perhaps show mercy to my
poor old father!'"--

Prince Alexander averted his head as he listened to these mournful
details.

"She is at rest, then?"--said he, after a pause.

"Before nightfall, sir, she was released."--

"Return in all haste to Dalem, Rinaldo," rejoined the prince, "and
complete your work of mercy, by seeing all honours of interment that
the times admit, bestowed on the daughter of the Comte de Cergny!"

Weary and exhausted as he was, not a murmur escaped the lips of the
faithful Rinaldo as he mounted his horse, and hastened to the
discharge of his new duty. For though habituated by the details of
that cruel and desolating warfare to spectacles of horror--the
youth--the beauty--the innocence--the agonies of Ulrica, had touched
him to the heart; nor was the tress of her fair hair worn next the
heart of Don John of Austria, more fondly treasured, than the one
this rude soldier had shorn from the brow of death, in the ward of a
public hospital, albeit its silken gloss was tinged with blood!--

Scarcely a month had elapsed after the storming of Dalem, when a
terrible rumour went forth in the camp of Bouge, (where Don John had
intrenched his division of the royalist army,) that the governor of
the Netherlands was attacked by fatal indisposition!--For some weeks
past, indeed, his strength and spirit had been declining. When at the
village of Rymenam on the Dyle, near Mechlin, (not far from the ferry
of the wood,) he suffered himself to be surprised by the English
troops under Horn, and the Scotch under Robert Stuart, the unusual
circumstance of the defeat of so able a general was universally
attributed to prostration of bodily strength.

When it was soon afterwards intimated to the army that he had ceded
the command to his nephew, Prince Alexander Farnese, regret for the
origin of his secession superseded every other consideration.

For the word had gone forth that he was to die!--In the full vigour
of his manhood and energy of his soul, a fatal blow had reached Don
John of Austria!--

A vague but horrible accusation of poison was generally
prevalent!--For his leniency towards the Protestants had engendered a
suspicion of heresy, and the orthodoxy of Philip II. was known to be
remorseless; and the agency of Ottavio Gonzaga at hand!--

But the kinsman who loved and attended him knew better. From the
moment Prince Alexander beheld the ring of Ulrica glittering on his
wasted hand, he entertained no