imperishable essence, ever the same through the lapse of ages." " Oh, Cornelia, how I pity you !" said Severinus, as he leaned against an oak, covering liis dark eyes with his hand, while his breast rose and fell as if he were strug- gli^ig for breath. "Cornelia," he suddenly exclaimed, encircling her forehead with both hands, " free your LIGHT AND SHADOW. 297 mind, your godlike mind, from the clutches of this prejudice; cast aside the arrogance of independent judg- ment; bend your haughty brow in obedience to our church. Oh, if I could give you the blessing to be found in unconditional submission, blind faith, I would will- ingly sacrifice my life to save for the church this soul, which has no peer in human form! Cornelia, a fiend has taken possession of you ; that of pride, doubt, in- difference. He has concealed himself under the false lustre of an abstract reverence for God, to lull your conscience to sleep, in order that you may the more surely fall into unbelief and destruction." He suddenly threw himself at her feet, and gazed despairingly into her eyes. " Here I lie before you in the dust, and I plead in infinite anguish for the precious imperiled property of Christ. The next moment of time may perhaps decide your fate, and part us forever. Cornelia, join our church ; believe me, she alone can save you " " Oh, God, how hardly you try me ! You wrong me, Severinus. No evil spirit, no prejudice, guides me. Have you ever seen me arrogant ? If I were, should I not go over to you ? for you have opened the most tempting prospects to my pride ; you would hail my conversion with joy, and receive me with every kind of pomp and distinction. My self-love would be so greatly flattered that it would far, far outweigh the self-denial of an outward subordination to the church, while in my own congregation no one asks about Cornelia Erwing. But I cannot thus belie myself. Do not sadden my heart with entreaties and lamentations : convince mfc> Sever- inus; for so long as you do-cot succeed ijf that I can do nothing but weep, because I must grieve my best friend so deeply." " Convince you !" cried Severinus, starting up. " If the whole gigantic structure of our religion, whose founda- tions certainly do not rest upon air, the marvels of our worship, the words of the fathers of the church, the his- torical proofs of our traditions which reach back to the time of the establishment of Catholicism by Peter him- self, could not convince you, there is nothing left for me to say." N* 293 A TWOFOLD LIFE. "All that, my friend, even granting that they were proofs, could not make me forget the causes of the Reformation. The Reformation is the mother of my faith." "Ah, do not utter these words in the same breath! What had your Reformation in common with faith? Were your dry, philosophical Melanchthon, your rou.tr h, sensual Luther, your chiding, physically and morally starving Hutten, representatives of a religious trans- formation?" " They were men who had the courage to appear be- fore the hypocrisy of your degenerate priesthood as they really were ; who did not seek the halo of sanctity in the denial of human nature, but honored God and his wis- dom in his laws. Besides, we too do not lack sainted martyrs, and the flames that consumed a Huss branded an eternal stigma upon your church." " I cannot argue with you about the means the church was permitted to use against such apostates. I will only tell you, my child, that the Reformation of the sixteenth century was nothing more than a secular insurrection against abuses in the church, which unfortunately cannot be denied. But a secular revolution can never create a religion, and therefore Protestantism lacks the positive character the human heart needs, and where it strives to appropriate it, becomes a monster, for it is and remains nothing more than a protest against Catholicism." " Our Reformation was not to create a religion ; its purpose was merely to free one already existing from abuse and error. Its task was to restore Christianity to its original purity, and if it did not wholly succeed, if in Protestantism it has only produced a transitory, imper- fect form, we still thank it for the highest blessings of civilization, and most precious of all, that freedom of conscience which permits the dissatisfied mind to choose its own religion." "And this much-praised 'freedom of conscience' leads directly to want of principle, and becomes the destruction of all virtue, all religion !" cried Severinus, indignantly. " The human race cannot dispense with a positive church discipline without falling into anarchy. And in you, Cor- LIGHT AND SHADOW. 299 nelia, unhappily, I have already had an opportunity to learn the effects of this emancipation." " You have learned, Severinus," interrupted Cornelia, with noble pride, " that I resisted evil with the same power with which I now repel the flattering- allurements of a cburgh adorned with all the magic of fancy and attraction of rites, because it is at variance with my own convictions. Is this a want of moral discipline ?" Severinus walked on beside Cornelia in silence. The sun had risen higher in the heavens, and the bell for mass rang from the neighboring convent. Severinus paused and gazed long and earnestly into Cornelia's eyes. "Girl, does not that innocent voice fall upon your ear in tones of touching warning, like the pleading of a mother calling to her lost child?" " Do not be such a bigoted Catholic to-day, Severinus," said Cornelia, gazing at him beseechingly. "All the joy of this earthly life is stirring in my heart, and must I constantly argue with you about the best means of reach- ing heaven? Oh, let me enjoy with a thankful soul the rich abundance of happiness my Creator has poured out for me ! Do not cast the black shadow of your religious harshness over the sunny picture of this day. Severinus, my dear, gloomy friend, be mild and gentle. Look at me as kindly as you used to do. See, see, there is the glim- mer of a smile upon your face ! Ah, it has already vanished again ! What a pity ! Ever since the news of Ottmar's going over to the liberal party brought me back to Germany, and filled me with the blissful cer- tainty of being reunited to him, you have become a dif- ferent person. When I lost him, I gained you; and now that I am to gain him once more, I lose you. When I felt miserable and lonely, you were as loving and patient as a father; but since I have been animated with new hope, you have retired coldly into yourself, and you have hidden yourself behind the walls of your work of con- version." " My task, Cornelia, is only to aid the afflicted ; the happy do not need me." Severinus looked silently up towards heaven. His eyes were bloodshot ; his wasted face, bronzed by the Italian sun, glowed with fervor. 300 A TWOFOLD LIFE. Cornelia laid her clasped hands compassionately and beseechingly upon his breast. " Severiuus, you are suf- fering; I see it." For a moment he pressed her hands closely to his throbbing heart, then hurled them away, with an expres- sion of horror, and hurried off. Cornelia looked after him in astonishment, btot did not try to follow, for she felt that the emotion which moved him was a secret she ought not to fathom. She turned towards the rural inn where she lodged, and now ob- served for the first time that one of the artists who came to the island to sketch was seated on a little hillock not far from the spot where she had been pacing with Sev- erinus, and recognized him as the very person to whose talent she owed her first picture of Ottmar. She ap- proached, and he hastily concealed in his portfolio the paper upon which he had been working. " You only arrived yesterday evening, and are already sketching the scenery, Herr A . Is it not a little hasty?" "I have already made myself familiar with all its details," said A , with evident embarrassment. "I am very much hurried, because I would like to finish the picture in time for the exhibition at H ." "Then I will not detain you, but wish you all possible success. Au revoir, Herr A ." " I will do myself the honor of waiting upon you at a later hour, Fraulein Erwing," said A , bowing re- spectfully; and, as Cornelia turned away, he drew out his sketch, and eagerly continued his work. Cornelia entered the public room, to ask if the news- papers had arrived. It was full of active life. Some twenty young artists were standing together consulting about a trip they were to take ; most of them handsome young fellows, with large beards, boldly-curved Calabrian hats, open shirt-collars, and the general adventurous negligence of apparel with which the young representa- tives of the laws of beauty seek to remove the pedantic stiffness of modern costume. A general "ah!" echoed through the room at Cor- nelia's entrance, and a movement took place which made LIGHT AND SHADOW. 301 the dense clouds of tobacco-smoke that filled the low apartment whirl as if driven by the wind. The hats were removed ; the beer-glasses noiselessly set aside. All crowded around Cornelia. " Fraulein Erwing!" cried one, to whom a waving red inane and widely-dilated nostrils gave the appearance of a lion, "we have at last caught you without your black guardian! You must yield to superior force, and let us steal your face. We are a terrible band of robbers, and a person for whom we once lay snares does not escape us so easily." "Yes, but we must first have a fight, to decide which of us she will allow to paint her," said another, waving a staff in the air. " Fraulein Erwing," cried a little black-bearded Pole, with a shrill accent, " I will shoot the first man to whom you sit I" "That is not necessary," growled he of the lion's mane ; " we will all paint her at once !" i "Yes, yes!" cried many voices at the same moment. "That's a good idea! We will all paint her at once!" "That is, if I will sit to you," laughed Cornelia, "for I have not yet resigned all right of ownership in my own face, gentlemen." " Fraulein Erwing," began the man of the lion's mane, with great pathos, " we do not know in what branch of Christian duty your reverend father instructs you, but he has certainly taught you that our advantages are only bestowed upon us that we may make them available for the profit and welfare of others ; so you will perceive that it is your duty to pay the debt you owe Providence for your face, by using it to aid the development of youthful talent." "Yes!" cried another; "you could not justify your- self before God if you displayed such a wealth of beauty to idle gazers, and grudgingly refused the struggling artist permission to use and perpetuate its lines in an inspired creation." " You would make me unconscionably vain, gentle- men," said Cornelia, " if the fame of being the most beau- tiful on this little island were not so cheaply purchased." 26 302 A TWOFOLD LIFE. A general " Oh, oh !" expressed the indignation of the enthusiastic artists at this modesty, and a torrent of eager protestations threatened to follow : but Cornelia cut them short by exclaiming, gayly, " Well, well, if you can make me of any use for a picture, I will give you a sitting; but one only, and at the utmost two hours long. So, who- ever wants to paint me must take advantage of the op- portunity." " That is excellent!" they all cried, joyously. " It's a very short time, to be sure, but we'll see about the rest. But when may we draw you?" " Whenever you choose, gentlemen. Perhaps the best time would be now !" " Yes, yes ; we will take her at her word," said one of the older ones of the party. " It shall be done now ; and when the two hours are over, Friiulein Erwing shall see the sketches, and decide which of us she considers worthy the honor of another sitting for the completion of her picture." " But our excursion," said a tall lad, whose whole vitality seemed to have run into an immense length of limb. " Shall we defer our excursion ?" " Let your chicken legs take you where you like, man," thundered he of the lion's mane; "but don't say you are an artist, if you talk about excursions while our eyes are permitted a glimpse into the holy of holies of beauty." " Let him go !" cried another. " He can't help it ; all his vital functions are expended in the use of his feet. It will be one the less to take up the room ; there are twenty- three of us without him. The number is still too large. I scarcely believe that there were ever so many assembled on the island at one time before." A long debate now followed concerning the place where they should sketch Cornelia, while the latter had mean- time obtained possession of the newspaper, and was read- ing it in breathless suspense. Suddenly she started. She had found what she sought, Ottmar's name as a candi- date for the H Chambers. Her face was suffused with a rosy flush of joy, and her eyes sparkled as she laid the sheet aside and turned towards the artists, who LIGHT AND SHADOW. 