e interview so unexpectedly sought by you, all made me
believe--"

"Let me entreat of you not to think for a moment of the cause of my
visit; but, in the name of that parent whose life you have preserved, I
adjure you to explain to me the cause of the deep affliction in which I
find you plunged. Your paleness, your dejection, terrify me. Oh, be
generous, my lord, and relieve the cruel anxiety I suffer."

"Wherefore should I burden your kind heart with the relation of woes
that admit of no relief?"

"Your words, your hesitation, but increase my apprehensions. Oh, my
lord, I beseech you tell me all! Sir Walter, will you not take pity on
my fears? For the love of heaven explain the meaning of all this! What
has befallen the prince?"

"Nay," interrupted Rodolph, in a voice that vainly struggled for
firmness, "since you desire it, madame, learn that since I acquainted
you with the death of Fleur-de-Marie I have learned she was my own
daughter."

"Your daughter!" exclaimed Clemence, in a tone impossible to describe.
"Fleur-de-Marie your daughter!"

"And when just now you desired to see me, to communicate tidings that
would fill me with joy,--pardon and pity the weakness of a parent half
distracted at the loss of his newly-found treasure!--I ventured to
hope--But no,--no,--I see too plainly I was mistaken! Forgive me, my
brain seems wandering, and I scarce know what I say or do."

And then sinking under the failure of this last fond imagination of his
heart, and unable longer to struggle with his black despair, Rodolph
threw himself back in his chair and covered his face with his hands,
while Madame d'Harville, astonished at what she had just heard, remained
motionless and silent, scarcely able to breathe amid the conflicting
emotions which took possession of her mind; at one instant glowing with
delight at the thoughts of the joy she had it in her power to impart,
then trembling for the consequences her explanation might produce on the
overexcited mind of the prince.

Both these reflections were, however, swallowed up in the enthusiastic
gratitude which she felt in the consideration that to her had been
deputed the happiness not only of announcing to the grief-stricken
father that his child still lived, but that the unspeakable rapture of
placing that daughter in her parent's arms was likewise vouchsafed to
her.

Carried away by a burst of pious thankfulness, and wholly forgetting the
presence of Rodolph and Murph