at their leisure.

"Oh! with what agonizing emotion did my heart beat, as, in a private
chamber of the cottage, I laid aside my peasant's garb and donned the
doublet, hose, cap and cloak of a youthful page. I thought of you--of
your helplessness--your age,--and also of my native land, which I was
about to quit--perhaps forever! Still I had gone too far to retreat, and
regrets were useless. I must also confess that when I returned to the
room where the count was waiting for me, and heard the flattering
compliments which he paid me on my appearance in that disguise, I
smiled--yes, I smiled, and much of my remorse vanished!

"We set out upon our journey toward the Alps; and the count exerted all
his powers of conversation to chase away from my mind any regrets or
repinings that might linger there. Though cold and stern--forbidding and
reserved--haughty and austere in his bearing toward others, to me he was
affectionate and tender. To be brief, yet with sorrow must I confess it,
at the expiration of a few days I could bear to think, without weeping,
of the fond relative whom I had left behind in the cottage of the Black
Forest!

"We crossed the Alps in safety, but not without experiencing much peril;
and in a short time glorious Italy spread itself out at our feet. The
conversation of the count had already prepared me to admire----"

At this moment, Agnes' narrative was interrupted by a piercing shriek
which burst from her lips; and extending her arms toward the window of
the apartment, she screamed hysterically, "Again that countenance!" and
fell back on the ottoman.

CHAPTER IX.

CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY OF AGNES.

In order that the reader may understand how Agnes could perceive any
object outside the window, in the intense darkness of that tempestuous
night--or rather morning, for it was now past one o'clock--we must
observe that not only was the apartment in which Wagner and herself were
seated brilliantly lighted by the silver lamps, but that, according to
Florentine custom, there were also lamps suspended outside to the
veranda, or large balcony belonging to the casements of the room above.

Agnes and Wagner were, moreover, placed near the window which looked
into a large garden attached to the mansion; and thus it was easy for
the lady, whose eyes happened to be fixed upon the casement in the
earnest interest with which she was relating her narrative, to perceive
the human countenance that appeared