LI B RAFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N IVLR.5ITY 
 or ILLI NOIS 
 
 823 
 R6Gs 
 
 V.I 
 
r 
 
STURMER; 
 
 A TALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 WITH 
 
 OTHER SKETCHES FROM LIFE. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BV SAMUEL BENTLEV, 
 
 Bangor House, Shoe Lane. 
 
'/^..=^-#.-v^. 
 
 /l:;^^^yl^. 
 
 STURMER; 
 
 A TALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
 
 OTHER SKETCHES FROM LIFE. 
 
 BY ISABELLA F. ROMER. 
 
 " Truth severe by fairy Fiction dressed." 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 184i:. 
 
D-l 
 
 i 
 
 t- STURMER, 
 
 (^ A TALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 :5" There are more things in heaven and earth, Hoi-atio, 
 
 ' Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/sturmertaleofmes01rome 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There are mysteries in and about us, which are not the 
 more to be questioned because they cannot be expounded. 
 
 Galt. 
 
 In an age like the present, and in a country 
 like England, where "the march of intellect" 
 halts not, and where the diffusion of knowledge 
 has become universal, (thanks to the Penny 
 Magazines and Encyclopaedias, — those literary 
 railroads to the Temple of Science, which 
 rapidly whirl all classes thither without toil or 
 fatigue, — perhaps, also, without giving them 
 time to obtain more than a superficial view of 
 the ground they are so smoothly carried over,) 
 it would be little less than insult to suppose 
 that any person can remain ignorant of the 
 
 b2 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 principles and properties of animal magnetism, 
 or of the extraordinary physical phenomena 
 developed by it in the human frame. Of its 
 action upon the mind, — a subject of the highest 
 philosophical interest, — little is yet known in 
 England, and still less believed; for it is 
 strange, but true, that in this same enlightened 
 country, prejudice and fanatical scruples (far 
 more difficult assailants to contend with than 
 mere ignorance) have arranged themselves in 
 battle array against the introduction of this 
 wonderful discovery as an auxiliary to the heal- 
 ing art; and the few liberal and philanthropic 
 individuals who have struggled to bring it into 
 practice for the relief of suffering humanity, 
 have been treated (in all save imprisonment) 
 as Galileo was in a darker age, when, in the 
 teeth of bigoted persecution, he boldly main- 
 tained that the earth revolved round the sun ! 
 Perhaps time may do for them what it has 
 done for "the starry Florentine;" and suc- 
 ceeding ages, while wondering at the obtuse- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 ness that overlooked practical results to dwell 
 sneeringly upon wild theories, vindicate the 
 memory and applaud the exertions of those 
 who are now branded as impostors, dupes, or, 
 at the best, shallow enthusiasts; for it is not 
 less true that the earth turns round the sun, 
 than that there exists in some human organ- 
 isations a latent principle which only requires 
 to be called into action by the mysterious 
 agency of Animal Magnetism, in order to pro- 
 duce a result so astonishing, that I will admit 
 it must he seen to be believed, — namely, the phe- 
 nomena of the body being plunged into a death- 
 like slumber and insensibility to pain, while 
 the mind, apparently emancipated from the 
 thraldom of matter, takes a range which, in 
 a waking state, it never could have aspired to ; 
 sees, comprehends, and discusses subjects of 
 which it was previously ignorant; is endued 
 with previsional faculties; and, when aroused 
 from the magnetic trance, is utterly unconscious 
 of all that occurred while it lasted. 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The writer of these pages, in thus express- 
 ing herself, affirms only what she has witnessed. 
 Originally sceptical upon the subject, she was 
 yet willing to be convinced by the testimony 
 of her own senses, and shrank equally from the 
 injustice of withholding, or the weakness of ac- 
 cording, belief upon mere hearsay; and, in 
 order to preclude the possibility of deception, 
 submitted herself, in the first instance, to a 
 series of experiments, under the direction of 
 a skilful and experienced physician. Dr. C— , 
 of Vienna. Deep sleep and insensibihty to 
 pain, and what is technically called lucidity, 
 were successively produced in her; and al- 
 though she has no recollection of anything that 
 occurred during those experiments, except her 
 own energetic struggles to resist the sleep that 
 was stealing over her and at last locked all 
 her senses in oblivion, the notes that were 
 taken of all that occurred on these occasions 
 by a friend who was present, were a startling 
 evidence to her of not merely the existence 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 of the magnetic principle, but of its wonder- 
 ful and mysterious influence upon mind as 
 well as matter. The results in her case fell 
 far short of those she has since witnessed in 
 others ; but they were sufficient to set her pre- 
 vious doubts at rest for ever, and to awaken 
 in her mind a train of conflicting reflections as 
 to the incalculable benefits that may be de- 
 rived from Animal Magnetism when properly 
 and conscientiously exercised, and the dread- 
 ful abuses to which it is liable from the ex- 
 traordinary moral ascendancy obtained by the 
 magnetizer over the magnetized, — an ascen- 
 dancy which, in the hands of a corrupt and 
 unprincipled person, may be, and has been, 
 turned to the most dishonourable purposes. 
 The trust should, therefore, never be lightly 
 confided, and the character and habits of mag- 
 netizers should be thoroughly ascertained be- 
 fore they are invested with the awful respon- 
 sibility which attaches to their functions, or 
 suffered to exercise an agency which may shed 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 its influence either "as airs from heaven or 
 blasts from hell" over the moral as well as the 
 physical being of the persons who are for a 
 time spell-bound under the dominion of their 
 will; and therefore unaccountable for the ac- 
 tions to which that will may lead them. 
 