303 were disputing violently because some thought it too hot out of doors, and others considered the room too small. " Gentlemen," she cried gayly, " peace is the first con- dition I shall impose if I am to sit for you. We will go out into the open air and look for some shady spot ; if you all want to paint me at the same time, we shall cer- tainly need more room than there is here." The proposal was accepted, and the whole party went out with Cornelia. On a lofty part of the shore, not far from the inn, was a large open space surrounded with lofty trees, beneath which stood wooden benches and tables, and where, in spite of the heat, it was cool and pleasant. The eye could wander undazzled over the rippling lake and the beautiful island, which rested on the waters like a large green leaf. The light surges gently rocked the boats fastened near by ; in one of them, under the spreading branches of an ancient linden, a peasant lad was extended sleeping comfortably, undisturbed by the loud bustle of the approaching artists. It seemed as if all nature was slumbering in her sunny noontide brightness. " Well, gentlemen," exclaimed Cornelia, "is it not de- lightful here? Have we not shade, fresh breezes, and comfort ?" "Yes, yes," cried the artists in one breath ; "we will stay here. Out with the portfolios, and let every one take his place and go to work !" They buzzed about Cornelia like a swarm of bees which are about to settle and fly from one spot to another, now alighting, now rising again, now dispersing, and anon collecting at the same point, scuffling with each other about places, and filling the inexperienced observer with anxiety lest they should never get established. Such were the preparations of the artists at the beginning of their work. Here several were disputing about the pro- file, yonder a group wished to sit opposite to her, not un- frequently a slight skirmish decided the matter, and those who did not succeed in conquering a place climbed up into the trees and established themselves and their port- folios among the branches. 304 A TWOFOLD LIFE. ' We must form the narrowest possible semicircle," advised he of the liou's mane, \vlio, as the possessor of the strongest lungs in the company, undertook the duty of organizing the party, in which, by means of a great expenditure of voice and unwearied energy, he at last .succeeded; and when, with the aid of the trees, a half- circle was formed in the shape of an amphitheatre whose extremities could not even obtain a full profile, but merely a portion of the cheek and ear, the zealous artist first perceived that he had completely excluded himself. His nostrils dilated to an unprecedented size as his large eyes wandered around the circle, while his broad freckled bands were thrust helplessly through his unkempt mane. A shrill peal of laughter echoed jeeringly from the circle and the trees, " Richard Coeur de Lion has no place !" " Be calm, Richard," cried one ; " we will get you into the exhibition after all. We'll paint Fraulein Ervviug as the lion's bride, and you as the monster!" " Jeer away, you mocking-birds !" he thundered^ " Be- cause I am an artist, I thought more of the subject than myself, and I'll show you what an artist can do. I'll paint a neck and hair such as the world never yet saw !" and with these words he strode majestically on, seated himself behind Cornelia, and began to work with the most grotesque movements. Silence now reigned while the three-and-twenty artists struggled in the greatest possible haste to perpetuate her features. Cornelia had watched the tumult absently; her thoughts were wandering far away, and the stillness that ensued was most welcome. She could give herself up to her dreams undisturbed. " She is marvelously beautiful !" suddenly cried one of the younger artists from his perch in the tree. Universal applause answered this na'ive ex- pression of delight. " The birds in the trees are singing your praises, Fraulein Erwiug!" cried another. "Doesn't that flatter you ?" " Oh, certainly," she answered, smiling as indifferently as if she had not understood the compliment paid her. "The best likeness will flatter her most," growled Richard Coeur de Lion from behind Cornelia. " Express LIGHT AND SHADOW. 305 your admiration by work instead of words, and she will value it more." " Well growled, lion !" said the young enthusiast in the tree. " Go on the stage and declaim verses ; you are more fit for an actor than an artist," exclaimed Richard, with- out having the slightest suspicion that he was himself in his appearance the most theatrical of all ; for natural- ness, when carried too far, becomes as great a caricature as affectation, and the stage is certainly the home of caricatured forms. "Come, gentlemen," cried Cornelia, laughing; "the lime you spend in disputing you will lose in work; for I must tell you that I will not sit a moment longer than the two hours agreed upon ! It is altogether too uncom- fortable to endure the gaze of three-and-twenty pairs of eyes." This threat re-established peace ; for the artists once more demoted all their energy to their work, and hence- forth nothing was heard but the wondering exclamations of several country people who stationed themselves here and there on the outskirts of the shaded spot to gaze at a proceeding utterly incomprehensible to them. The time agreed upon passed away, and Cornelia rose. Neither grumbling nor entreaties availed ; she kept resolutely to her determination. The sketches were laid before her, and as she looked at them in succession she burst into a merry laugh. She saw her own face taken from some twenty different stand-points. " Dear me, can I be like all these ?" she exclaimed, clasping her hands in aston- ishment. " If I ever knew how I looked, I should not from this day ! Who can decide which of these many faces is mine ? If this is, of course that can't be ; and if this profile taken from the right is a good likeness, how can the one sketched from the left resemble me ? The right side of my face must be entirely different from the left, and that would be horribly abnormal. According to these profile views I should have two kinds of eyes, eyebrows, cheeks ; nay, even my nose would consist of two dissimilar halves. Now, can you dispute this, gentlemen?" 26* 306 A TWOFOLD LIFE. The artists themselves could not help laughing as they looked at their pictures. "Now you will get an idea of the variety and abund- ance of beauty your features possess, Friiulein Erwing," said one of the oldest of the group. "When compared with you the majority of the sketches seem passable likenesses, although so different from each other that one would almost doubt whether they all represeuted the same face." "A very pretty compliment to me and an admirable defense of your colleagues," said Cornelia, courteously. "But, Friiulein Erwing," cried another ; "you have not yet noticed a picture which is at all events unique in its way ; and our Coeur de Lion, with unusual modesty, has already been waiting a long time for your opinion." He handed Richard's drawing to Cornelia, and all gazed at it in astonishment, for it was a master-piece. A woman's upraised head, adorned with a wealth of hair so boldly drawn that one felt tempted to pass it through the fingers. A few curls which had escaped from the braids fell upon a most beautiful neck. Cornelia looked at the sheet in amazement. " You are indeed an artist," said she, fixing her large eyes with winning kindness upon Richard's rugged face. He blushed to the roots of his tawny hair with delight. " Friiulein Erwing," he ex- claimed, " no praise ever made me so proud !" "Yes, yes, Coeur de Lion, Friiulein Erwing is right," said several of the group; "this hair and neck irresistibly tempt the beholder to turn the head and see the face, which is concealed from us. You have produced a master-piece." "If you go on so much longer, he'll get so vain that he will comb bis hair to-morrow. Just see ! he is running his fingers through his mane!" said others, laughing. "Well," exclaimed the rest, "we will hope that at the exhibition Friiulein Erwing's features will yet win the victory over the beauty of her hair." Thus each was cheered by the conviction that he alone would obtain the prize. " So you will not sit longer to any of us ?" asked Richard, as he placed his sketch in his portfolio. LIGHT AND SHADOW. 307 " No, gentlemen. I was in the mood to enter into your jest; but if you ask me in earnest, I must tell you that it would not be at all agreeable to me to expose my face to the eyes of the whole public. I am both too proud and too modest." "Is this your final decision?" "It is irrevocable," said Cornelia, with courteous reso- lution. " Well, we will not be ungrateful. In these two hours we have at least fixed the outlines of your features," said one of the quieter members of the party. But the others would not yield at once, and began to plead again. " If you understood the spirit that animates these features, you would beg no longer, for you would know it to be vain," cried Richard, with bis usual artless pathos. Then he held out his hand to Cornelia and con- tinued : " I should probably have the best right to entreat you for another sitting, since I was so great a loser ; but I will not ask it after what you have just said." " I thank you for your delicacy of feeling, Herr Richard," replied Cornelia, with unconcealed admiration. "You may be assured that if I sat to any of these gen- tlemen it would be to you ; yet if you understand the reason of niy refusal, you will not be angry if I make no exception, even in your favor." Richard buried Cornelia's hand in his prickly beard to press a kiss upon it. "Angry with you? Who that had the heart of a true artist could be ? For, although we are not permitted to make portraits of you, we still owe you thanks for a type of beauty which will be of service to us all." "Yes, yes; he is right," they all assented. "You have not only enriched our eyes, but our imaginations ! Long live Cornelia Ervviug ! Hurrah !" At that moment the sound of the dinner-bell echoed from the inn, and at the same instant Severinus's black- robed figure appeared, coming from the neighboring con- vent. The artists wiped the perspiration from their brows, for the noonday sun and their zeal had made them very hot. 308 A TWOFOLD LIFE. " There comes your pious father !" declaimed the young enthusiast, who always spoke in quotations. "Now, brothers, let us fly !" And partly fear of the "black coat," partly hunger, drove the noisy group to the table. They departed waving their hats, nodding, and singing ; and Cornelia was still looking after them with a smile, when Severinus approached with a pale, gloomy face. " Such ovations certainly do nut prepare oue for the church," he murmured, somewhat bitterly. "Ah, Severinus! I am so happy!" cried Cornelia, frankly. " What open-hearted, gay, magnificent men they are! How I laughed! It is a pity you were not here ! Tell me, Father Severiuus, you are sincere, am I really as beautiful as they all say?" she asked, with mischievous naivete. Severiuus looked timidly away from her, and with a deep flush fixed his eyes upon the ground. " I do not know." " You don't know ?" "I think only your soul beautiful, but not your body. Physical beauty is something so perishable that it is un- heeded by one who perceives, and knows how to value, that of the soul." Cornelia became embarrassed. She was ashamed of the want of reserve which had induced her to ask Sev- erinus so inappropriate a question, and did not see the strange glance with \\hich he gazed at her blooming cheeks and lips, and then clinched his teeth. " Forgive me for disturbing your grave mood with such jests, my reverend friend ; but I cannot help it. The gayety natural to my youth will sometimes assert its rights. I was very glad they thought me beautiful. The sight of a lovely face is always a pleasure to me, and the idea that my appearance could also rejoice the fvi-s and hearts of others pleased me. If this is vanity, it i.s, at least, very innocent." " Certainly, my child," said Severinus, and his tone gradually lost its assumed harshness. " I will not embitter the harmless little pleasures of your youth. I am sure they will not smother the earnestness of your nature." LIGHT AND SHADOW. 