the mastery and, with a wailing shriek for help, she cried
out:

"Irma! Irma!" and "Irma, Irma," was echoed again and again from the
mountains. The whole world was shouting Irma's name.

Irma was still lying within the room, and Gunther was sitting at her
bedside. Her breathing was difficult. She scarcely ever turned her
head, and only now and then slightly opened her eyes.

Gunther had taken Eberhard's note-book with him, and found an
opportunity to read these words of his to Irma: "May this serve to
enlighten me on the day and in the hour when my mind becomes obscured."

When he read the words: "God yet dwells in that which, to us, seems
lost and ruined," Irma raised herself, but she soon leaned back again
and beckoned him to proceed. He read: "And should my eye be dimmed in
death--I have beheld the eternal One--My eyes have penetrated eternity.
Free from distortion and self-destruction, the immortal spirit soars
aloft."

Gunther stopped and laid the note-book on Irma's bed. She rested her
hand upon it. After a while she raised her hand and, pressing it to her
brow, said, while she closed her eyes:

"And yet he chastised me!"

"Whatever he may have done to you, was not done with his free, pure
will. A paroxysm, a relapse into mortality, affected it. In the spirit
of your father, and as surely as I hope that truth may dwell with me in
my own dying hour, I forgive you. You have achieved your own pardon.
Forgive him, as he has surely forgiven you. He would bless you now, as
I bless you. Remember him lovingly, for the sake of the love he bore
you."

Irma seized the hand which Gunther had laid upon her brow, and kissed
it. Then, without turning around, and as if speaking to herself, she
said: "Stay with me," again and again.

For hours, Gunther sat by her bedside. Not a sound was heard but her
painful breathing, which was gradually becoming more and more
difficult.

And now, when the mountains echoed her name again and again, Irma
raised her head and looked to right and left. "Do you hear it, too?"
she asked. "My name--voices, voices everywhere! Voices--" The door
opened, and the queen entered the room.

"Oh! at last you are here!" gasped Irma, with a deep sigh. Gathering
all the strength yet left her, she raised herself up and knelt in the
bed. Her long hair fell over her, her eyes sparkled with a strange
luster. She folded her hands and, stretching out her arms, she cried,
in heart-rending tones:

"Forgi