sustained her of realising the ambitious dreams of her life fade away at
the very moment when she had expected their full accomplishment.

All at once Rodolph raised his head, dashed away his tears, and, rising
from his chair, advanced towards Sarah with folded arms and dignified,
determined air. After silently gazing on her for some moments, he said:

"'Tis fair and right it should be so! I raised my sword against my
father's life, and I am stricken through my own child! The parricide is
worthily punished for his sin! Then, listen to me, madame! 'Tis fit you
should learn in this agonising moment all the evils which have been
brought about by your insatiate ambition, your unprincipled selfishness!
Listen, then, heartless and unfeeling wife, base and unnatural mother!"

"Mercy, mercy! Rodolph, pity me, and spare me!"

"There is no pity, there can be no pardon for such as you, who coldly
trafficked in a love pure and sincere as was mine, with the assumed
pretext of sharing a passion generous and devoted as was my own for you.
There can be no pity for her who excites the son against the father, no
pardon for the unnatural parent who, instead of carefully watching over
the infancy of her child, abandons it to the care of vile mercenaries,
in order to satisfy her grasping avarice by a rich marriage, as you
formerly gratified your inordinate ambition by espousing me. No! There
is no mercy, pity, or pardon for one who, like yourself, first refuses
my child to all my prayers and entreaties, and afterwards, by a series
of profane and vile machinations, causes her death! May Heaven's curse
light on you, as mine does, thou evil genius of myself and all belonging
to me!"

"He has no relenting pity in his heart! He is deaf to all my appeals!
Wretched woman that I am! Oh, leave me--leave me--I beseech!"

"Nay, you shall hear me out! Do you remember our last meeting, now
seventeen years ago? You were unable longer to conceal the consequences
of our secret marriage, which, like you, I believed indissoluble. I well
knew the inflexible character of my father, as well as the political
marriage he wished me to form; but braving alike his displeasure and its
results, I boldly declared to him that you were my wife before God and
man, and that ere long you would bring into the world a proof of our
love. My father's rage was terrible; he refused to believe in our union.
Such startling opposition to his will appeared to him impossible; and