him my last affectionate
greeting; deliver to him this;--it is my Will, and it will put him in
possession of all that I possess, which is properly that of his mother,
for my own is nearly consumed. Tell him that care on his account has
worn away my life, that--my God! What do you? Why do you thus seize my
hand?--you weep!"

"Tell me--" stammered forth Harald, with a voice nearly choked by
emotion; "did this child wear on a ribbon round his neck a little cross
of iron?--the head of a winged cherub in its centre?"

"From his mother's neck," said Mrs. Astrid, "I transferred it to his!"

"And here----here it yet rests!" exclaimed Harald, as he led Mrs.
Astrid's hand to the little cross hanging to his neck. "What
recollections awake now! Yes, it must be so! I cannot doubt----you are
my childhood's first cherisher, my mother's sister!"

A cry of indescribable emotion interrupted Harald. "Good God!" exclaimed
Mrs. Astrid, "you are----"

"Your sister's son; the child that you mourn. At this moment I recognise
again myself and you."

"And I---- Your voice, Harald, has often struck me as strangely
familiar. At this moment I seem again to hear your father's voice. Ah,
speak! speak! for heaven's sake, explain to me----make me certain----
you give me then more than life."

"What shall I say?" continued Harald, in the highest excitement and
disquiet; "much is obscure to myself----incomprehensible. But your
narrative has at this moment called up in me recollections, impressions,
which make me certain that I neither deceive you nor myself. At this
instant I remember with perfect clearness, how I, as a child, one day
ran my little sledge on the hill before the fortress, and how I was
there addressed by the, to me, well-known Sergeant Roenn, but whose name
till this moment had entirely escaped me, who invited me to ascend his
sledge, and take a drive with him. I desired nothing better, and I got
in. I remember also now extremely well that my hat blew off, that I
wished to fetch it, but was prevented by the Sergeant, who threw a cloak
round me, and drove off at full speed. And long did the drive
continue----but from this moment my recollection becomes dark, and I
look back into a time as into a dark night, which ever and anon is
illuminated by lightning. Probably I fell then, into the heavy sickness
which long afterwards checked my growth. I recollect it as a dream, that
I would go home to my mother, but that my cries were hushed