very person whom they had both
known was enquired for.

Old Count Frohlinger was still alive, but suffered a great deal from
gout and the capricious young wife he had married in his old age.
Hangemarx had grown melancholy and, after all, ended his life by
the rope, though by his own hand. Dark-skinned Xaver had entered the
priesthood and was living in Rome in high esteem, as a member of a
Spanish order. The abbot still presided over the monastery and had a
great deal of time for his studies; for the school had been broken up
and, as part of the property of the monastery had been confiscated, the
number of monks had diminished. The magistrate had been falsely accused
of embezzling minors' money, remained in prison for a year and, after
his liberation, died of a liver complaint.

Morning was dawning when the friends separated. Count Philipp undertook
to tell Ruth that Ulrich had found his mother again. She was to persuade
the smith to forgive his wife, with whose praises her son's lips were
overflowing.

At his departure Philipp tried to induce the Eletto to change his course
betimes, for he was following a dangerous path; but Ulrich laughed in
his face, exclaiming: "You know I have found the right word, and shall
use it to the end. You were born to power in a small way; I have won
mine myself, and shall not rest until I am permitted to exercise it on
a great scale, nay, the grandest. If aught on earth affords a taste of
heavenly joy, it is power!"

In the camp the Eletto found the troops from Aalst prepared for
departure, and as he rode along the road saw in imagination, sometimes
his parents, his parents in a new and happy union, sometimes Ruth in the
full splendor of her majestic beauty. He remembered how proudly he had
watched his father and mother, when they went to church together on
Sunday, how he had carried Ruth in his arms on their flight; and now he
was to see and experience all this again.

He gave his men only a short rest, for he longed to reach his mother.
It was a glorious return home, to bring such tidings! How beautiful and
charming he found life; how greatly he praised his destiny!

The sun was setting behind pleasant Aalst as he approached, and the sky
looked as if it was strewn with roses.

"Beautiful, beautiful!" he murmured, pointing out to his lieutenant the
brilliant hues in the western horizon.

A messenger hastened on in advance, the thunder of artillery and fanfare
of music greeted th