hilip, uncovering his face. "My angel has changed into a
despicable woman. I loved her as the wretched, disconsolate being adores
the one who reveals paradise to him; and she fooled me into the belief
that she loved me. We exchanged vows of eternal constancy and affection,
and promised each other to bear joyfully every ill in life, and never
separate until death. I should have doubted myself, rather than she who
stood above me, like a divine revelation. I wished to win her by toil
and industry, by my intellect, and the fame by which I could render my
name illustrious. It was, indeed, nothing in the eyes of her grasping
parents; they repulsed me with scorn and pride, but Marie encouraged
me to perfect confidence in her affection. Whilst I wandered on foot to
Silesia, like a poor pilgrim toward happiness, to humble myself before
the king, to beg and combat for my angel, there came temptation, sin,
and vulgarity, in the form of this pale, cowed-down man, who stands
beside my betrothed gasping with rage. The temptation of riches changed
my angel into a demon, a miserable woman bartered for gold! She betrayed
her love, yielding it up for filthy lucre, crushing her nobler nature
in the dust, and driving over it, as did Tullia the dead body of her
father. She sold herself for riches, before which you all kneel, as if
worshipping the golden calf! After selling her soul to a man whom she
despised, even if he were not rich, she has had the boldness to summon
me, the down-trodden and half-crazed victim, to her gilded palace, as if
I were a slave to be attached to her triumphal car. I am a free man, and
have come here only to hurl contempt in her face, to brand her before
you all as a perjurer and a traitress, whom I never will pardon, but
will curse with my latest breath! Now I have relieved my heart of its
burden, I command this woman to deny what I have said, if she can."

With a dictatorial wave of the hand, he pointed excitedly Marie. A
deathlike stillness reigned. Even the lights seemed to grow dim, and
every one was oppressed as if by excessive sultriness.

Again Moritz commanded Marie to acknowledge the truth of his accusations
before the honored assembly.

She encountered his angry glance with calmness, and a smile was
perceptible upon her lip. "Yes, said she, I acknowledge that I am a
perjurer and a traitor. I have sold myself for riches, and yielded my
peace of soul and my love for mammon. I might justify myself, but I