e Commonwealth!

* * * * * * * *

"How easily a man may ruin the happiness of others in a single instant;
and in a long lifetime he cannot restore it! One word from the Pantler,
and how happy we should have been! Who knows? Perhaps we should be living
still; perhaps he too, with his beloved child--with his fair Eva--and with
her grateful husband, would have grown old in peace! perhaps he would have
rocked to sleep his grandchildren! But now? He has destroyed us both--and
he himself--and that murder--and all the consequences of that crime, all my
sufferings and transgressions! I have no right to accuse him, I am his
slayer; I have no right to accuse him, I forgive him from my heart--but he
too----

* * * * * * * *

"If he had but once openly refused me--for he knew our feelings--if he had
not received my visits, then who knows? Perhaps I should have gone away,
have become enraged, have cursed him, and finally have left him in peace.
But he, the proud and cunning lord, formed a new plan; he pretended that
it had never even entered his head that I could strive for such a union.
But he needed me, I had influence among the gentry and every one in the
district liked me. So he feigned not to notice my love; he welcomed me as
before and even insisted that I should come more often; but whenever we
were alone together, seeing my eyes darkened with tears and my heart
over-full and ready to burst forth, the sly old man would suddenly throw
in some indifferent word about lawsuits, district diets, or hunting----

* * * * * * * *

"Ah, often over the winecups, when he was in a melting mood, when he
clasped me so closely and assured me of his friendship, since he needed my
sabre or my vote at the diet, and when in return I was forced to clasp him
in friendly wise, then anger would so boil up within me that I would turn
the spittle within my lips and clasp my sword hilt with my hand, longing
to spit upon this friendship and to draw the sword at once. But Eva,
noticing my glance and my bearing, would guess, I know not how, what was
passing within me, and would gaze at me imploringly, and her face would
turn pale; and she was so fair and meek a dove, and she had so gentle and
serene a glance!--so angel-like that--I know not how--but I lacked the
courage to anger or alarm her--and I held my peace. And I, a roistering
champion famous through all Lith