152 The Brothers ofGoschenen. 



H is alllightningrseared now. From that spot we fired, and many a 

 jest passed, and many a cheek flushed with triumph or vexation, as 

 one after the other tried their skill in the presence of those they 

 loved. As I passed Louise to the shooting station she laughingly 

 wished me success. I never wished for it so much before. I fired ; 

 and my shot surpassing those of all who had preceded me, grazed 

 the central spot of the target. Louise held out her hand, and wished 

 me joy. Oh, how happy I was, and I hardly knew why. I stood be- 

 side her in silence, and there passed over my soul a flood of burning 

 thoughts whose currents dashed and jostled like those of a whirlpool. 

 It was love, that passion which, while I knew it not, had steeped every 

 thought in its maddening poison. All was dim and undefined; but, 

 oh ! glorious as paradise. I had thought of Louise as ours as being 

 to Franz what she was to me our sister our dear sister her 

 without whom to either of us the world would have been sunless. 

 Now there was a dim idea of her being mine, and with the half- 

 formed thought there passed over heart and brain a gush of ecstacy 

 that incapacitated me for fully comprehending the thought that made 

 me so blessed. 



" * I stood, I said, beside her. Franz walked to the shooting sta- 

 tion. She wished him success too. There was something in the 

 tone of her voice that made me turn to look. She smiled not as she 

 had done before. With a quick glance she raised her eyes to those 

 of Franz while she uttered the words, and then her curls fell over her 

 flushed cheek as she stooped forward to examine a ribbon in the dress 

 of one of the girls that sat beside her. As f gazed the truth dawned 

 upon me my hell was begun. 



" * I turned to look at Franz, who was arranging the sight of his 

 rifle. Louise put her hand upon my shoulder. I felt her heart throb 

 as she leant against me, and her hurried breathing fanned my cheek. 

 He raised his rifle her heart beat quicker. He fired, and as the 

 marker pointed out the shot deep in the centre of the target, there 

 was a long happy sigh ; her hand pressed on my shoulder no longer, 

 and as I turned she [was again seated on the root of the old beech, 

 stooping to arrange the wild flowers in the hair of the child at her 

 knee. Every look of Louise every incident of that day is en- 

 graved here as on adamant. Oh, could I tell how I have been tried ; 

 how I have writhed under the torture of my own thoughts till my 

 brain reeled in the 'agony. Could I lead you, step by step, and 

 thought by thought, down into that abyss where I am now ; could 

 you have felt as I have felt, and loved as I have loved loved, till 

 heaven itself was nothing in the balance oh, father ! father ! you 

 would then think it no sin to fall when tempted as I have been.' 



'* The old man paused," continued the Capuchin, " clutching my 

 arm, fixing his grey spectral eye on mine, and breathing short and 

 gaspingly. For several minutes we sat thus, until my flesh crept 

 under his gaze. He went on 



*" I hardly remember how I spent that night. I wandered from 

 the rifle match up the valley. The wind came sharp and gusty from 

 the snows of the Gallenstock, and the swollen Reuss roared beneath. 

 But the cold wind brought no cooling to my burning brow. I de- 



