eart, but its cause I could not discover. All that I did seemed to me
wretched and worthless. The songs which I held so high before, sounded
toneless and weak, unworthy the feeblest learner; and yet, befooled by
a vain presumption, I burned to outvie you all. A bliss unknown, the
highest joy of heaven, shone far above me like a golden star. To it
must I raise myself, or perish miserably. I raised my eyes, I stretched
my longing arms; but ice-cold wings waved a chill to heart and soul,
and a voice said 'What avails thy hope and longing? Is not thine eye
blinded? Is not thy power lost? Thou canst not endure the ray of thy
hope; thou canst not grasp and hold thy heavenly bliss.' But now, now
my secret is plain, even to myself. It is true it gives me my death,
but death in the highest of heavenly bliss. Sick and feeble I lay on my
bed. It was sometime deep in the night, and the fever-wanderings, which
had been driving me hither and thither for so long, left me at once. I
felt myself at peace; and a gentle beneficent warmth went spreading
through my frame. I seemed to be floating away through the deeps of
heaven, borne upon dark clouds. Then a glittering levin-bolt seemed to
come cleaving through the gloom, and I cried out--

"'"'Mathilda! Mathilda!'

"'"Upon this I awoke. The dream was gone, my heart was throbbing with a
strange sweet pain, and with a nameless joy I was conscious that I had
cried 'Mathilda,' and I gave way to fear--for I thought that the woods
and the meadows, and all the hills and the caves would re-echo that
beauteous name--and that thousands of voices would tell her glorious
self how deep and true and tender, even to the death, my adoration must
always be, and that she is the marvellous star whose beams, streaming
into my heart, awake those destroying pains of hopeless longing; and
that now those passionate flames have burst into blazing might, that
all my soul is athirst, and dies for her peerless beauty!

"'"You know all my secret now, Wolfframb; bury it deep in your breast.
You see that I am peaceful and happy, and you believe me when I tell
you that I would rather die than render myself despicable in your
eyes--in the eyes of all. But to you--to you, whom Mathilda loves--I
felt that I must tell all. As soon as I can rise from this couch, I
shall wander away into some foreign land, with death in my heart.
Should you hear that I am no more, you may tell Mathilda that I----"

"But Heinrich could spea