rehead, as if
striving to keep firm hold of his thoughts.

It was Moritz who was holding Angelica fast pressed to his heart;
beside him stood Dagobert, and a fine-looking young man in the handsome
uniform of a Russian General.

"No," cried Angelica over and over again, as the lovers embraced
one another, "I was never untrue to you, my beloved Moritz." And
Moritz cried, "Oh, I know that; I know that quite well, my darling
angel-child. He enchanted you by his satanic arts."

And he more carried than led her back to the chateau, while the others
followed in silence. Not till he came to the castle did the Colonel
give a profound sigh, as if it was only then that he came fully to his
senses; and, looking round him with questioning glances, said, "What
miracles! what extraordinary events!"

"Everything will be explained," said Moritz, presenting the stranger to
the Colonel as General Bogislav von Se----n, a Russian officer, his
most intimate friend.

As soon as they came into the chateau, Moritz, with a wild look, and
unheeding the Colonel's alarmed amazement, cried out, "Where is Count
von S----i?"

"Among the dead!" said the Colonel, in a hollow voice, "he was seized
with apoplexy an hour ago."

Angelica shrank and shuddered. "Yes," she said, "that I know. At the
very instant when he died I felt as though some crystal thing within my
being shivered, and broke with a 'kling.' I fell into an extraordinary
state. I think I must have gone on carrying that frightful dream (which
I told you of) further, because, when I came to look at matters again,
I found that those terrible eyes had no more power over me; the web of
fire loosened and broke away. Heavenly blissfulness was all about me. I
saw Moritz, my own Moritz; he was coming to me. I flew to meet him,"
and she clasped her arms round him as if she thought he was going to
escape from her again.

"Praised be Heaven," said Madame von G----. "Now the weight has gone
from my heart which was stifling it. I am freed from that inexpressible
anxiety and alarm which came upon me at the instant when Angelica
promised to marry that terrible Count. I always felt as though she were
betrothing herself to mysterious, unholy powers with her betrothal
ring."

General von Se----n expressed a desire to see the Count's remains, and
when the body was uncovered and he saw the pale countenance now fixed
in death, he cried, "By Heaven, it is he! It is none other than
himself."

Angelic