he knew that he was Elise's first.

"If I must positively be chained, and my hands bound," said he to
himself, "let it be at least with this fresh young girl, who can
conceal the thorny crown of wedlock under freshly-blown rosebuds. My
heart has nothing more to do with this old love; it has grown young
again under the influence of new feelings, and I will not let this
youthfulness be destroyed by the icy-cold smiles of duty. Elise has
promised to be mine, and she must redeem her promise."

Still full of the passionate and defiant thoughts which the vicinity
of his affianced bride had provoked, he had gone out to seek Elise.
But to find her had become not only difficult, but almost impossible.

Bertram, who had not thought fit to reveal to Gotzkowsky the forcible
abduction of his daughter, had yet quietly arranged his precautions
that a repetition of the attempt from any quarter, or at any time,
should be impossible.

Under the pretence that the withdrawal of the troops rendered the
city unsafe, and filled it with marauders and plundering stragglers,
Bertram, secure of Gotzkowsky's approval beforehand, had armed a
number of the factory workmen, and placed them as sentinels on the
wall, in the court, and on the ground-floor. These had orders not to
let any one enter who was not able to tell the object and purpose of
his coming. By this precaution Bertram prevented any attempt of Feodor
to climb the wall; and, furthermore he obtained the advantage that
Elise, to whom the presence of the sentinels was unpleasant and
objectionable, not only did not visit the dangerous, solitary parts of
the garden, but withdrew into her own room. In this manner Bertram had
rendered any meeting between Feodor and Elise impossible, but he could
not prevent his servant, Petrowitsch, from meeting his sweetheart,
Elise's chambermaid, on the street.

By means of these a letter of Feodor reached Elise's hand. In this
Feodor reminded her solemnly and earnestly of her promise; he now
called upon her to fulfil her vow, and to follow him from the house of
her father. He adjured her to unite herself to him at the altar as his
wife, and to give him the right to carry her abroad with him as his
own.

Elise received this letter of her beloved, and her heart during
its perusal was moved by unfamiliar emotions. She could not herself
determine whether it was joy or dread which caused it to beat so
convulsively, and almost deprived her of consciousness.