309 " Severinus," said Cornelia, smiling 1 , "isn't it a fact that you do not know what hunger is F" " No, certainly not. But you seem to know ; so come, let us go to dinner." Cornelia was glad to have put an end to the uncom- fortable conversation, and hastened lightly on before him. Since her joy in life was once more awakened, and hope and cheerfulness again stirred within her, she felt Sev- erinus's gloomy mood as a heavy burden. As long as she was at variance with her own heart and the world, the character of the ascetic priest suited her better than aught else ; but now it began to form a disagreeable con- trast with her mood, and cast a shadow over the newly- risen sun of her love. Yet she was too grateful to forget for a moment what consolation his assistance had afforded her in the time of her heavy visitation ; so she main- tained an unaltered, frank cordiality towards him, although he now began to torture her with a thousand contradictions and absurdities. The scene with the artists, innocent as it was in itself, seemed to have made Severinus very thoughtful, in con- sequence of the pleasure Cornelia derived from it. Such impressions must be kept from her at any cost, for they were not adapted to aid his work of conversion. Even if he should remove her from the neighborhood, he could not prevent these young enthusiasts from traveling after her. He therefore went to the superior of the convent on the island, and, when he returned, brought an invita- tion from her to Cornelia to take up her residence in the cloister, " as it was not proper for a young girl, with an equally young companion, to remain in a country inn with a party of gay young men." Cornelia, who did not care where she lodged, easily allowed herself to be per- suaded to fulfill Severinus's wish, and accept the friendly superior's offer. Her removal to the cloister took place immediately, and the astonished hostess told the artists, on their return from an excursion, that the beautiful Fraulein Erwing had just entered a convent. They were beside themselves at the news, for who could doubt that the poor victim of the black coat had been brought here to commence her novitiate ? Thus Severinus's design of 310 A TWOFOLD LIFE. spreading a halo of inaccessibility around Cornelia, and cutting off any intrusive pursuit, was effectually attained ; but that neither she nor her coTnpauiou should betray the truth in their unavoidable walks, it was necessary that t hey should be taken away with all secrecy. On that very evening Severinus excited Cornelia's interest in the B Oberland to such a degree that she herself ex- pressed a wish to continue her journey as soon as possi- ble, and he was merely fulfilling her own desire when he proposed that they should leave the island at daybreak, not to return. As no one saw or heard anything of this departure, Cornelia was, and remained, in the convent, whose strict seclusion made any inquiries impossible, and the young artists grieved deeply that the world was robbed of so much beauty. Meantime Severinus took the supposed victim farther and farther away, and several months passed so quickly in the constant change from one beautiful scene to an- other, and in grave but intellectually exciting conversa- tion with Severinus, that she was not conscious how skillfully he managed to cut her off from all society. Priests and nuns were the only persons with whom she held occasional intercourse ; and she passed them by with friendly indifference, which rendered any advances im- possible. Severinus's hopes of a con version drooped more and more ; he could not conceal from himself that a sor- row was gnawing at his soul which exhausted his best powers, and felt, with increasing despair, that he should succumb himself before he could conquer Cornelia's reso- lute temper. BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 3H XXIII. BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. SEVERINUS entered Cornelia's room one evening when they were to spend the night in a peasant's house in the B forest. She was standing at the window, gazing out into the sultry night. The sky arched over the earth like a leaden-hued canopy; not a breath of air was stir- ring, not a leaf moved on the trees ; here and there a star gleamed forth where the dense masses of clouds parted for a moment, and now and then a distant flash of lightning glittered in the horizon, revealing the dim out- lines of the forest-crowned heights. " Severinus," she said, drawing a long breath, as she turned toward him, " let us go out into the open air before the storm breaks : the air is so oppressive here ; perhaps it is cooler outside." " I have come to speak to you about very serious sub- jects : it will be better for us to stay here," said Severinus. And now for the first time Cornelia noticed his gloomy expression, and looked with anxious expectation into his face. " Cornelia, the time when your fate must be decided has arrived. The day of election is approaching. I must not allow Ottmarto move forward unrestrained upon the road in which he can only bring ruin upon our church. If he is elected to the parliament, a powerful enemy will arise against us. I have already told you what papers the order has in its hands: they must be used now, if they are not to become useless. Let Ottmar be a deputy ; let him speak, and as is to be foreseen win the masses, and everything we undertake against him will be in vain. The last point of time is reached, when I must decide what is to be done." " And that is a publication of his relations with Jesuit- ism, the destruction of the toilsomely obtained confidence of his party, in order to prevent his election. Am I not right?" 312 A TWOFOLD LIFE. I " Certainly." " And do you not know that you will not convert a man like Ottmar by such means, but simply render him miserable?" "We wish to make him harmless, nothing more." " But you do far worse," cried Cornelia, indignantly. " You bar the path upon which he might become a better man; hurl him back to the cheerless void of a life with- out a purpose : perhaps even entangle him in fresh snares of falsehood and hypocrisy ; and thus destroy a nature which, in its own way, might accomplish great things for the world. Who gives you the right thus violently to interfere with an independent existence ?" " The same right which the government has to punish secular crimes, we, as the representatives of the kingdom of God, possess against him who sins against God and his servants." " Severinus, when the government chastises, it repre- sents the insulted law, and uses honest means; but you avenge only your own boundless pride, and your weapons are hypocrisy and deceit ! Are you better than he whom you punish?" " Cornelia !" cried Severinus, with flashing eyes, " do you dare say that to me ?" " I have never spoken anything but the truth all my life. You could not expect me to call wrong right; and if God should descend to the earth once more he would judge the zeal of those who commit sin for his honor, and misuse his name for selfish purposes, far more harshly than the errors of the men who have deserted him in form, but not in reality." " It is only natural that the child of the world should speak in her lover's favor; and I will be patient now, as I have often been before. I cannot ask you to perceive the sublimity of a subordination to the will of a chief, as our order practices it. Our General alone bears the re- sponsibility ; God will call him only to an account; and he can lay it aside : for God is higher than the law, and whoever represents him on earth cannot have his acts measured by the standard of earthly justice 1" Cornelia gazed at Severinus long and silently. " You BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 313 told me a short time ago that you pitied me. Now I must answer you in the same words : Severinus, I pity you! I am not angry; but you will perceive that from tliis hour our paths must lie apart. If you deal a blow which will destroy Ottmar's honest efforts, it is my duty to be at his side." " Cornelia, it is in your power to avert this dangerous blow." "How?" "The order has determined to give up the papers to you at the price of your conversion to Catholicism. The order feels itself justified in resigning the pursuit of this faithless man, if it can thereby win for the good cause another soul, which will be pleasing to God." " Indeed !" cried Cornelia, fixing a piercing glance upon Severinus. " Is it thus you advance your work of conversion ?" " We leave you the choice between the only church which can save souls and your lover's prosperity, or his destruction and our hostility. Can you hesitate ?" Cornelia stood before him with noble dignity. " And do you believe you can win me over to a religion which sanctions such means ? Do you think to bribe me by any advantage even the welfare of the man I love to deny that which is highest and most sacred to me : the knowledge of the truth ? No, Severinus ; I feel I possess the power to make the man of my heart happy without being compelled to save him from your persecution by abjuring my own faith !" " May you not trust to yourself too much ? He whom we wish to ruin is not so easily saved by any one, even the bold spirit of Cornelia Erwing!" " Severinus, you frighten me ! I never saw you in this mood before. I feel as if in my sleep I had wandered into a tiger's den, and on awakening found myself shut up alone with the terrible enemy 1" She paused and looked at Severinus ; then growing calmer, shook her head: "No, no, Severinus; that is a bad comparison; forgive me for it ! Those pure eyes give the lie to your threats; the dignity enthroned upon your brow cannot suffer you to become the tool of a base revenge." o 27 314 A TWOFOLD LIFE. "Cornelia, you will never learn to understand the nature of Jesuitism. I am no blind tool \vbo mechani- cally performs what is imposed upon him, but a living part of the whole, who abhors what injures the order, and labors for its advantage. Our obedience is no mere form which \ve can outwardly satisfy without real sym- pathy: it is an allegiance in spirit and in truth, which makes the will it serves its own. Thus I hate Ottmar, since he became faithless to his obligations towards us, as the order hates him, and will destroy him as the order commands, if you do not comply with the condition upon, which we will spare him." He watched Cornelia for a moment, then dre r ,v out some papers and spread them upou the table before her. " Here are the documents which are to serve us as weapons against Ottmar; read them, and convince your- self whether they will be destructive enough to him to outweigh the sacrifice you must make to secure his safety." Cornelia looked over the papers, the very ones with which years before Severinus had succeeded in intimidat- ing Ottmar, and binding upon him the chains he now wished to strip off. When she had finished, she gazed sorrowfully into vacancy. " This is certainly material enough to devise a snare for him. Oh, Severinus, throw these papers into the tire, and I will revere you as a saint !" "It will only cost you a few words, Cornelia. Say, 'I will become a Catholic,' and these papers are yours!" Cornelia drew herself up proudly. "I have already told you that I would drive no bargain with my con- victions. This is my final resolution !" " Noble woman !" thought Severinus, gazing at her in astonishment. Cornelia gathered up the documents, restored them to the priest, then clasped her hands, and gazed into his face with her irresistible charm. " Severinus, give me these papers." A long pause ensued. The priest was absorbed in watching the beautiful face, and made no reply. Cornelia took his hand ; he started back. " Severinus, for once, be more obedient to the law of BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 315 love and forbearance God has written in our hearts, than the stern commands of your order ; destroy these proofs of Ileinrich's, and also your, dishonor, or give them to me that I may do so. You do not answer ! Oh, let my entreaties move you, dear, honored friend !" Severinus covered his eyes with his hand, and ex- claimed, almost imploringly: "Cease, Cornelia; you know not what you are doing." "I am well aware of it, I am torturing you ; for I am bringing you into a conflict with what you believe to be your duty. I see the struggle between your Jesuit's conscience and your heart. True, genuine manhood will conquer ; it will burst the fetters in which your whole life is bound." She rushed to the table, took up a light, and held it towards Severinus, that he might set the papers on fire. A gust of air that blew through the open window made the flame flicker to and fro, and her light dress float around her like a cloud. As she stood thus with the arm that, held the candle raised high above her head, bathed in the red gleam of the flickering light, in the earnestness of her enthusiasm, half pleading, half commanding, she seemed like an angel ; and without knowing what he was doing he threw the papers towards her, bent down, and pressed the hem of her dress to his lips. " I thank you !" cried Cornelia. But ere she could gather up the^ scattered papers Severiuus recollected himself, and caught her hand. "Stop! these papers are riot yours nor mine; they belong to the order which intrusted them to my care, and only an evil^spirit could have so bewildered rny mind that I wavered in my duty." He made the sign of the cross, pressed his hands tightly upon his henrr,, and softly murmured the "Anima Christi, sanct\fi(a /?j6,"*then collected the papers and went to the window. The rain was pouring in torrents; he leaned out and let the cool water drench his head. " Extinguish, oh, ex- tinguish the fire !" he prayed, looking up with a deep sigh at the dark watery masses of clouds. *A Jesuit prayer. 