elf in the Cite, not far from
the den to which you followed me. A man was just going to beat one of
the unfortunate creatures who herd together there; I interposed, and
saved her from his brutal rage. Now then, careful, kind, and anxious
mother, tell me, if you can, whom it was I saved! Can you not guess?
Speak! Say your heart whispers to you who was the miserable being I
found in this sink of wickedness and pollution! You know, do you not,
without my assistance?"

"No, no,--I cannot say! I beseech you to go--and leave me to my
thoughts!"

"Then I will tell you who the wretched, trembling creature I thus saved
from brutal violence was. Her name was Fleur-de-Marie!"

"Merciful powers!"

"And is it possible that you, most irreproachable of mothers, that you
cannot divine who Fleur-de-Marie was?"

"Be merciful, and kill me; but torture me not thus!"

"She was your daughter--known as the Goualeuse!" cried Rodolph, with
almost frantic violence. "Yes, the helpless girl I rescued from the
hands of a felon was my own, my lost child!--the offspring of Rodolph of
Gerolstein! Oh, there was in this meeting with a daughter I
unconsciously saved a visible interposition of the hand of Providence!
It brought a blessing to the man who had striven so earnestly to succour
his fellow men, and it conveyed a well-merited chastisement for the
impious wretch who had dared to aim at his father's life!"

"Alas!" murmured Sarah, falling back in her armchair, and concealing her
face with her hands, "my destiny is accomplished! I die, carrying with
me out of the world the curse both of God and man!"

"And when," continued Rodolph, with much difficulty restraining his
resentment, and vainly striving to repress the sobs which from time to
time interrupted his voice, "when I had released her from the ill-usage
with which she was menaced, struck with the indescribable sweetness of
her voice and manner, as well as by the angelic expression of her lovely
countenance, I found it impossible to abandon the interest she excited
in me. I led her on to tell me the history of her life, made up of
neglect, grief, and misery. With what simple eloquence did she express
the yearnings of a heart that had never expanded into virtue beneath a
mother's fostering care after a life of innocence, and how touchingly
did she dwell on the the destitution which had led her where she was!
Ah, madame, to have brought down your pride and haughtiness, you should
have li