, men speak in whispers, as if the deepest
rest of all could be broken by the sound of a living voice. Just so,
though the soul was evidently beyond the reach of all intimations from
the senses, the two ladies, who sat beside her, spoke in the gentlest
tones of subdued sorrow. "She has lain so for an hour."

"This cannot last long, I fear."

"How much thinner she has grown within the last few weeks! If she would
only speak, and explain what she suffers, it would be better for her.
I think she has visions in her trances, but nothing can induce her to
refer to them when she is awake."

"Does she ever speak in these trances?"

"I have never heard her; but they say she walks sometimes, and once put
the whole household in a terrible fright by disappearing for a whole
hour, and returning drenched with rain, and almost dead with exhaustion
and fright. But even then she would give no account of what had
happened."

A scarce audible murmur from the yet motionless lips of the lady
here startled her attendants. After several ineffectual attempts at
articulation, the word "COSMO!" burst from her. Then she lay still as
before; but only for a moment. With a wild cry, she sprang from the
couch erect on the floor, flung her arms above her head, with clasped
and straining hands, and, her wide eyes flashing with light, called
aloud, with a voice exultant as that of a spirit bursting from a
sepulchre, "I am free! I am free! I thank thee!" Then she flung herself
on the couch, and sobbed; then rose, and paced wildly up and down the
room, with gestures of mingled delight and anxiety. Then turning to her
motionless attendants--"Quick, Lisa, my cloak and hood!" Then lower--"I
must go to him. Make haste, Lisa! You may come with me, if you will."

In another moment they were in the street, hurrying along towards one
of the bridges over the Moldau. The moon was near the zenith, and the
streets were almost empty. The Princess soon outstripped her attendant,
and was half-way over the bridge, before the other reached it.

"Are you free, lady? The mirror is broken: are you free?"

The words were spoken close beside her, as she hurried on. She turned;
and there, leaning on the parapet in a recess of the bridge, stood
Cosmo, in a splendid dress, but with a white and quivering face.

"Cosmo!--I am free--and thy servant for ever. I was coming to you now."

"And I to you, for Death made me bold; but I could get no further. Have
I atoned at all?