till breath."

These words were uttered in a low and feeble tone. With a hasty gesture
the bishop signed to his brother to retire, and bent his ear over the
mouth of the gasping woman.

After some time he rose, and first reassuring the dying mother that all
he could do for her child's welfare should be done, pronounced the
sublime words of the church that give the promise of forgiveness and
salvation to the truly penitent sinner.

"Oh, might I look upon her once more!" sobbed Magdalena with convulsive
effort. "One last look! not a word shall tell her--it is--her unhappy
mother--who gives her--a last blessing!"

The Ober-Amtmann left the room. In a few minutes he returned, leading
Bertha by the hand. But Magdalena was already speechless. The fair girl
knelt by the side of the mattrass, sobbing bitterly--she herself
scarcely knew why. Was it only the sight of death, of the last parting
of the soul, that thus affected her? Was it affliction that her own
error should have contributed to hasten that unhappy woman's end? Or was
not there rather a powerful instinct within her, that, in that awful
moment, bound her by a sympathetic tie to her unknown mother, and
conveyed a portion of that last agony of the departing woman to her own
heart?

Magdalena, although she could not speak, was evidently aware of the
presence of the gentle girl. She still moved her lips, as if begging a
blessing on her head, and fixed upon that mild face, now bathed in
tears, the last look of her fading eyes. And now the eyes grew dim and
senseless, although the spirit seemed still to struggle within for
sight; now they closed--the whole frame of the prostrate woman
shuddered, and Margaret Weilheim--the repentant Magdalena--was a corpse.

Some time after these events, the Ober-Amtmann retired from his high
office, and after a seclusion of some duration with his brother, at
Fulda, finally betook himself to a monastery, where he remained until
his death.

Before his retirement from the world, however, he had consented, not
without some difficulty, to the union of Bertha and Gottlob. The Prince
Bishop, unforgetful of the claims of the unfortunate Magdalena, had
urged upon his brother the duty of making this concession to the dying
wishes of the wronged mother, as well as to the evident affection of
Bertha for the young artist, which, although unknown even to herself,
was no less powerful. As Gottlob, although of a ruined and impoverished
family, wa