316 A TWOFOLD LIFE. Cornelia watched him with mingled surprise and grief. " Severinus, you are playing a part with yourself, like all who hold ideas founded on sophisms and principles contrary to nature ; you must do so, at a moment when your illusion forms so striking a contrast with the truth. I can only pity you ; but may God let those who made you a Jesuit, who robbed you of the world and the world of you, reap the fruits of their deed !" " Do not blame them," replied Severinus, turning calmly away from the window. " They were my pa- rents, and both are dead. I, too, have often cursed them for giving me life; but since I became a Jesuit, I bless them." " Unhappy man, what secret weighs upon the past which you have hitherto so closely concealed?" " Disgrace, girl ! To you alone I will confess it, that some day you may think of me more kindly when we are parted. I have no name save that the church gave me ; no father save God ; no home save the Casa al Gesu ; no human dignity save that of my holy office. If I had belonged to the world, I should have been an outcast. But my parents turned the curse into a blessing when they dedicated to Heaven the life they denied on earth ; and for the sake of that deed may God pardon the sin which gave me birth !" He raised his head, while his face kindled with enthusiastic feeling. " But I, Cornelia, will devote my strength, to my latest breath, to that Jesuitism which accomplished the miracle of making the child of sin the supporter of the highest and holiest cause, which produces everything great and noble that can be done for the honor of God, and desires no- thing except by all means, both mild and gentle, to lead men to heaven." Cornelia gazed thoughtfully into vacancy, then sud- denly looked earnestly at the regular features of the handsome man before her. " Severinus," she said, with strange eagerness, " who was your father ?" " I do not know ; I never saw him." " Did your mother tell you nothing about him ? or did you not know her either?" BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 3 If " She could tell me nothing except how she loved him, and how he had deceived her. His accent betrayed that he was a German, but he concealed his name and resi- dence. When I was scarcely a year old he disappeared, and no longer gave my mother any signs of existence ex- cept the remittance, through some unknown hand, of money for my education upon the condition that I should become a priest." "And your mother ; what was her name?" " Girl, why do you ask me all these questions?" " You shall learn the reason after you have told me who your mother was." " I have no right to expose the name of the unhappy woman, and have never mentioned it to any one." " Not even to Heinrich ?" " I never disclosed the secret of my past to him." Cornelia approached him ; her breath came more quickly. "Was your mother's name Angelina, Sever- inus ?" said she, her voice tremulous with some secret emotion. Severinus gazed at her in astonishment. " Yes, yes ; how did you know ?" "Was she the sister of a Carmelite monk in Com- patri ?" " Where did you learn this ?" exclaimed Severinus, greatly agitated. " What connection have you with my past? Speak; of what are you thinking? Your eyes sparkle, your cheeks glow ; do not torture me." "Are you your mother's only child ?" " So truly as she expiated all her remaining days in a cloister, the one error of her life." " Then God has sent me to you to warn you at the right time not to commit a most grievous wrong. Do you know who the man is whom you thus inexorably pursue ?" A suspicion began to arise in Severinus's mind ; he re- coiled and extended his hands repellently, as if he feared the words that hovered upon Cornelia's lips. " He is your brother I" she cried, tears gushing from he,r eyes. Severinus involuntarily pressed his hand upon his 27* 318 A TWOFOLD LIFE. brow, his fingers quivered slightly as they touched the broad scar upon it, and he gazed absently before him as if in a dream. " Oh, do not crush the feeling that stirs in your heart! Give me your h:md, and let me tell you how warmly I pivot the brother of my beloved ! Oh, God, to see the two men dearest to me on earth united, the souls which always struggled with each other, and yet could never resist the impulse of sympathy, reconciled in brotherly love! And it is I, I who am permitted to bring you together, to give you to each other! Ah, my friend, this is inexpressible joy !" "And are you so sure you are not deceiving yourself?" asked Severinus, gloomily. "Deceiving? Oh, you incredulous man ! Heinrich's father is yours also. Ten years before his marriage in Germany he traveled in Italy. In wild, romantic Com- patri he was attracted by the beauty of your mother, Angelina, who was living in the greatest povert}' upon the products of her vines and the scanty gifts of the Carmelite convent in that place, then falling to decay. He took her to Rome, and remained there two years, until his duties compelled him to return to Germany nnd desert Angelina, with her eleven-months-old boy. What afterwards became of her and her child, Heiurich did not know." "And how did Ileinrich happen to tell you this?" " He told me a great many things about bis father's life." "And where did he learn this sad history?" " From Anton, who, as valet, accompanied old Herr von Ottmar on his travels, and whose statements were confirmed by the dead man's papers. Heinrich did not then foresee how important this discovery might some day become. But if all this' is not sufficient proof for you, question your own heart; remember what an inex- plicable affection still bound you to Heinrich, even after you believed him lost to the church. Does not this impulse of the heart harmonize with all that has been so strangeh' revealed to you ? Oh, you feel it yourself at this moment! I see it by the tears that will steal out BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 319 from beneath your lashes ; you feel, you believe, that ho is your brother !" Severinus covered his face. " lie is ! he is ! Oh, God, and I must ruin my brother !" "Thank God," cried Cornelia, joyously, "you are moved, touched ! The voice of blood is again stirring within you ; you will be reconciled to him, will spare him ! Oh, say you will !" Severinus raised his head and leaned against the window-sill ; the tears that Cornelia had seen in his eyes were dried. " Do you believe that a pupil of Loyola will listen to the voice of blood ? Do you know what the saint, who is our protector and pattern, did ? He burned, unread, the letters from his own family, that he might break off all ties with the world ; and I, should I spare the enemy of my church because he is related to me? Should 1 allow my zeal in God's cause to grow cold because my heart warms with a mere animal instinct? No, Cornelia, my brothers are in Christ; he who does not belong to him is no brother of mine." "Cruel, hard-hearted man!" cried Cornelia, in horror. " I do not know whether it is compassion or terror that seizes upon me, but my soul trembles at the power of an illusion which can thus petrify the noblest heart." "Petrify!" cried Severinus. "Oh, do not speak so, child that you are! Have you ever cast a glance into this ' petrified heart' ? Have you a suspicion of the strength of the love I must tear away from earth and consecrate to God ? Have you ever heard the outcry of the tortured man when he is obliged to accomplish his regeneration from earthly to heavenly things ? Do you know how mighty nature writhes and struggles and groans under the prickly iron ring of the cilicium ?* You are spared these agonies, because God requires only tho easiest sacrifice? from you ; but we, who are appointed to be the imitators of Christ upon earth, are compelled to taste them to the dregs. We must fulfill our great task, and no human eye is permitted to see that the sacrifice it admires trickles from the warm heart's blood." * An instrument used bj the Jesuits for penance and punishment. 320 A TWOFOLD LIFE. "My poor Severinus!" " Do not pity me ; I want no one's compassion. I only want you to understand me; the more difficult the victory, the greater the fame. I shall one day be proud of my tortures. But I must labor without rest or sleep, and watch over myself at every hour, for the enemy is cun- ning, and if he chooses can clothe himself in the garb of an angel." His large eyes rested ardently upon Cornelia. " Severinus," she answered, sadly, "do you take me for this false angel, me, who preach nothing to you except the first and simplest laws of Christianity ? Do you think the ' foul fiend' is in me, because I oppose a belief which rejects the purest impulse of nature a- a mere animal instinct, if it is not of use to its plans, denies the tie God himself has hallowed, if it bars its progress, and acknowledges nothing which does not " " Redound to the greater honor of God," interrupted Severinus. " Yes, we do all for the honor of God. That is vhe word which permits no false meaning ; the path from which we cannot deviate an inch ; the object from which we dare not turn or eyes, even though we trample under- foot the bodies of our dearest friends. He who opposes us must fall, for we cannot allow ourselves to be stopped. For the honor of God we live, and are ready to die." "And are you sure that in this you act only for the honor of God? Are you sure you do not abuse this great word as a pretext for an act of selfishness ?" Severinus looked at her inquiringly. She struggled with her feelings, and then began, gently: "Tell me, my friend, if in the execution of a punishment commanded by the order a Jesuit should also find the gratification of a personal desire for revenge, would he not profane the cause of God by making it his own ?" " Certainly," replied Severiuus, in a hollow tone, fixing his eyes upon the floor. " There are many kinds of passions, of which the man who ardently desires only what is right is scarcely con- scious, because he does not even allow them to take the form of a thought ; yet they are there, and the so-called foul fiend undermines in them the more securely, because concealed, the toilsomely-erected structure of virtue. Let BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 321 me quote an example. Suppose a Jesuit hated an enemy of his order, not only because the order hates him, but because he is loved by a girl who is dear to the Jesuit himself?" Severinus started ; a deep flush suffused his face. Cornelia continued: " Suppose he used against him the weapons the order placed in his hands, not for the sake of the church, but to serve the