panying the family to her
mistress.

Confidence between them was not restored after the knight of
Lichtenstein returned with his daughter to the castle from Ulm. Old
Rosel, who always preferred the society of her superiors to that of the
domestics, endeavoured to obtain some information from Bertha about
Albert, hoping thus to re-establish herself in her good graces; but
Bertha, whose heart was then full of the late painful occurrences at
the meeting with her lover, and still suspicious of the discretion of
her nurse, would not satisfy her curiosity. When, therefore, the exile
visited the castle at stated hours every night, and her young lady
secretly prepared his meal, and, as her nurse thought, remained alone
with him for a length of time, she gratified her pique towards her
mistress by opening her heart to the hostess of the Golden Stag at
Pfullingen upon the subject. No wonder, then, that Albert was led to
believe every word he heard; because, having only known the nurse as
the confidant of his love, he was not aware that the intimacy between
her and Bertha had suffered interruption.

She had accompanied her mistress the morning of Albert's arrival, in
her best Sunday's attire, to her pilgrimage to the church. Having
confessed her sins, among which "curiosity" preponderated above the
rest, and received absolution, she returned to Lichtenstein with a
lighter heart and clearer conscience than she had when she left the
castle, sighing under the weight of them. But the words of the father
confessor had not probed so deep in her soul as to root out effectually
her besetting sin, for when she got into her apartment and was occupied
in putting by her rosary and Sunday dress, she heard her young lady and
a man's deep voice in angry conversation together, and she even thought
her mistress was crying.

"Can the nocturnal visitor have come up here in the day time, and taken
advantage of the old man's absence?" she muttered to herself. A natural
feeling of curiosity and sympathy drew her eye and ear involuntarily to
the keyhole, when she overheard the dispute of which we have already
been witnesses.

The young man opened the door so suddenly that she had no time to
retreat, scarcely sufficient to recover her upright figure from her
bending position. But she did not lose her presence of mind in this
awkward predicament, for stopping Albert, and before either of them
could speak, seizing his hands, poured upon him a torrent