moonbeams streamed
into the hall, flooding her head, her figure, and every surrounding
object with their soft light.

Heinz followed step by step. It seemed as if the wild surges of a sea
were roaring in his ears, and glittering sparks were dancing before his
yearning, watchful eyes.

How he loved her! How intense was the longing which drew him after her!
And yet another emotion stirred in his heart with still greater
power-grief, sincere grief, which pierced his in, most soul, that she
could have beckoned to him, permitted him to follow her, granted him what
he would never have ventured to ask. Nay, when he set his foot on the
first step, it seemed as if the temple which contained his holiest
treasure fell crashing around him, and an inner voice cried loudly:
"Away, away from here! Would you exchange the purest and loftiest things
for what tomorrow will fill you with grief and loathing?" it continued to
admonish. "You will relinquish what is dearest and most sacred to secure
what is ready to rush into your arms on all the high-roads.

"Hence, hence, you poor, deluded mortal, ere it is too late!"

But even had he known it was the fair fiend Venus herself moving before
him under the guise of Eva, the spell of her unutterable beauty would
have constrained him to follow her, though the goal were the Horselberg,
death, and hell.

On the second landing she again stood still and, leaning against a
pillar, raised her arms and extended them towards the moon, in whose
silvery light they gleamed like marble. Heinz saw her lips move, heard
his own name fall from them, and all self-control vanished.

"Eva!" he cried with passionate fervor, holding out his arms to clasp
her; but, ere he even touched her, a shriek of despairing anguish echoed
loudly back from the walls.

The sound of her own name had broken the threads with which the
mysterious power of the moonlight had drawn her from her couch, down
through the house, out of doors, and again back to the stairs.

Sleep vanished with the dream which she had shared with him and,
shuddering, she perceived where she was, saw the knight before her,
became conscious that she had left her chamber in her night-robe, with
disordered hair and bare feet; and, frantic with horror at the thought of
the resistless might with which a mysterious force constrained her to
obey it against her own will, deeply wounded by the painful feeling that
she had been led so far across the bounds of mai