arm, pushing her into
her room, and locking her up in it, without saying a word. She went out
early the next morning, and did not come back till late in the evening.
And during this time Aurelia remained a prisoner in her room, never
seeing nor hearing a creature, and having nothing to eat or drink. This
went on for several days. The Baroness often glared at her with eyes
flashing with anger, and seemed to be wrestling with some decision,
until, one evening, letters came which seemed to cause her
satisfaction.

"Silly creature! all this is your fault. However, it seems to be all
coming right now, and all I hope is that the terrible punishment which
the Evil Spirit was threatening you with may not come upon you." This
was what the Baroness said to Aurelia, and then she became more kind
and friendly, and Aurelia, no longer distressed by the presence of the
horrible man, and having given up the idea of escaping, was allowed a
little more freedom.

Some time had elapsed, when one day, as Aurelia was sitting alone in
her room, she heard a great clamour approaching in the street. The maid
came running in, and said that they were taking the hangman's son
of ---- to prison, that he had been branded on the back there for
robbery and murder, and had escaped, and was now retaken.

Aurelia, full of anxious presentiment, tottered to the window. Her
presentiment was not fallacious. It _was_ the stranger (as we have
styled him), and he was being brought along, firmly bound upon a
tumbril, surrounded by a strong guard. He was being taken back to
undergo his sentence. Aurelia, nearly fainting, sank back into her
chair, as his frightfully wild look fell upon her, while he shook his
clenched fist up at the window with the most threatening gestures.

After this the Baroness was still a great deal away from the house; but
she never took Aurelia with her, so that the latter led a sorrowful,
miserable existence--occupied in thinking many thoughts as to destiny,
and the threatening future which might unexpectedly come upon her.

From the maidservant (who had only come into the house subsequently to
the nocturnal adventure which has been described, and who had probably
only quite recently heard about the intimacy of the terms in which the
Baroness had been living with this criminal), Aurelia learned that the
folks in the Residenz were very much grieved at the Baroness's having
been so deceived and imposed upon by a scoundrel of this descri