landlady of
the Golden Stag. Putting a few questions to her respecting the
different surrounding castles and their inhabitants, in the hope of
gaining his point, she very soon related to him reports which deeply
affected his future prospects; for upon the truth or falsehood of them
seemed, to his ardent mind, to depend his future happiness or misery.

The hostess, fond of a gossip, in less than a quarter of an hour gave
him the history of five or six castles about the country, and among
them of Lichtenstein. The young man drew a deep breath at the sound of
that name, and pushed away the plate from before him, to devote his
whole attention to what she said:

"Well, the owners of Lichtenstein are not poor; on the contrary, they
possess fields and woods in plenty, and not an acre of land is
mortgaged; rather than do so, the old gentleman would allow his beard
to be shaved off, for believe me he prizes it much, and takes a pride
in smoothing it down when people speak to him. He is a severe stern
man, and what he has once determined upon must be done; as the saying
is, should the bow not bend, it must break. He is also one of those who
have continued faithful to the Duke, for which the League will make him
pay dear."

"How is his----, I mean--you said he had a daughter?"

"No," answered the hostess, whilst her cheerful face became clouded of
a sudden, "I certainly said nothing about her, that I am aware of. But
he has a daughter, the good old man; and it had been much better for
him that he went childless to the grave, rather than depart in sorrow
on account of his only child."

Albert could scarcely believe his ears at these words: what reason
could the landlady have to throw out this allusion? "What has happened
to the young lady?" he asked, whilst he in vain sought to appear
indifferent: "you have excited my curiosity; or is it a secret you dare
not divulge?"

The woman of the Golden Stag mysteriously looked around on all sides,
to see that no one was listening; the burghers were quietly taken up
with their own conversation, and paid no attention to them, and there
was no one else in the room who could overhear them. "You, I perceive,
are a stranger," she said, after her scrutiny; "you are travelling
further, and have nothing to do in this neighbourhood, so that I can
communicate to you what I would not confide to every one. The lady who
lives there on the Lichtenstein rock, is a----, a----yes; what the
citizens