who was already walking about,
beginning to prattle prettily, and who could show the affection of his
little heart with such coaxing tenderness, came toward her crying, and
when she took him up rested his little burning head against her cheek.

The little fellow's forehead and throat were aching.

Some illness was coming on.

The child himself asked to be put in his little bed, the physician was
summoned, and the next morning the scarlet fever broke out.

When the father returned, the youngest chill had also been attacked by
the same fell disease, and now a time came when Barbara, during many an
anxious hour of the night, forgot that in distant Spain she possessed
another child for whose sake she had been ready to rob these two dear
little creatures, who so greatly needed her, of their mother. This
purpose weighed upon her conscience like the heaviest of sins while she
was fighting against Death, which seemed to be already stretching his
hand toward the oldest boy.

When one evening the physician expressed the fear that the child would
not survive the approaching night, she prayed with passionate fervour
for his preservation, and meanwhile it seemed as though a secret voice
cried: "Vow to the gracious Virgin not to give the Emperor's son a
higher place in your heart than the children of the man to whom a holy
sacrament unites you! Then you will first make yourself worthy of the
dear imperilled life in yonder little bed."

Thrice, four times, and oftener still, Barbara raised her hands to utter
this vow, but ere she did so she said to herself that never, never could
she wholly fulfil it, and, to save herself from a fresh sin, she did not
make it.

But with what anxiety she now gazed at the glowing face of the fevered
boy whenever the warning voice again rose!

At midnight the little sufferer's eyes seemed to her to shine with a
glassy look, and when, pleading for help, he raised them to her, her
heart melted, and in fervent, silent prayer she cried to the Queen of
Heaven, "Spare me this child, make it well, and I will not think of the
Emperor's son more frequently nor, if I can compass it, with warmer love
than this clear creature and his little brother in the cradle."

Scarcely had these words died on her lips than she again felt that she
had promised more than she had the power to perform. Yet she repeated
the vow several times.

During the whole terrible night her husband stood beside her, obeying
every si