was my intention to conceal nothing, but to lay before thee the
history of my life, with all the reasons that may have influenced my
conduct," returned Sigismund: "at some other time, when both are in a
calmer state of mind, I shall dare to entreat a hearing--"

"Delay is unnecessary--it might even be improper. It is my duty to explain
every thing to my father, and he may wish to know why thou hast not always
appeared what thou art. Do not fancy, Sigismund, that I distrust thy
motive, but the wariness of the old and the confidence of the young have
so little in common!--I would rather that thou told me now."

He yielded to the mild earnestness of her manner, and to the sweet, but
sad, smile with which she seconded the appeal.

"If thou wilt hear the melancholy history, Adelheid," he said, "there is
no sufficient reason why I should wish to postpone the little it will be
necessary to say. You are probably familiar with the laws of the canton, I
mean those cruel ordinances by which a particular family is condemned, for
a better word can scarcely be found, to discharge the duties of this
revolting office. This duty may have been a privilege in the dark ages
but it is now become a tax that none, who have been educated with better
hopes, can endure to pay. My father, trained from infancy to expect the
employment, and accustomed to its discharge in contemplation, succeeded to
his parent while yet young; and, though formed by nature a meek and even a
compassionate man, he has never shrunk from his bloody tasks, whenever
required to fulfil them by the command of his superiors. But, touched by a
sentiment of humanity, it was his wish to avert from me what his better
reason led him to think the calamity of our race. I am the eldest born,
and, strictly, I was the child most liable to be called to assume the
office, but, as I have heard, the tender love of my mother induced her to
suggest a plan by which I, at least, might be rescued from the odium that
had so long been attached to our name. I was secretly conveyed from the
house while yet an infant; a feigned death concealed the pious fraud, and
thus far, Heaven be praised! the authorities are ignorant of my birth!"

"And thy mother, Sigismund; I have great respect for that noble mother,
who, doubtless, is endowed with more than her sex's firmness and
constancy, since she must have sworn faith and love to thy father, knowing
his duties and the hopelessness of their being evaded?