hort time, I shall
no longer be able to conceal my situation; and I ought not to blush at
that of which I am, on the contrary, so proud, and would desire openly
to acknowledge."

The expectation of posterity had redoubled Rodolph's tenderness for
Sarah, and, placed between the desire to accede to her wishes and the
dread of his father's wrath, he experienced the bitterest anguish.
Seyton sided with his sister.

"The marriage is indissoluble," said he to his royal brother-in-law;
"the Grand Duke may exile you from his court,--you and your
wife,--nothing more; but he loves you too much to have recourse to such
an extremity. He will endure what he cannot prevent."

These reasons, strong enough in themselves, did not soothe Rodolph's
anxieties. At this juncture, Seyton was charged by the Grand Duke with
an errand to visit several breeding studs in Austria. This mission,
which he could not refuse, would only detain him a fortnight: he set out
with much regret, and in a very important moment for his sister. She was
chagrined, yet satisfied, at the departure of her brother; for she would
lose his advice, but then he would be safe from the Grand Duke's anger
if all were discovered. Sarah promised to keep Seyton fully informed,
day by day, of the progress of events, so important to both of them;
and, that they might correspond more surely and secretly, they agreed
upon a cipher, of which Polidori also held the key. This precaution
alone proves that Sarah had other matters to tell her brother of besides
her love for Rodolph. In truth, this selfish, cold, ambitious woman had
not felt the ice of her heart melt even by the beams of the passionate
love which had been breathed to her. Her maternity was only with her a
means of acting more effectually on Rodolph, and had no softening effect
on her iron soul. The youth, headlong love, and inexperience of the
prince, who was hardly more than a child, and so perfidiously ensnared
into an inextricable position, hardly excited an interest in the mind of
this selfish creature; and, in her confidential communications with him,
she complained, with disdain and bitterness, of the weakness of this
young man, who trembled before the most paternal of German princes, who
lived, however, very long! In a word, this correspondence between the
brother and sister clearly developed their unbounded selfishness, their
ambitious calculations, their impatience, which almost amounted to
homicide, and laid