596 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



with the malignity of a fiend ; and will not hesitate on the means of effecting 

 your ruin, whenever it becomes necessary to his purposes/ 



" ' Bertha/ said Waldemar, ' you speak in riddles/ 



" ' Question me no further, dearest Waldemar/ pursued the damsel ; " my 

 lips are sealed ; nay, were even this our interview discovered, the penalty 

 would be dreadful. ' But, hist ! I hear footsteps ! leave me, I implore you 

 for my sake, if not for your own, leave me instantly !' 



" B'efore, however, he could reply, a rustling was heard in an adjacent 

 thicket, and, immediately after, baron Spit?,vogel stood before the lovers. 



" ' It grieves me/ he said, with his usual sardonic smile, ' to interrupt so 

 interesting a tete-a-tete, and so admirably contrived, both as to time and 

 place ; but, unless you especially desire the participation of the young lady's 

 father in the conference, I would counsel an immediate adjournment. I 

 marked the old gentleman coming up the avenue, and looking marvellously as 

 if he snuffed a plot. Nay, not that way, or you will walk into the lion's 

 mouth. There is but one path for you both through the arch yonder. 

 Haste ! he approaches ; I will endeavour to keep the ground until you have 

 put the ruins between you and him, and then you are safe/ 



" The young pair had scarcely disappeared through the arch, which the 

 cynic had pointed out, than Schlaukopf stood on the spot which they had 

 just occupied. 



" ' Good evening to you, baron' was the minister's salutation : ' have you 

 seen my daughter ?' 



" ' Very possibly I have/ was the answer ; ' but I do not keep a register of 

 all the butterflies which flit about my path/ 



" ' Nay, baron/ rejoined the other, ' you misapprehend me : I mean, have 

 you seen her in the park here within these last few minutes :' 

 Had she on a green mantle ?' inquired Spitzvogel. 

 No/ replied the minister. 

 O, then' pursued the cynic, with the most provoking simplicity, ' it was 



the scarlet one ; I do remember me ' 



Baron !' exalaimed Schlaukopf, ' you are trifling with me. I could 

 swear I heard my daughter's voice proceeding from about this spot, a few 

 minutes since/ 



" ' Nay/ observed Spitzvogel, ' if thou. knowest not the voice of thine own 

 child, I know not who should ; and, methinks, it were scarcely worthy thy 

 senatorial wisdom, to waste words and time, in questioning me upon a sub- 

 ject, on which thou hadst been previously satisfied by the evidence of thine 

 own senses/ 



" ' Thou compound of knave and fool !' exclaimed the minister, losing his 

 patience, and laying his hand upon his sword, 'tell me instantly by which 

 way she passed hence, or I will stab thee to the heart !' 



" Truly/ said the imperturbable Spitzvogel, ' that weapon of thine is an 

 awkward instrument for worming out a secret, seeing that dead men are not 

 given to telling tales/ 

 " ' Villain !' roared the other, ' know you to whom you speak ?' 



" ' Ay, that do I, sir councillor/ was the calm reply"; ' I know thee for an 

 unnatural parent, and a bribed traitor ; for one who hath sold his child to a 

 robber, aud his prince to a tyrant/ 



" ' Thy knowledge perish" with thee, then !' vociferated Schlaukopf, un- 

 sheathing his weapon, and attacking Spitzvogel. 



" ' Nay, there go two words to that bargain;' returned the latter, pre- 

 serving his equanimity, but, at the same instant, drawing his sword with 

 equal celerity, and using it with so much coolness and address, that, after a 

 few passes, by a manoeuvre, which savoured of sleight of hand, he struck the 

 weapon from his antagonist's grasp, whence it sprang upwards into a tree, 

 and hung, glittering in the sunlight, on a branch. 





