onstrained him to this late passion.

The idea that she would refuse to accept the fate to which he had
condemned her was incomprehensible to his sense of power, and therefore
did not occur to his mind.

Yet, especially when he was bearing pain, he did not find it difficult
to silence even this wish for the future, for then memories of the last
deeply clouded hours of their love bond forced themselves upon him.

He saw her swinging like a Bacchante in the dance with the young Saxon
duke; the star which had been thrown away appeared before his eyes, and
his irritated soul commanded him never to see her again.

But the suffering of a person whom we have once loved possesses a
reconciling power, and he who usually forgot no insult, even after the
lapse of years, was again disposed to forgive her, and reverted to the
wish to continue to enjoy her singing.

When, before their wedding day, he gave his nieces the diadems which
Jammtzer had made for them, his resentment concerning the ornament
sold by Barbara again awoke. He could no longer punish her for this
"loveless" deed, as he called it, but he made the marquise feel severely
enough his indignation for her abuse of the young girl's inexperience,
for, without granting her a farewell audience, he sent her back to
Brussels, with letters to Queen Mary expressing his displeasure. Instead
of her skilful maid Alphonsine, a clumsy Swabian girl accompanied
her--the former had married Cassian.

Barbara heard nothing of all these things; her recovery was slow, and
every source of anxiety was kept from her.

She had never been ill before, and to be still at a time when every
instinct urged her to battle for her life happiness and her love, to
prove the power of her beauty and her art, put her slender stock of
patience to the severest test.

During the first few days she was perfectly conscious, and watched with
keen suspense what was passing around her. It made her happy to find
that Charles sent his own physician to her but, on the other hand, she
was deeply and painfully agitated by his failure to grant the entreaty
which she sent by Dr. Mathys to let her see his face, even if only for a
moment.

Gombert and Appenzelder, Massi, the Wollers from the Ark, Dr. Hiltner's
wife and daughter, the boy singer Hannibal, and many gentlemen of
the court-nay, even the Bishop of Arras--came to inquire for her, and
Barbara had strictly enjoined Frau Lerch to tell her everything that
co