will not break my oath! No one but Moritz shall ever be my
husband!"

"Unhappy girl," cried the old man, sadly, "I will give you one last
inducement. I know not whether you have any knowledge of Moritz's
past life, so tried and painful, which has made him easily excited and
eccentric. A danger menaces him worse than imprisonment or death. His
unaccustomed life, and the solitude of his dark, damp prison, is
causing a fearful excitement in him. He is habituated to intellectual
occupation. When he is obliged to put on the prisoner's jacket in the
house of correction and spin wool, it will not kill him--it will make
him mad!"

A piercing cry was Marie's answer. "That is not true--it is impossible.
He crazy!--you only say that to compel me to do what you will. His
bright mind could not be obscured through the severest proofs."

"You do not believe me? You think that an old man, with gray hair, and
one foot in the grave, and who loves Moritz, could tell you a shameful
untruth! I swear to you by the heads of my children, by all that is
holy, that Moritz already suffers from an excitement of the brain; and
if he does not soon have liberty and mental occupation, it is almost
certain that he will become insane."

Almost convulsed with anguish, Marie seized the old man's hand with
fierce passion. "He shall not be crazed," she shrieked. "He shall not
suffer--he shall not be imprisoned and buried in the house of correction
on my account. I will rescue him--I and my love! I am prepared to do
what the king commands! I will--marry the man--which--my parents have
chosen. But--tell me, will he then be free?"

"To-day even--in three hours, my poor child!"

"Free! And I shall have saved him! Tell me what I have to do. What is
the king's will?"

"First sign this document," said the director, as he drew a second
paper. "It runs thus: 'I, Marie von Leuthen, that of my own free will
and consent I will renounce every other engagement, and will marry Herr
Ebenstreit von Leuthen, and be a faithful wife to him. I witness with my
signature the same.'"

"Give it to me quickly," she gasped. "I will sign it! He must be free!
He shall not go mad!"

She rapidly signed the paper. "Here is my sentence of death! But he will
live! Take it!"

"My child," cried the old man, deeply agitated, "God will be mindful of
this sacrifice, and in the hour of death it will beam brightly upon you.
You have by this act rescued a noble and excellent being, an