
probably to that misfortune had been indebted for his life; since the difficulty
of transporting him on horseback, when unable to sit upright, had compelled the
party charged with his care to leave him for the night at Waldenhausen. From
that place he had been carried off in the night-time to a small Imperial
garrison in the neighbourhood by the care of two faithful servants, who had
found little difficulty in first intoxicating, and then overpowering, the small
guard judged sufficient for a prisoner so completely disabled by his wounds. In
this garrison he had recovered; had corresponded with Vienna; had concerted
measures with the Emperor; and was now on the point of giving full effect to
their plans, at the moment when certain circumstances should arise to favour the
scheme. What these were, he forbore designedly to say in a letter which ran some
risk of falling into the enemy's hands; but he bade Paulina speedily to expect a
great change for the better, which would put it in their power to meet without
restraint or fear, - and concluded by giving utterance in the fondest terms to a
lover's hopes and tenderest anxieties.
    Paulina had scarcely recovered from the tumultuous sensations of pleasure,
and sudden restoration to hope, when she received a shock in the opposite
direction, from a summons to attend the Landgrave. The language of the message
was imperative, and more peremptory than had ever before been addressed to
herself, a lady of the Imperial family. She knew the Landgrave's character and
his present position; both these alarmed her, when connected with the style and
language of his summons. For that announced distinctly enough that his
resolution had been now taken to commit himself to a bold course, - no longer to
hang doubtfully between two policies, but openly to throw himself into the arms
of the Emperor's enemies. In one view, Paulina found a benefit to her spirits
from this haughtiness of the Landgrave's message. She was neither proud, nor apt
to take offence. On the contrary, she was gentle and meek; for the impulses of
youth and elevated birth had in her been chastened by her early acquaintance
with great national calamities, and the enlarged sympathy which that had bred
with her fellow-creatures of every rank. But she felt that, in this superfluous
expression of authority, the Landgrave was at the same time infringing the
rights of hospitality and her own privileges of sex. Indignation at his unmanly
conduct gave her spirits to face him, though she apprehended a scene of
violence, and had the more reason to feel the trepidations of uncertainty
because she very
