and to the door, where his servants awaited him
and her father with their horses. They had enjoyed the first days of
their marriage alone and in quiet, mutually engaged in the affectionate
offices of each other's happiness. Dreaming little of the future, they
thought themselves safe in the haven of uninterrupted love; and whilst
they lived but for themselves, the whisperings, the mysterious
disquietude which agitated the public mind, were unheeded by them.
Having been long accustomed to see the knight of Lichtenstein serious
and thoughtful, they did not attribute the alteration which his
features had of late assumed, to any cause beyond the natural anxiety
he was known to feel in the present state of the Duke's affairs.
Neither did they, for the same reason, apprehend any immediate disaster
to disturb their happiness, although they remarked a certain air of
fearful anticipation and despair which at times clouded his brow. The
old man witnessed the happiness of his children, and participated in
it; and, not wishing to interrupt their bliss unnecessarily, he
concealed from them his uneasiness upon the state of affairs; but at
length the threatening crisis approached. The Duke of Bavaria had
advanced into the heart of the country, and the call to arms startled
Albert out of the embrace of his beloved wife.

Nature had gifted her with a strength of mind, and a superiority of
character, which entered into every transaction of her life, and exists
only in that purity of soul which commits its dearest interests into
the hands of a higher Power, with implicit confidence. Aware of what
was due to the honour of her husband's name, and the relationship in
which he stood to the Duke, she repressed her grief, and the only
sacrifice which the infirmity of her nature offered for the many
dangers to which her beloved husband would necessarily be exposed, was
an involuntary flood of tears.

"I cannot believe, dearest Albert, that we are never to see each other
again!" she said, whilst a forced smile illumined her beautiful face:
"we have but just begun to live; heaven will not cut us off in the bud
of a happy existence; I can, therefore, part from you in tranquillity,
in the conviction that you will soon be restored to me."

Albert kissed her soft weeping eye, which dwelt upon him so full of
tenderness, and whose glance inspired him with consolation and
fortitude. In this distressing moment he thought not of the danger he
was going t