instincts of his own jealousy, and should suddenly perceive what he had not confessed, even to himself, what would be his duty then ?" Severinus was now as pale as he had before been red. He stood like a marble statue, not a breath stirred his breast; but at last his delicate lips opened to utter the words, " Then it would be his duty to resign the work he would profane to another, who could perform it with pure hands, solely for the sake of God and the order." "Well, then, Severinus, do what you believe to be your duty. I have nothing more to say." A deep silence followed. Severinus still stood motion- less, and Cornelia did not venture to look at him ; she did not wish to read the pale face. She was terrified at what, for Heinrich's sake, she had done to this noble man, and involuntarily feared the results. Severinus slowly approached her, laid his hand upon her head, and said, " Let us bid each other farewell." Cornelia looked up. The pure features expressed no bitterness, no anger, only the repose of an immovable resolution. " Farewell?" she asked, in surprise. " For life !" Remorse suddenly seized upon her. She had over- stepped the bounds of womanly delicacy, and pitilessly assailed the heart which, in spite of its errors, she had always seen rise superior to every weakness. She now felt for the first time how much she should lose in him, and, with sincere shame, bent down, and before he could prevent it, pressed her lips to his hands. " Severinus, can you forgive me?" " I have nothing to forgive," he replied, gently draw- ing back. "Where are you going?" "To Rome." 322 A TWOFOLD LIFE. " And what takes you to Rome so suddenly?" "I had already resolved to return there some weeks nir<>; only the hope of still winning you for the church, and the hostile mission against Heinrieh, detained me. This hour is the destruction of all my plans. Nothing is left for me to do except to place the papers intrusted to me in the General's bands, and explain to him that I am un- worthy of his confidence, that I am not fit for the busi- ness of the world." "And then, what will happen then?" "Then the General will commit the office I held to an- other, and, if God wills, sanction the penance I shall impose upon myself of voluntary seclusion in the monas- tery during the remainder of my life." " Will you retire from the world, bury yourself within the walls of a cloister !'"' "That I may the more surely rise again in God " "And is such a resolution compatible with your zeal for the order? Suppose your office falls into the hands of A man who will not act with the wisdom and dignity you have shown, who will perhaps injure the interests and authority of your association, would you not re- proach yourself for having been to blame for this injury by resigning the 'holy cause' into unworthy hands?" "There are many among our ranks who are perfectly competent to fill my place ; the General's keen eye will discover the right man. I can perform my duties to the order. Even in the silence of a convent-cell, 1 can write the words with which I should cheer souls and strengthen them in the faith, and, in undisturbed intercourse with the Highest One, they will gain more sanctity and power than in the profane society of the world. Nay, my writings may perhaps influence future generations long after spoken words have died away. Is not such an expectation edifying to true faith? such a resolution the highest victory over our earthly nature?" " A victory ! Ob, Severinus, do not deceive yourself! A spark of the warm life you wish to deny still glows in your breast. Suppose, Severinus, you should perceive too late that you had formed your resolution too early ? Suppose you should long despairingly for a breath of BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 323 freedom, and in the suffocating agony of being walled up alive in the wild struggle of its contending elements, your soul should forget itself and God, and fall into the ap- parently liberating hand of Satan ?" Severinus recoiled a step in horror. " Stop, I implore you 1" But Cornelia's unfettered stream of eloquence would not allow itself to be repressed. " You go into the clois- ter, not because you have conquered, but because you fear to yield ; you go there to fly from the battle, not to rest after the victory ; but that which would have caused the conflict here will go with you, will disturb the peace of your devout solitude ; and you must conquer it with anguish there as well as here, can succumb to it in the narrow convent-cell as well as in God's wide world." Severinus's broad breast heaved painfully. " Oh, God ! my God ! let me withstand this last trial !" he prayed, fervently. " Cornelia, I do not retreat to the cloister on account of the danger, but to fly from the evil I abhor ; that I may no longer see the world that stands between me and heaven, which I hate " " The world to you is mankind ; if you detest the former it is for the sake of the latter. But why ? What have men done to you ? You are a servant of Christ. Does this humanity, which Christ so loved that he suf- fered and bled for it, deserve your love less than the Master's? Why do you scorn the race whose form a God did not hesitate to assume, for which a God bore the tortures of life and death ? Has it injured you more than him ? It has not pressed upon your brow the crown of thorns; it has not nailed you to the cross; and yet he could forgive, while you cannot !" "A God might do this, but I am a man!" "And do you know why you hate mankind? Because you dare not love like a human being. You curse your own earthly nature, because it always opposes your task. You are a man, and would fain be a god ; you have human passions, and desire to practice a divine Re If- sacrifice. This is the fatality of your position, this the foul fiend you fear ! Oh, I know my words fall upon you as the surges dash against a rock, but it seems as if a higher 324 A TWOFOLD LIFE. power urged me on to struggle again and again against the unhappy errors of your church !" " Cornelia," cried Severinus, starting up, " my church does not err, she is infallible I" " But, I tell you, it is an error that Christ has required of his priests what the church demands from you. If Christ was God, it is presumption for you mortals to im- itate his divine persou, and attempt to give the world an example of what you do not attain yourselves. You are merely to announce it and show it in all its beauty in yourselves. But how can you do this, shut off from life behind convent walls ? Only when, like our ministers, in real life, before the eyes of a whole parish, oppressed by the same anxieties, pursued by the same enemies, as- sailed by the same temptations as all, you can practice the virtues you preach, will you become a true represen- tative of the Christian religion, will you have a right to require of others what was not too difficult for yourself, and be what Christ desires, a true, perfect man !" Severinus hastily approached the door : his whole man- ner betrayed tokens of violent emotion. " I dare not listen to you longer, terrible, dangerous woman ! God sees my anguish that I cannot save your soul, make your noble powers useful to the good cause. In you all the hostile powers of the world assume a bodily form ; in you I have convinced myself that I am no match for them, and only the repentance of a whole life can atone for the weakness !" "Must I, then, lose you forever ?" "Forever! But my prayers will be with you, implore the protection of the Holy Virgin for you." His voice trembled. " God cannot let such a soul go to de- struction !" He turned and, with averted face, opened the door. Then Cornelia's sincere affection burst forth in all its fervor ; she rushed up to him, threw her arms around his neck, and with childlike contrition laid her bead upon his breast. "Will you go without a farewell ?" she cried, sobbing. "Ah, Severinus, a deep, inexpressible pity for you overwhelms me 1 Poor, noble man, I loved vou so dearly!" REGENERATION. 325 Severinus stood as if a thunderbolt had struck him ; he did not move a finger, did not clasp Cornelia to his heart or push her from him. But suddenly a cry of anguish burst from his compressed lips, so full of torture that Cornelia's very soul was filled with terror, and she no longer ventured to detain him when, as if driven by some mortal dread, he hurried away. Late at night, before she went to rest, she saw him wandering about in the storm and rain, and before dawn he entered the carriage which bore him away from Cor- nelia forever. He traveled without pausing until he reached Home, where he delivered the papers to the General ; confessed, resigned his office, and entered the Casa al Gesu as a monk, to atone by the strictest seclu- sion for the crime of being 1 a man. XXIV. REGENERATION. WHILE Cornelia was confidently looking forward to a meeting with Ottmar, proud in the consciousness of having repelled all the attacks of his enemies, Heinrich was tortured by uncertainty in regard to her fate. Ever since his return home, he had lived exclusively on his estates, engaged in making preparations for his new call- ing. In this complete seclusion from the world, whose influence had been so hostile to Cornelia, engrossed by the ideas of which she was the charming representative, he fed his longing for her more and more. At every step in his new career he had expected some sign of life from her, but in vain. His hope began to waver. He knew that she was in the hands of the Jesuits, and trembled lest her young, susceptible soul, her easily excited fancy, should not remain closed to their influences, for then she would be irrecoverably torn from him. He had fulfilled every condition mentioned in her letter. It was not pos- sible that she still loved him if, after all this, she still 28 326 A TWOFOLD LIFE. persisted in her obstinate silence. A deep melancholy began to overpower him once more; his prospects lay before him like a region destitute of sunlight; his whole career would lack purpose if Cornelia was not won again. As yet no success had crowned his efforts. He had no anticipation of the happiness he would feel if he could some day consider himself as the true benefactor of a whole nation. The quiet labor for his new vocation did not yet satisfy him, and he therefore founded all his hopes upon his entrance into parliament, and longed for the day of election as the last limit Cornelia had perhaps allowed herself. One day, in his restlessness, he drove into the city to divert bis thoughts. He wished to visit the Exhibition, and as he went up the broad staircase of the museum he noticed with secret pleasure that people whispered to each other, "That is Ottmarl" and looked at him with interest and approval. He entered the large hall where reigned the solemn silence with which meu receive into their souls the wonders of art. The first and second rooms were empty of spectators. The dead and yet lifelike forms upon the walls looked down upon him with their eternal laughing, weeping, or anger. An ex- hibition is a mute world of a brilliant-hued medley of times, customs, and passions, petrified as if by some magic, and imprisoned in frames, condemned to remain motionless in the attitude assumed at the moment when the spell began to work. There a Magdalen repents with inexhaustible tears ; yonder a Roman maiden allures, ever unsuccessfully, with her motionless, half- opened lips; and here an Alva rages in implacable fury, while close by a Huss burns in never-dying flames; below a wolf snaps in unappeasable hunger at a child, which, fortunately, he will never reach ; a mother seeks to tear it away, and cannot draw it to her protecting breast ; the poor woman is condemned to perpetual dread, and the spectator with her. Not far away is and will forever remain a pair of lovers in the act of exchanging a kiss. Upon the other side ships struggle with waves, nations contend in a never-decided battle, a vanquished man awaits the death-stroke of the conqueror, and high up, on a golden background, flooded by the light that REGENERATION. 