chief
burgomaster still sat, gazing stupidly at the wine-cup.

"Gotzkowsky is of our opinion," said the second burgomaster, turning
toward him; it would be best to yield to the Russian."

"The Russian is a capital fellow!" stammered the chief burgomaster.
"The Russian has a great deal of money, and spends it freely. I
esteem the Russian astonishingly; and my decided opinion is, that we
surrender to the Russian."

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIII.

A MAIDEN'S HEART.

Elise had passed the last two days and nights in her room;
nevertheless she had felt no fear; the thunder of the cannon and the
wail of the wounded had inspired her with mournful resignation rather
than with fear. As, at one time, she stood at the window, a shell
burst near the house, and shattered the window-panes of the ground
floor.

"Oh, if this hall had only struck me," cried she, while her cheeks
burned, "then all this suffering would have been at an end, this doubt
would have been cleared up: and if my father ever again gave himself
the trouble to visit his house, and ask after his daughter, my death
would be the proper rebuke to his question." Her father's long absence
and apparent indifference tormented her and converted her grief into
anger.

During these days of danger and mortal peril he had never once entered
his house to visit his daughter. With the unmitigated egotism of her
sex, she could not comprehend the greatness, the noble self-denial,
the manly firmness which dictated his conduct; she could see in it
nothing but indifference and cold-heartedness.

"The most insignificant and unpolished workman is dearer to him than
his own child," said she, proudly, drying her tears. "He is now,
perhaps, watching in the cabins of his laborers, and does not care if
his own house is burned to the ground; but even if he were told that
it was so, if he heard that his daughter had perished in the flames,
he would calmly say, 'My country demands this sacrifice of me, and I
submit.' No tear would dim his eye; his country would not leave him
time to mourn for his daughter. Oh, this country! what is it? My
country is where I am happy, and where I am beloved!" She sighed
deeply, and her thoughts wandered to her lover, her Feodor, the enemy
of her country, in whose heart she thought she would find her real
country, her true home.

The spoiled child of fortune, always accustomed to see every wish
fulfilled, Elise had no