drink, and I
endeavoured with my only arm to reach the cup beside me. She saw the
effort, and sprang towards me at once; and as she held it to my lips,
I remembered then that often in the dreary nights of my sickness I had
seen her at my bedside, nursing me and tending me. I muttered a word of
gratitude in German, when she started suddenly, and stooping down, said
in a clear accent--

'"Bist du ein Deutscher (Are you a German)?"

'"Yes," said I, mournfully, for I saw her meaning.

'"Shame! shame!" cried she, holding up her hands in horror. "If the
wolves ravage the flocks it is but their nature; but that our own
kindred, our very flesh and blood, should do this----"

'I turned my head away in very sorrow and self-abasement, and a
convulsive sob burst from my heart.

'"Nay, nay, not so," said she, "a poor peasant like me cannot judge what
motives may have influenced you and others like you; and after all," and
she spoke the words in a trembling voice--"and after all, you succoured
_him_ when you believed him sick and weary."

'"I! how so? It never was in my power----"

'"Yes, yes," cried she, passionately; "it was you. This _gourde_ was
yours; he told me so; he spoke of you a hundred times." And at the
instant, she held up the little flask I had given to the pilgrim in the
valley.

'"And was the pilgrim then----"

'"Yes," said she, as a proud flash lit up her features, "he was my
brother; many a weary mile he wandered over mountain and moor to track
you; faint and hungry, he halted not, following your footsteps from the
first hour you entered our land. Think you but for him that you had been
spared that nights slaughter, or that for any cause but his a Tyrolese
girl had watched beside your sick-bed, and prayed for your recovery?"

'The whole truth now flashed upon me; every circumstance doubtful before
became at once clear to my mind, and I eagerly asked the fate of my
comrades.

'A gloomy shake of the head was the only reply.

'"All?" said I, trembling at the word.

'"All!" repeated she, in an accent whose pride seemed almost amounting
to ferocity.

'"Would I had perished with them!" cried I, in the bitterness of my
heart, and I turned my face away and gave myself up to my grief.

'As if sorry for the burst of feeling she had caused me, she sat down
beside my bed, took my hand in hers, and placed her cold lips upon it,
while she murmured some words of comfort. Like water to the seared,
parched lips o