327 streams through the glass dome, is enthroned the Virgin, iu her calm peace, surrounded by her heavenly glory. All the passions, joys, griefs, and hopes of humanity, fixed and beautified by the power of genius, displayed themselves to Heinrich's wandering gaze, but his thoughts dwelt only with Cornelia; nay, it even seemed as if here and there he found some resemblance to her. One picture had her eyes, another her profile or her mouth, her brow. He fancied he saw her everywhere; it was doubtless a trick of his excited imagination, or the likeness all regular beauties bear to each other. He passed on into the third hall, which was crowded. Two oil-paintings attracted the especial attention of the public, and the universal verdict pronounced them to be the best in the Exhibition. It was difficult for him to make his way in, but he could scarcely trust his eyes when he saw one of them, for it was Cornelia again ; the likeness was so speaking that no doubt was possible, and the figure of Severinus beside her was equally unmistakable. Both were really only minor accessories to a beautiful land- scape, but painted in a most masterly manner. They were standing under lofty trees which formed the fore- ground, by the shore of a lake, which, surrounded by beautiful mountain-peaks, stretched out into the back- ground. Severinus had one arm extended, pointing to a church-tower almost shrouded in mist. Cornelia, with clasped hands, was looking up into his lace, in the catalogue, the work was merely named "View of the Ch See, by A ." Heinrich could not understand it ; and when an ac- quaintance came up and called his attention to the other famous painting, he turned carelessly towards it ; but his astonishment was inexpressible, as here also he found Cornelia. The figures were life-size. The picture repre- sented the moment before a novice assumes the garb of a nun. She was leaning upon the window-sill of a gloomy convent-room, gazing up towards heaven, whose brilliant blue gleamed through the bars, while a green branch, ,- waved by the wind, tossed against the rusty iron gratings. The artist, by a singular fancy, had drawn his principal figure with her back towards the spectators, 328 A TWOFOLD LIFE. probably to show in all its magnificence the beautiful brown hair which was so soon to fall under the scissors. But the bright panes of the window, which opened in- wards, revealed the face, upraised in fervent prayer. This face was Cornelia's, as well as the hair he had so often stroked ; the youthful neck, which the thin under- garment she was soon to cover with the nun's dress, lying close by, clearly revealed, and which he had so often admired. He rubbed his eyes ; he looked again and again ; it was still Cornelia. A gloomy, haggard prioress was in the act of advancing with the scissors, and a sweet-faced young nun was gazing with evident com- passion at the beautiful, devout novice. " Is it not a true work of genius ?" said Heinricli's companion. " The expression of enthusiastic devotion in the face reflected in the window, and the wonderfully painted hair! One really dreads the moment when that stern, unfeeling prioress will cut it off!" " By whom was the picture painted ?'' asked Heinrich. " By a B artist of the name of Richard " " Does any one know whom he had for a model ?" "No; he keeps it a profound secret. I could almost believe he has Heaven knows howl witnessed such a scene. People don't create such things purely from imagination." Heinrich made no reply, and his acquaintance, per- ceiving his strange emotion, withdrew. Ottmar went from one picture to another; but reflect and consider as he would, one thing only was clear to him, that Cornelia must have sat to these artists herself, for such a resemblance could not be accidental ; and although the window-panes in one picture reflected her face but dimly, it was all the more unmistakable in the other, and Severinus too. So in this way she had con- sented to make known to the world her connection with Jesuitism ! She must consider these relations an honor of which she publicly boasted, and this she could not do unless she had been converted to Catholicism. unless they had impressed upon her mind the dogma of the supremacy and infallibility of the one saving church. There was a mysterious connection of ideas between the REGENERATION. 329 two pictures ; and although he would not give- way to it, it oppressed his heart with a torturing dread. The words " people don't create such things purely from imagination" still rang in his ears. Suppose the artist had really taken the idea of his work from the fact that Cornelia, whom he perhaps painted a short time before, had entered a convent? In conditions of the soul like that into which he had cast Cornelia, where the whole existence is pervaded with pain, and every foundation is shaken, the seeds of the Jesuits thrive best; in such moods they most easily obtain a mastery over man. Now, for the first time, it occurred to him that her letter had been redolent of that pride of self-sacrifice, which, after great conflicts, chills so many a young heart, and drives it into the nursery of such virtues, the convent. Suppose Cornelia had gone so far? It was not impos- sible ! Her enthusiasm in everything, especially her zealous desire to be of use, the inclination to sacrifice herself for great ideas which she had so often shown, her. susceptibility to the poesy of religion, all this seemed to him material enough to form an agent of the church ; and as the psychological fathers would not have ventured to send such a fiery genius into the world, they had per- haps taken advantage of some moment of weakness to imprison her in one of the convents which lead young girls "to the heart of Jesus." The more Heinfich thought of this, the more probable and clear it appeared. Urged on by his agony, he hastened to ascertain the residences of the two artists. He wished to buy the pictures in spite of their extremely high price, wished to learn some particulars about Cornelia. He would and must have some certainty; he could not bear this terrible doubt. He wrote to Richard and A , but at the same time to Cornelia, addressing the letter to the Ch See. Perhaps the people there knew her present residence and could send it to her. The reply of the artist A was extremely unsatis- factory. He would give no account -of the manner in which he had succeeded in obtaining the portrait, for he had stolen her features on that first morning by the lake, when Cornelia, thinking herself unobserved, had walked 28* 330 A TWOFOLD LIFE. upon the shore with Severinus. Richard wrote : "The lady had been painted from memory, and he had really tii Uen the subject of his picture from the fact lhat she had entered a convent, where she had been kept rigidly secluded, since no information concerning her had been obtained." So she had really entered a convent, and there was no possibility of learning any further particulars! Hein- rich's condition was pitiable. To wait to do nothing but wait with this burning longing and uncertainty in bis breast, for an event which perhaps might never occur, to hope for a fortunate dispensation that perhaps was already baffled, such was his fate! He lived in a feverish dream, but forced himself to enter with all his powers into what would promote the decision of his fate, his election to the parliament. The newspapers men- tioned his name in connection with those of the most honored patriots; and if Cornelia still had free control .over herself, she must at least be touched by the loyalty with which he struggled to reach the prescribed goal; if she were silent, then there could be no doubt that she was lost to him. Just at that time the blow Cornelia had vainly sought to avert suddenly fell upon him. The Jesuits executed their threats, but this time in a different way from that Severinus bad adopted years before. The organ of ultramontauism in H printed an article beaded, " Contributions to the Traits of Character of a New Candidate." This essay contained a biography of Ottmar, from the time of his entrance into the Jesuit college to that of his present change of opinions, which, in animosity, distortion offsets, and compromising indis- cretions, surpassed everything for which Ottmar had given them credit. The style was in the so-called inter- eU of the nation, so often merely the cloak beneath which partisan writers strive to win the applause of the masses; but the worst part of all was that the author, Geheimrath Schwelling, who years before had played so contemptible a part as Severinus's companion in the inter- view with Heinrich, offered to exhibit to any one who might desire it written proofs of most of his accusations. There was no lack of crtdu'ous and doubtful persons who R EGENERA TION. 331 wished to convince themselves with their own eyes. The Geheimrath's house became the rendezvous of the curious of all parties, and the papers Severinus had returned to the General for a more worth}' use passed from hand to hand. The matter made all the greater excitement on account of tlie great expectations which had been fixed upon Ottmar. The sheet containing the scandalous article had an immense circulation ; and although the cultivated portion of the community turned with disgust from its coarse tone, the facts were not to be denied, and people shrugged their shoulders doubtfully. But the lower classes even gave credence to the charges, in con- sequence of the amusement the commonplace wit of the style afforded them. In vain Ottmar's friends printed articles in Jiis defense ; in vain his banker proved that he had spent the greater portion of his property in purchasing expensive agricultural implements, which he allowed all the country people in the neighborhood to use gratis, and for other national purposes; it was now an easy matter for his enemies to convince the suspicious masses that a man who had gone from rationalism to Jesuitism, then back ag;iin to the former, next to despotism, and finally to liberalism once more, was not to be trusted in any relation. " Hold psychological discussions about the motives which forced you to deny your convictions, you will be laughed at, and your name will be branded before all parties," Severinus had said contemptuously years before, and now the result proved how completely he had been in the right. The facts spoke against him, and he could not succeed in giving the people a correct under- standing of them, because he had only words, no con- tradictory proofs at his command. Even the sincerity with which in N he had stood forth in behalf of the constitution was no longer acknowledged, for the scan- dalous article rendered even this deed suspected as a mere prudential measure. He had perceived that he could no longer hold his ground against the progressive party, and therefore took sides with them in time. This belief appeared only too probable in the case of a man v.'hose life had been so full of contradictions. The con-, titit/nce which had just been obtained was shaken ; the 332 A TWOFOLD LIFE. voters began to hesitate. Many forgot what they owed him since his return ; others made all the acknowledg- ments of his services as a public benefactor which were his due ; but even they did not wish to elect, as the rep- resentative of the most important interests, one whose politics were doubtful. The day of decision came and crowned his enemies' labors with success. Ottmar was defeated by a large majority. He saw himself scorned, insulted; all his hopes crushed, his honor lost; and she for whom he suffered such intolerable torments, who alone could repay him for what he had lost, Cornelia, was silent ! For love of her he had sacrificed everything ; for love of her entered the path which was to lead him to find an abundant reward for ignominy in her arms; and day by day elapsed without bringing any tidings, con- vincing him more and more that she was torn from him, that he had gained nothing save the fruits of his sins. Every morning he went to meet the postman, who brought the letters to his estate, and always in vain. Fourteen times since the election he had borne the tor- tures of renewed and disappointed hope, had rushed towards the postman in breathless haste only to return with empty hands. He had lain awake on his couch all through the long nights, and welcomed the first ray of light as a preserver from his feverish, agonizing impatience. One morning this restlessness drove him out even earlier than usual, for it was the anniversary of the day on which Cornelia had left him. Perhaps she would give herself to him again on this day ; perhaps she bad waited for it intentionally. One who has hoped and expected so long at last clings to every conceivable possibility. Thus Ottmar's feet were winged with double speed as he hur- ried through pleasure-grounds and woodlands, to obtain that for which be longed a half-hour earlier. Wearied with his haste, be emerged from the thicket upon the highway. A fresh autumn breeze was rustling through the tops of the poplars, bending their stiff boughs asun- der like the fingers of menacing giant hands. The broad, level road, with its dazzling white sand, stretched before him, endless and empty, the storm had swept it clean ; nothing was to be seen on the wide plain, and Oitmar REGENERATION. 