rnst, wake up! Your father is here!"

I kneeled down by him. I saw his face. His eyes were closed, but his
breast rose and fell quickly.

"Ernst! my beloved child! my long-lost child! Ernst! your father calls
you! Your mother calls you from eternity! Ernst, you shall live! you
have repented; you have atoned! Ernst, Ernst! my son, my son!"

He opened his eyes and moved his hand towards me. I seized it; it was
stiff.

"Father, forgive!" he moaned. "Martella, pardon! Oh! mother--father!"

He breathed his last breath. I just saw Martella throw herself upon
him, with an agonizing cry; then I saw and heard nothing more.

BOOK SIXTH.

CHAPTER I.

"Stand firm! Face the bullets!" With these words, Ernst had encouraged
his men to the last. My own experience illustrated them.

For a considerable time, I did not know what had happened, either to me
or to those about me. I only knew that I lay behind a white curtain
with blue flowers, and could not keep my eyes open for any length of
time. The flowers assumed all sorts of odd shapes, and the fantastic
figures seemed to be ever changing and rushing towards me.

I think I was not really sick, only inexpressibly weak; and the fatigue
and exhaustion prevented me from directing my thoughts at will. I was
childishly grateful for everything. I looked at the wood in the door
and rejoiced that it was firm; I heard the fire in the stove and was
delighted that it warmed me; I was grateful to the bed that supported
me, so that I did not need to do it myself.

I remember that Bertha and Annette would occasionally visit me; but my
grandson Wolfgang stayed with me nearly all the time. Through the
hardships of war and constant exposure, Wolfgang had almost ripened
into manhood. He had become stronger and stouter than of old, and his
voice was now more manly.

"I am so glad, grandfather, to hear you call me by my own name again;
you always used to call me Ernst," said Wolfgang one day, and from that
hour I felt that the heavy clouds were slowly clearing away; and when
they had disappeared, I saw everything around me distinctly, and by
degrees I remembered what had happened.

"Is Ernst--buried?"

"Yes, grandfather."

I now asked Wolfgang to inform me what had occurred while I was
unconscious, and what had become of Martella.

"Grandfather," said Wolfgang, "I must tell you the truth. Martella is
no longer