pring found the Graevenitz grown
white-haired, and she had fallen into the habit of patient, indifferent
acquiescence in all things. Maria wished her to walk upon the ramparts
for an hour's fresh air? Very well, she would go.

'Your Excellency must eat, must sleep, must rest.'

'Certainly; it does not matter. I will do as you say, Maria.'

It was as though she gave her body into the peasant woman's command; her
soul was elsewhere, in that mysterious land into which her eyes seemed to
be for ever gazing with painful, straining effort, seeking--seeking and
imploring.

Towards the end of May, an official document was brought to the governor
of Hohen-Urach. It contained the pardon of Wilhelmine von Graevenitz,
provided she undertook to leave Wirtemberg for ever, and to abandon any
future claims upon land or property of all sorts in the Dukedom. The
governor was directed to accompany the lady to the frontier, with an
escort of two hundred horse. Further, he was to place in her hand, at the
moment of her passing out of Wirtemberg territory, a sum of a hundred
thousand gulden, 'in fair compensation for any loss incurred,' it was set
forth in the pardon. With this surprising document was a sealed letter
addressed to the Graevenitz, which was to be delivered immediately.

The governor repaired to the prisoner's apartment, but found it deserted.
The Graevenitz was taking the air upon the ramparts. He found her leaning
over the stone parapet, gazing, as usual, into the distance with those
terrible, haunted, unseeing eyes. In vain the valley was radiant with
Spring's tender treasury; she gazed unseeing at the wealth of blossom,
the feathery green of the beech-trees, and at the rounded hills so rich
in sombre firs enhancing the wondrous youth of the beech leaves; at the
little hill-town, red-roofed and sheltered, clustering round the old
castle. All this peaceful beauty of Nature's renascence was nothing to
her. As she had said, death would have been much shorter; this long-drawn
agony, this numb pain, was death in life.

'I have the happiness to announce to your Excellency that his Highness
the Duke has granted you pardon. When it suits you to travel, I am to
accompany you to the frontier under escort,' the governor said coldly.

She turned her eyes upon him, but she gave no sign of comprehension; once
only she started and winced, when he said his Highness the Duke,
otherwise she remained unmoved and unresponding as one deaf.