e found himself regretting
such a sweet voice should be kept from the world by the unappreciative
walls of a convent,--"Captain Roland, I was never more awake than I am
at this moment. Life has somehow become unexpectedly interesting. I
experience the deliciously guilty feeling of belonging to a stealthy
society of banditti. Do not, I beg of you, deprive me of that pleasure
by asking me to sleep."

"In the morning, Madam, there will be little opportunity for rest. We
must put all the distance we can between ourselves and the Pfalzgraf
von Stahleck. I expect you to ride far and fast to-morrow."

"Do you intend, then, to abandon this boat?"

"I must, Madam. The river has been long so empty that this flotilla,
which I cannot shake off, being unaccustomed to oars or paddle, will
attract attention from both sides of the Rhine, and when the darkness
lifts we are almost certain to be stopped. The boats will be recognized
as belonging to the Pfalzgraf, and I wish to sever all connection
between this night's work and my own future."

"What, then, do you propose?"

"As soon as day breaks we will come to land, and allow our boat to float
away with the rest. Can you walk?"

"I love walking," cried the girl with enthusiasm. "I ask your pity for
myself, immured in that windowless dungeon, situated on a tiny point of
rock; I, who have roamed the hills and explored the valleys of my own
land on foot, breathing the air of freedom with delight. Let me,
therefore, I beg of you, remain awake that I may taste the pleasure of
anticipation in my thoughts; or is such a wish disobedience on the part
of your first lieutenant? I do not mean it so, and will quietly cry
myself to sleep if you insist."

"Indeed, Hilda," said Roland, laughing, and abandoning the more formal
title of "madam," "I am no such tyrant as you suppose. Besides, your
office of first lieutenant has lapsed, because our men have all gone
south, while we travel north."

"Then may I talk with you?"

"Nothing would please me better. I was thinking of your own welfare, and
not of my desire, when I counseled slumber."

"Oh, I assure you I slept very well during the first part of the night,
for, there being nothing else to do, I went to bed early, and was quite
unconscious until the dreadful ringing of that alarm bell, which set the
whole Castle astir."

"Why were you imprisoned?"

"Because--because," she replied haltingly, "I had chosen the religious
life, the which m