ousin, which we have played upon you," said Marie;
"be reasonable, and let me explain the matter." She then gave him to
understand, why Albert and he had been invited into the garden, and
begged him to be silent upon the subject before Bertha's father. He was
softened into compliance by the kind look of Marie, upon condition,
that she would submit also to the same ordeal her cousin had just
undergone.

Marie gently repelled his unmannerly request, and, by way of teazing
him, asked him again at the garden door the natural history of a
violet, the first of the season. He was kind enough to give her a long
and learned dissertation upon the subject, without allowing himself to
be interrupted by the noise of a rustling silk dress or clattering
sword. A grateful look from Bertha, a friendly shake of the hand from
Marie, rewarded him at parting; and long floated the veils of the
pretty cousins over the garden hedge, as their eyes followed the path
of the young men.

CHAPTER VIII.

"In the still cloister's solitary grove,
A maiden walk'd, and thought upon her love;
The virgin moon, as if in mockery,
Shed forth her splendour on her misery,
And the bright lustre of the beams that fell
Lit up the tears that coursed her cheek so pale."
L. UHLAND.

During the following days, Ulm resembled a large camp. Instead of the
peaceable peasant, the busy citizens, passing, as in ordinary times,
through the streets with sober tranquil step to their several
avocations, were now to be seen strange figures, with helmets and caps
of iron, carrying lances, cross bows and fire-arms. In lieu of
statesmen in their plain black dresses, proud knights clad in steel,
and wearing helmets adorned with waving plumes, strode about the
squares and market places, accompanied by numerous bands of followers.
Still more animated was this warlike scene without the gates of the
town. In an open space on the banks of the Danube, Sickingen was
exercising his cavalry, whilst, in a large flax-field towards the
village of Soeflingen, Fronsberg was occupied in man[oe]uvring his
infantry.

One fine morning, about three or four days after Bertha von
Lichtenstein had left Ulm with her father, an immense concourse of
people were assembled in the above field, to witness Fronsberg's
infantry going through the