Part 56 (1/2)
”I will do all I can,” exclaimed Andreas, profoundly moved; ”and the good G.o.d sent you to me to-day, for to-day I can help you.--Can I not, Doeninger?”
”You refer to the Bavarian officer whom you are going to send to Munich?” asked Doeninger.
”Yes, the Bavarian officer is to procure their release,” exclaimed Andreas. ”Look at the fortunate coincidence, Lizzie! Among the prisoners we took on Mount Isel was a Bavarian captain, a sensible, excellent man, who, it seems to me, sympathizes cordially with the cause of the Tyrolese. We resolved to release him on parole and send him to Munich, where he was to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, and maybe bring about an amicable understanding between us and the King of Bavaria. The Bavarian captain--I believe his name is Ulrich- -”
”Ulrich?” asked Eliza, trembling, and blus.h.i.+ng deeply.
”I believe that is his name,” said Hofer, quietly; ”his other name I have forgotten; we call him only Captain Ulrich, as you call me Andreas. Well, Captain Ulrich has already received his instructions and the list of prisoners whose release he is to advocate. It will only remain for us to add Hohenberg's name to the list, and you yourself, my Lizzie, shall urge Captain Ulrich to restore to you the old baron and your friend Elza.--Pray, dearest Cajetan, go and fetch the captain; he was to set out in an hour, and he must, therefore, be here yet.”
”He is certainly here yet, for there are his papers, which I intended to take to him, and without which he cannot depart,” said Doeninger. ”And here is the list of the prisoners whose release he is to procure.”
”Add to it the names of the old baron and his daughter, Cajetan, and state that their release is urgently desired.”
”But for whom are they to be exchanged?”
”Yes, yes, for whom? Well, for Captain Ulrich himself. If he procures their release, and returns. .h.i.ther, as he solemnly swore be would, with the reply of the Bavarian government, and, perhaps, brings the old baron and his daughter with him, he shall be free and at liberty to go wherever he pleases. Go, Cajetan, say that to the captain, and give him the papers, and repeat to him once more all that he is to do. And you, Lizzie, will you not send by him a note to your friend? But it is true, you have not yet written a letter to her. It is better for you to tell him what he is to say in your name to your friend.--Go, therefore, Cajetan, take the papers to the captain, and conduct him to Lizzie. But do not bring him in here, for there are in the anteroom still a great many persons whom I must see before I can converse further with you. Take him, therefore, into the other room; and when he is there, return to me, Cajetan.
Lizzie may then go in there and see the captain; and we shall speak with the poor people in the audience-room who have had to wait already so long to-day.--But I shall not let you go again, my Lizzie,” added Hofer, after Doeninger had left the room; ”no, I shall not let you go again. You must stay with me at the palace here, and be my dear little daughter until the captain returns from his mission, and until you know if he brings your friend and her father along with him. Will you do so, Lizzie?”
”I will, dear father Andreas; I will stay with you until then, and take care of you as a good daughter, until my dear Elza, if it please G.o.d, returns, when I will go back with her to Windisch- Matrey.”
At this moment Doeninger re-entered the room. ”The captain is in the room yonder,” he said, pointing to a side-door; ”he awaits you, and will set out after seeing you. The carriage is already at the door.
Go, therefore, Eliza Wallner.”
”I am going already,” said Eliza. She nodded to Andreas with a sweet smile and opened the door of the adjoining room, while Doeninger admitted another person from the audience-room into Hofer's cabinet.
The room which Eliza entered was one of the large state apartments of the palace, which Andreas did not occupy, and which he used only on rare occasions. It was a wide room with heavy silken hangings on the walls; curtains of the same description covered the windows, so that only a dim twilight reigned in the large apartment. Magnificent gilt furniture lined the walls; between the windows stood large Venetian mirrors in broad carved golden frames, and gorgeous l.u.s.tres of rock-crystal were suspended from the ceiling.
Was it the splendor and magnificence surrounding her all at once that rendered Eliza so timid and anxious? She leaned for a moment in great embarra.s.sment against the door, as if she could not venture to advance on the glittering floor. Her large, bright eyes glanced uneasily around the great room, and now she saw in the window-niche yonder the tall form of a gentleman; his head was averted from her, and he seemed to be looking eagerly out of the window.
”I do not know him; surely, I do not know him,” said Eliza to herself. ”It is foolish in me to think so; be strong, therefore, my heart, strong and calm, and do not throb so very impetuously!”
And overcoming her bashfulness with a courageous effort, she advanced toward the officer, who was still turning his back upon her.
Now she was close behind him, and said in a low, bashful voice: ”Captain, I--”
He turned quickly, and gazed at her with eyes radiant with joy and intense love.
Eliza uttered a cry; she raised her hands involuntarily, made a step forward, and lay in his arms before knowing it; she felt his burning kisses on her lips, in her heart, and thought and knew nothing but-- ”It is he! It is he! I see him again! He still loves me!”
”See, dearest Eliza,” whispered Ulrich, drawing her close to his heart, ”I had to act thus in order to elicit your heavenly secret from you. I knew it was you who wished to see me; I wanted to take you by surprise, and I succeeded. Your surprise betrayed what the timid and chaste lips of my Eliza would not confess to me. Yes, you love me! Oh, deny it no longer, for your heart betrayed you when you recognized me, and when joy illuminated your face like a bright ray of suns.h.i.+ne. Now you are mine, Eliza, and nothing on earth must or shall separate us any longer. No, do not try to disengage yourself from my arms, my beautiful, sweet, affianced bride! I shall not leave you; even though the whole world should come to take you from me, I should not leave you--no, not for the whole world and all its treasures!”
”The whole world will not come,” said Eliza, disengaging herself gently from his arms; ”the world does not concern itself in the affairs of a poor peasant-girl like me. But I myself intend to leave you, sir; you must let me go, that we may converse in a sensible manner, as it behooves two decent young persons. Take your arms away, Captain von Hohenberg; it is not right in you to embrace me here while we are all alone. You would certainly be ashamed of it if any one should see you folding the peasant-girl to your heart.”
”No, Eliza, I would not; I should fold you only the more tenderly to my heart, and exclaim proudly in the face of the whole world: 'Eliza Wallner, the peasant-girl, is my affianced bride; I love and adore her as the most faithful, n.o.ble, and generous heart; she is to become my wife, and I will love and cherish her all my life!'”
”And if you said so, the world would laugh at you; but your parents and my dear Elza would weep for you. Now, my Elza shall never weep on my account, and never shall your aristocratic parents be obliged to blush for the daughter-in-law whom you bring into their house. As a daughter-in-law I can never be welcome to them; hence, they could never be welcome to me as parents-in-law.”
”Oh, Eliza, your beauty, your angelic purity and goodness would surmount their resistance, for no heart is able to withstand you; and when my parents are once acquainted with you, when they have submitted to stern necessity, they will soon love you, and fold you as a daughter to their hearts.”
”But first they would have to submit to stern necessity, and I should have to be forced upon them, that they might afterward learn to love me. Much obliged to you, sir; I am only a peasant-girl, but I have my pride too, and will never allow myself to be forced upon a family, but will only take a husband whose parents would come to meet me affectionately, and give me, their blessing on the threshold of my new home. And now let us drop the subject, and tell me what has happened to you during our separation.”
”You see, Eliza, what has happened to me,” said Ulrich, mournfully.