cruel, heart-rending words. You will live, you must live, for the
consolation and joy of us all. It would be an injustice, and we should
despair of divine equity, if our queen depart without having seen again
the days of deliverance and happiness."

"My dear, Providence permits such acts of injustice," said Louisa, with
a mournful smile. "Was it just that noble Palm should be shot, that
Schill had to fall, and to be stigmatized as a deserter for his heroic
actions? Was it just that Andrew Hofer had to expiate his glorious
struggle for freedom by his death? The Emperor of Austria was in the
same position as we were. He had to sacrifice Andrew Hofer as we
Ferdinand von Schill. The cruel hand of the tyrant rested on him as it
did on us. And now they have shot the brave, heroic leader of the
Tyrolese at Mantua! My soul mourns for him, for I hoped in him. It is
but recently that I understood Schiller's words, 'On the mountains there
is freedom!' They resounded in my heart like a prophecy, when in my
thought I looked over to the mountaineers who had risen at Hofer's call.
My heart fought at his side! And what a man this dear, honest, simple
Andrew Hofer was! A peasant who had become a general, and what a
general! His weapon--prayer! His ally--God! He fought with folded hands,
with bended knees, and struck down the enemy as with a cherub's sword.
And the brave Tyrolese were fighting with him--children in the
simplicity of their hearts, they fought like Titans, by hurling down
rocks from the summits of their fastnesses. And yet it was all in vain!
They were sacrificed, and their leader was shot by the man who to-morrow
marries the daughter of their emperor. And you doubt that Providence
permits acts of injustice? Oh, I do not doubt that God is just, but we
mortals are often unable to comprehend his justice, because our life is
too short to witness the result of that of which we have seen only the
inception; but He knows the end from the beginning. And an end will come
for Napoleon with all his glory. But shall I or any of us ever live to
witness it?"

"All of us will," said Madame von Berg; "our belief in the final
retribution of Divine justice will give us our strength, I hope, for
many years."

"I shall not live to see that blessed time," said the queen, solemnly.
"This man, who is to be married to a German princess to-morrow, has
wounded my heart so that it will at last destroy me. I do not speak
figuratively, but mean wh