333 hurried restlessly onward. Just at that moment the dark figure of the postman appeared in the distance, and with a beating heart Heinrich quickened his pace. At last he reached the man, who was already holding out his bag; but again he was disappointed, it contained no- thing but unimportant business letters. The last possi- bility of hope had now disappeared ; now he could no longer doubt that Richard had written the truth, that Cornelia was in a convent. His measure was full. The Nemesis he had so long seemed to escape had overtaken him, and he must pa- tiently endure her fury with fettered hands. Fortune, love, honor, all were lost, irrevocably lost, and every accusation he wished to heap upon others recoiled upon himself. He was the cause of his own misery, he alone. Fate had given him everything he desired ; but he had only demanded that which contained the germ of his ruin. No disaster had befallen him which was not the punishment of a crime. Absorbed in these reflections,, the deeply-humbled man slowly returned and reached the wood. The bright rays of the autumn sunlight fell through the branches and made the yellow leaves glitter like gold ; the farther he went the more quiet and pleas- ant it became. The withered foliage, alternated with the dark-green hue of a dense grove of firs; the forest mur- mured and whispered to him in a soothing tone, he did not hear it, did not remember that the enchanted ground he entered was his own property ; his heart remained closed, no source of comfort could force an entrance. In silent agony the man was collecting his thoughts to pass a stern, hopeless judgment upon himself. A bench stood beside a beautiful forest stream ; he in- voluntarily turned towards it, and sat down with his face turned towards the rushing water. He did not think of going home: he had one no longer; the house in which he lived contained nothing dear to him ; the whole woi'ld had no spot where love and joy awaited him, where he would be missed ; if he remained away, society had no place for him to fill, no interests which it would confide to him. What was he better than an outcast, a homeless man ? Could he endure the disgrace of such a life ? Was 334 A TWOFOLD LIFE. it not more honorable to extinguish it in 'the pure current of this stream ? Who would lose, from whom would he take anything, if he cast off the burden of a hated, pur- poseless existence? And yet God had so endowed him that, his death must have made a void in the world, if he had been to it what he ought. He gazed down into the murmuring water, which incessantly glided by him pur- sued by the wind; his soul allowed itself to be carried on by the waves like a loosened vine. The eternally chang- ing movement before his eyes made him giddy; he looked away, and now, for the first time, became aware to. what thoughts he had involuntarily yielded. Did no power then live in him except that of despising and destroying himself? Could he atone for his faults by committing a crime against himself? Should he steal away like an unfaithful steward who allowed the property intrusted to his care to go to ruin ? Should he add to the dishonor which had fallen upon his name the eternal disgrace of suicide, incur Cornelia's contempt, because lie could not bear the loss of her love? No, he had not fallen so low as not to repel such a thought with a blush. But what could, what ought he to do now, since the only profession for which his education and studies fitted him that of poli tics wasclosed to him in every direction? A quiet, inactive, private life, which but a few hours be- fore, in the hope of a marriage with Cornelia, had ap- peared endurable, now seemed to him a moral death. He did not understand nature, the occupations of an agri- culturist had no charms for him. Should he turn his estates into money, and invest it in some other way ? But in what? All the pleasures that can be purchased he had already enjoyed to the dregs ; life could afford him nothing more. The egotist had reached the end of his career, and could neither advance nor recede. Crushed and helpless, he looked back upon his past life, and now the point at which he had turned from the right path re- vealed itself to his searching gaze. The hours stood forth before bis soul when he had struggled in his first conflict between inclination and duty, and inclination had con- quered. All the strange, feverish fancies once more rose before his memory, and he perceived that they were the REGENERATION. 335 voices of fiis own heart which had spoken to him in the forms of delirium. Now he understood now, after it was fulfilled what they had said. With the first false step to which egotism urged him, he was lost. The frivolity with which he had degraded the first woman he loved, to be the prey of his passion, robbed him of his best possession, respect for the sex. Thus every base materialism, which only sought the enjoyment of the senses and thereby often formed the sharpest contrast with the demands of his intellectual nature, developed itself. The more frequently this conflict occurred, the greater it became, the further the two extremes became separated from each other, and the more distinctly their characteristics were stamped. The more the feelings were severed from the intellect, the -lower they sank into sensuality, the stronger the passions became, and the more peremptorily they demanded their victim; while, on the other hand, the more exclusively the intellect withdrew into its own sphere, the further it banished the feelings, the colder and more obstinate it became, the more dull to everything which did not concern its own advantage, and therefore the more unprincipled. From this sprang the crimes which Henri on the one hand, and Heinrich on the other, had committed, whose conse- quences now drove him to despair, and had even terrified and driven from him forever the only woman for whom both extremes longed with equal ardor. Thus the cause of all the evil in bis whole mistaken life was the separa- tion between the mind and heart; the pleasure-seeking of the one, the immoderate ambition of the other, was the cnrse which had sprung from this division, the form under which egotism had taken possession of both portions of his nature. And of what he had enjoyed and obtained nothing was left! His life had been fruitless to him- self as well as to others. He had deceived and sacrificed confiding natures, and brought a nation to ruin for the sake of tasting the delights of ruling; the pleasure was over, and the curses of the unhappy accompanied him. Everything life could offer was exhausted, drained, and worn out! All the threads by which the heart draws its nourishment from the world were cut off and withered. 336 A TWOFOLD LIFE. He now felt the deep truth of what Cornelia had wished to teach him, what he had once in a dream bodingly an- ticipated: " Remember that the end of life is neither to enjoy nor to obtain, but to be useful and accomplish good works." But now, when this great knowledge seized upon him, when he perceived the fruitlessness of all selfish efforts, now when a powerful impulse urged him to do what mankind, and accomplish what God, could ask of him, now it was too late ; every path was closed, and the woman who alone could restore harmony to his na- ture, lost! The guilt of the past had destroyed the hope of the future. He rested his forehead upon his hand and closed his eyes ; he could form no plans for the future, while repent- ance and anguish stirred his heart so violently the first true repentance, the first great sorrow, of his life. True, his powers rose and expanded in the struggle with the unknown enemy as they had never done before, and the mighty assault of the contending elements widened and swelled his breast, as if now for the first time he became a man, now for the first time there was room in his heart for lofty feelings, resolutions, and efforts; true, the con- sciousness of the strength ennobled and increased by sorrow conquered for a moment : but as if with this, the longing for the nature that had always guided him towards the right path strengthened, the thoughts of Cornelia's loss once more gathered in the depths of his soul to break over him with renewed violence. What could life still offer him ? There was no longer any love like Cornelia's, any mind like hers, any woman who could compare with her. He felt that this sorrow would never die; that he might perhaps obtain honor, but never happiness again. He threw himself despairingly upon the bench, face downward. The stream hurried along at his feet, plashing and glittering; the birds looked down from the branches at the tall, quiet man, turned their heads inquisitively, and softly twittered a timid question. Far above his head the summits of the ancient h'rs rustled and told the azure sky of the sorrow concealed beneath their shade. Softly and slowly the bushes near him parted, he did REGENERATION. 337 not hear it, and a slender girlish form glided over the soft moss with a light step ; cautiously approached, and as she stood beside him, bent down, holding her breath. Her glances beamed through tears, and she trembled like a wild roso under the morning dew. Heinrich heard a heart beating close beside his ear, felt his head raised and pressed to a heaving bosom ; looked into a pair of eyes like two shining worlds. It was no dream, and yet he could not utter a sound ; all that he thought and felt blended together in an unspeakable something, which swelled his heart with glowing warmth, rose higher and higher till it reached his eyes, overflowed as if his whole soul was gushing forth with it : he had wept his first tears upon Cornelia's breast, and holding her in a mute embrace reveled in this unspeakable bliss ! The noonday sun shone brightly and glowed through the ripe clusters of grapes which hung from a trellis that surrounded the steward's pretty little house not far from Ottmar's castle. A charming young woman stood in the doorway, looking with eager expectation towards the forest ; the steward was working busily in the garden, but he, too, often glanced into the distance. " I don't understand where they could stay so long, if they met each other," said the little woman, at last. " It would be a pity if she missed him. I grieve over every hour the poor master is obliged to spend in his sorrow." "Yes," gasped the man, wiping his brow, "it was time for her to show herself; the master's melancholy manner and wretched looks were becoming the talk of the whole neighborhood ; and, after all, she couldn't have been kept concealed much longer: we were always in a fright." He threw his tools aside, Went up to his wife, and put his arm around her neck. " You would not have borne seeing me suffer so long, would you, my Roschen?" She nestled fondly to his side and nodded. " No, in- deed, my dear Albert ! But these great people are very different from us. Cornelia has a grand, noble soul, which \ve must not judge by our own." " You are right; it would not be proper for us to apply P 29 338 A TWOFOLD LIFE. our standard to them. Let us thank God we are made as is needful for our situation and welfare." " Yes, thank God for it !" cried Iloschen, joyously. " Oh, Albert ! how unhappy these aristocratic people often make themselves with their over-refinement and their lofty requirements ! I saw that in my poor dead princess. Heaven knows what sorrow was gnawing at her heart I According to my ideas, she might have been very happy ; but it often seemed as if she did not wish to be. At any rate, it was a very aristocratic sorrow. If she had been in our condition in life, and had not had so much time to give way to her thoughts, she would undoubtedly be alive now." " Well, those two at least are not making themselves wretched/' laughed Albert, pointing to Cornelia and Heinrich, who were rapidly