through the
agency of her lover, unexpected on her part, and unconscious on his, proved so
equally gratifying to the passion for the marvellous and the interest in
youthful love that no other or truer version of the case could ever obtain a
popular acceptance in the camp, or afterwards in Klosterheim. And, had it been
the express purpose of Maximilian to found a belief, for his own future benefit,
of a providential sanction vouchsafed to his connexion with the Lady Paulina, he
could not, by the best arranged contrivances, have more fully attained that end.
    It was yet short of midnight by more than an hour; and therefore, on the
suggestion of Maximilian, who reported the roads across the forest perfectly
quiet, and alleged some arguments for quieting the general apprehension for this
night, the travellers and troops retired to rest, as the best means of preparing
them to face the trials of the two next days. It was judged requisite, however,
to strengthen the night-guard very considerably, and to relieve it at least
every two hours. That the poor sentinel on the forest side of the encampment had
been in some mysterious way trepanned upon his post was now too clearly
ascertained, for he was missing; and the character of the man, no less than the
absence of all intelligible temptation to such an act, forbade the suspicion of
his having deserted. On this quarter, therefore, a file of select marksmen was
stationed, with directions instantly to pick off every moving figure that showed
itself within their range. Of these men Maximilian himself took the command, and
by this means he obtained the opportunity, so enviable to one long separated
from his mistress, of occasionally conversing with her, and of watching over her
safety. In one point he showed a distinguished control over his inclinations;
for, much as he had to tell her, and ardently as he longed for communicating
with her on various subjects of common interest, he would not suffer her to keep
the window down for more than a minute or two in so dreadful a state of the
atmosphere. She, on her part, exacted a promise from him that he would leave his
station at three o'clock in the morning. Meantime, as on the one hand she felt
touched by this proof of her lover's solicitude for her safety, so, on the
other, she was less anxious on his account, from the knowledge she had of his
long habituation to the hardships of a camp, with which, indeed, he had been
familiar from his childish days. Thus debarred from conversing with her lover,