s had she not let a
lover pine a long time in vain,--and this course she pursued with me.
At last, however, my passion was to be requited. At midnight a
confidential servant waited for me at the back door of the palace, and
led me through distant passages into an apartment which the god of love
seemed to have decorated. There I was to expect the countess. Half
overcome by the fumes of the fine scents that wound through the
chamber, trembling with love and expectation, I stood in the midst of
the room. All at once a glance darted through my soul like a flash of
lightning--"

"How!" cried Albert, "a glance, and no eyes! And you saw nothing?
Another formless form!"

"You may find it incomprehensible," said Victor, "but so it was; I
could see no form--nothing, and yet I felt the glance deep in my bosom,
and a sudden pain quivered at the spot which O'Malley had wounded. At
the same moment I perceived upon the chimney-piece my little image,
grasped it, darted from the room, commanded the terrified servant, with
a threatening gesture, to lead me down, ran home, awakened my man Paul,
and had all my things packed up. At the earliest hour of morning I was
already on my way back to Potsdam. I had passed several months at the
_Residence_, my comrades were delighted at my unexpected return, and
kept me fast the whole day, so that I did not return to my quarters
till late at night. I placed the darling image I had recovered upon
the table, and, no longer able to resist the effects of fatigue, threw
myself on my couch without undressing. Soon a dreamy feeling came over
me, as if I were surrounded by a beaming light;--I awoke;--I opened my
eyes, and the room was indeed gleaming with magical radiance. But--Oh,
Heavens!--on the same table on which I had laid the doll, I perceived a
female figure, who, resting her head on her hand, appeared to slumber.
I can only tell you that I never dreamed of a more delicate or graceful
form--a more lovely face. To give you a notion in words of the strange
mysterious magic, which beamed from this lovely figure, I am not able.
She wore a silken flame-coloured dress, which, fitting tight to the
waist and bosom, reached only to the ancles, exhibiting her delicately
formed feet; the lovely arms, which were bare to the shoulders, and
seemed both from their colour and form to have been breathed by Titian,
were adorned with bracelets; in her brown, somewhat reddish hair, a
diamond sparkled."