approaching. The married pair modestly withdrew, and Cornelia and Heinrich, absorbed in delightful conversation, reached the house, and entered a pleasant little room on the ground floor. " See, Heinrich, here is the hiding-place where I waited for three weeks. From behind the curtains of that window I saw you pass, day after day, and watched your face with a throbbing heart. Will you forgive me for be- coming a spy upon you ? I wished, I was obliged, first to discover whether you were at last a man to whom I might dare to intrust my fate, whether you still loved me, and whether in my affection I should offer you a welcome gift. I was obliged to give you time to collect your thoughts after the blow that had fallen upon you, and to raise yourself by your own might. If you had shown yourself to my secretly watchful gaze otherwise than I hoped, otherwise than I might dare to love you, I should have gone away as I came, unobserved by you ; perhaps with a broken heart, but silently and for- ever." " You would have gone as already many a happiness has fled from the threshold of him who did not deserve it," said Heinrich, clasping her closely in his arms. " Oh, God, my salvation and my ruin were both so near ! Your eyes watched me like those of God, and if I had REG EN ERA TION. 339 not stood the test you would have left me for the second time, and been irrevocably lost to me." "Ah, I did not doubt that you would stand the test ! A man has rarely made greater sacrifices for a woman than you for me in the course of this last year; for I clearly perceived that you would never have acted as you have done if it had not been for my sake. But for your love for me you would in a few years have conquered your longing for a higher satisfaction, and remained till the end of your days in the cold splendor of your position at the court of N . Love for me I may be al- lowed to say so, since it is no merit of mine was the impulse that led you to take the first steps in another path. It guided you hither, and I did not fear that it would desert you now, when it was apparently leading you into misery. But a noble woman asks more than love from the man of her choice : she demands character, firmness in misfortune as well as prosperity, the power which is to be her support and protection, the greatness to which she can cheerfully submit, admiringly look up. It is a necessity of our natures to honor what we love ; in this humility lies our pride. If we cannot truly con- sider the man to whom we belong far superior to us, we feel humiliated in acknowledging him as our master. That is why I remained concealed so long ; I wished to investigate your whole life and conduct here, to see what influence you exerted, whether you did good and made those around you happy, what pleasures and employ- meflb you choose, how you would bear the misfortune that had fallen upon you. And what I saw and heard convinced me that you had entered upon your new call- ing not only in appearance, but reality ; that you had become a man to whom I might confidently give myself. Yet the tears you have just shed told me more than all. With these tears a new and better man was born in you ; they have atoned for every wrong, washed away every spot. Ah, if the bigoted priests who believe you a lost soul had witnessed that one moment, they would have under- stood that there is something holy outside their church !" "Cornelia," cried Heinrich, "dear, precious girl, say no more to me about the Jesuits ! Although I bear no 340 A TWOFOLD LIFE. ill-will towards the unhappy Severinus, whom you have taught me to know as my brother, although I forgive the intrigues they plotted against me, I will never pardon them for having torn you from me and attempted to make you a proselyte, for having intrusted you for so long a time to that handsome, dangerous Severinus, whose perhaps unintentional conquests over women's hearts are well known to the order. I can only consider it as a miracle that you remained faithful to me." Cornelia smilingly shook the hair back from her brow. " The miracle is nothing more than that I have a faithful heart and a firm head." " Those are the highest gifts a woman can possess. And this jewel has fallen to my lot, mine of all others ; this loyal, sorely wounded heart clung to me; this proud firm brow, no power has ever humiliated, bent to nil'. Oh, Cornelia, strong, gentle, forgiving woman, no man ever yet repented more deeply, or was more truly grateful, than I repent my crimes and thank you for your love ! A thousand others in your place would either have been dragged down by me, or cast me off forever; but you would not permit yourself to be misled by all my faults and sins, you believed in a noble germ within me. Instead of punishing, you reformed me, have been faith- ful to me; and now give yourself to me as trustfully and freely as in the first moment of our love. Oh, girl, there is no word for this bliss! my thoughts are whelmed in a sea of emotions !" He paused and laid his head upon hers, as if he wished to rest from his overmastering emo^n. " Heinrich," said Cornelia, with deep, loving, earnest- ness, " let the past rest ; the Heinrich to whom I always belonged, and shall as long as I live, never wronged me ; he suffered with me when that other came between and tore us from each other. That Count Ottmar, whose wife I never wished to become, has atoned for his fault ; he is dead. Never conjure up his gloomy shade befare me, even to arraign him, I beseech you." " Yes, my angel, you are right. Xever was it so clear to me as to-day that I bore my worst enemy in myself, and in the last few hours I have buried him forever. One complete in himself, Cornelia, receives you in his arms ; it REG EN ERA TION. 341 shall be his one task to live for you and your happiness; he no longer seeks or hopes for anything but you and a quiet family happiness, unnoticed, but rich in blessing." Cornelia looked at him in astonishment. " Would you renounce politics and every manly profession ?" "How can I help it? What can I begin after this failure? My political credit is ruined here as well as elsewhere. What can it avail to convince myself .more and more that I cannot make amends for my errors in this province ? But here," he laid his hand on Cornelia's shoulder, "here, thank God, I can atone for the wrongs I have committed ; here I can and will prove that I have become a different man !" "No, Heiurich," cried Cornelia, deeply touched. " I thank you for these words, and for the cheerfulness with which you hope to find in me a compensation for all ; but I think too highly of you to be able to share this hope. No wife, not even the most beloved, can make that super- fluous for which her husband was born: to work in a lofty vocation. What you 'now feel, in the first ebullition f Jy. J ou cannot always experience. The storm that now fills your heart now will subside in time, and the calm which will then follow would at last make you find a void in yourself. You are no ' shepherd,' Heinrich. An idyllic, private life would not long satisfy you ; a quiet withdrawal into your own family circle, a limiting of your- self to that which is personally dear to you, would be again an egotistical, and therefore only a partial, happi- neai You possess the power of solving comprehensive problems. Every power imperiously demands its right to assert itself; if the opportunity is denied, it turns destructively against the barriers imposed upon it, and that which is also within them. Thus it would be with you and our peace. Woe betide the wife who believe* that she can and must be the whole world to her husband ! She does not understand his larger nature, and will only make herself or him unhappy. I do not belong to that class. I pride myself in taking into account all the just demands of your character, thus only can I make you happy. I will not regret you in the hours your profession claims, for I shall take possession of you doubly in spirit, 29* 342 A TWOFOLD LIFE. when I know you to be toiling for that for which I myself would fain strive with all my powers, and must not because I am a womanf I will not bewail the time you take from me to give to mankind, for I love all men far too much to grudge them what you can do for their welfare. And then, Heinrich," she laid her head on bis breast, and gazed into his face with a bride's ardent love, "then when you return home to your wife, weary but joyous in the consciousness of duty fulfilled, then you shall rest in my arms, in my faithful love, and let me have the proud belief that my heart is the soil from which the roots of your life draw nourishment for the glorious fruits that you permit the world to reap 1" " Cornelia, glorious creature ! What a picture you con- jure up before the soul I These are divine revelations, and I will follow them uuquestioningly. Yes, I will begin anew ; guide me with your inspired, prophetic glance, lead me to the path upon which my first step faltered ; you alone know what is for my welfare." He gazed long and earnestly into her eyes. " Ob, do not reproach me as unmanly because I give myself up entirely to you, since through you I first became what I am, through you alone I first learned to perceive in laboring for others a duty, an object, in life ! The representatives of these noble ideas are principally women ; for to labor and care for others is woman's mission, to sacrifice herself for others' interests her greatest power. The man who allows him- self to be guided by a woman need not become womanish, nor the woman masculine. If, like you, Cornelia, she rises above her narrow subjective world to ideas which comprehend all humanity, she confers the qualities in- herent in her upon them, and then doubtless becomes capable of guiding the more egotistical man to honest efforts for the race, self-sacrifice, and true philanthropy ! Thus the strength of your love and virtue, in one word, your lofty womanhood, draws me upward." He threw his arms around her and pressed her ardently to his heart. " Cornelia, my betrothed bride, oh, tell me again and again that I can never lose you, that you are mine!" She clasped her hands. " Forever ! forever ! and may God's blessing be with us!" REGENERATION. 343 "Amen !" said Heinrich. Thus the power of a genuine love had healed the secret conflict in Ottmar. Intellect and sensuous feel- ings, both equally attracted, equally satisfied, united iu the same object, and in the soft atmosphere of a true happiness his shattered nature healed into a symmetrical whole. The ghostly apparitions of his dual existence disap- peared before the reality of an all-reconciling feeling which seized upon the inmost kernel of life, and from this brought forth the source of never-failing joy. When the whole man was in harmony with himself, his long-scattered^and dispersed powers concentrated in the depths of his soul, and now for the first time showed unity of purpose and noble, honest action : for the first time he became a man. And when he thus once more appeared before the world with head erect, he conquered ; for real ability and honest convictions always find allies in the natural instincts of the people, and against these even the hostility of the Jesuits was powerless. The web they had entwined around him was only that of his own cowardice and duplicity. His manly conduct at last tore it asunder. He was now free, and his purified character afforded no opening for a new snare. After a few years he saw the noblest ambition gratified, that of being useful and accomplishing some good result. He was the main support of the party in favor of the consti- tution, averted a threatening reaction by his ready dia- lectics, felt the mighty breath of an applauding nation hoveriog like a vivifying spring-storm about his head, and everywhere, far and wide, saw the seeds springing up which his reawakened philanthropy had sown. And with inexpressible joy ne clasped his blooming wife in his arms, compared the lifeless splendor of the former minister with the warm, evermore richly develop- ing activity of the simple deputy, and his full heart gratefully overflowed in the proud words, " Yes, my wife, you were right ; it is not what the world is to us, but what we are to the world, that is the measure of our happiness." THE END. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-32m-8,'57(.C8680s4)444 PT 2358 H3D7E Hi Hern - A twofold PT 2358 H3D7E 001 179 67g"