 When the writer of these pages was in Ger- 
 many, where magnetism is more thoroughly un- 
 derstood and more extensively practised than 
 in England, many miraculous cases were re- 
 lated to her of cures performed by it when 
 all the art of medicine had failed in bringing 
 relief; and among others, one instance which 
 so forcibly illustrated her previous opinions of 
 its uses and abuses, that she made notes of the 
 occurrence at the time she heard it, and has 
 since been prevailed upon by a dear friend and 
 enthusiastic disciple of Mesmerism, to draw 
 those notes from the deep recesses of her 
 " Scrap Book," and give them to light in their 
 present form. 
 
STURMER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 
 
 St. Mark, chap. v. verse 39. 
 
 It was on a stormy evening, in the latter 
 end of October of the year 18 — , that a young 
 student, who was travelling on foot from Dres- 
 den to Prague through that romantic region 
 which divides the kingdoms of Saxony and Bo- 
 hemia, and is known by the name of the Saxon 
 Switzerland, was overtaken by the tempest 
 before he could reach the little inn at the 
 Bastei, where he intended to pass the night, 
 and was induced to apply for shelter from " the 
 pitiless pelting storm" at a lone house situated 
 
 b5 
 
10 STURMER. 
 
 on the skirts of the Ottowalder-grund. The 
 wind rushing through the trees and whirling 
 their last withered leaves in eddies to the 
 ground, and the hoarse dashing of the angry 
 Elbe, apparently overpowered his efforts to 
 make himself overheard by the inhabitants of 
 the house; for, although he perceived lights 
 from the upper casements, he was left standing 
 at the entrance, exposed to all the fury of the 
 elements. 
 
 At last, after applying his thick, knotted 
 walking-stick to the door with such force that 
 the noise resounded through the house, a step 
 was heard in the passage, the bolts were with- 
 drawn, and an elderly servant woman cautiously 
 opened just enough of the door to enable her 
 to ascertain who was the intruder. The tra- 
 veller, in a very few words, made known his 
 wants. Probably his countenance spoke in his 
 favour; for the woman, observing that "it was 
 no weather to keep a dog out of doors," with- 
 out further hesitation admitted him. 
 
STURMER. 11 
 
 " You come in an unlucky moment," said 
 she, ushering him into a sitting-room on the 
 ground-floor ; " you will find but poor accom- 
 modation with us to-night; we are all in a 
 bustle — there is death in the house, and my 
 poor master and mistress are beside them- 
 selves." 
 
 The stranger assured her that the permis- 
 sion to dry his clothes, and to pass the night 
 in an arm-chair under shelter, was all that he 
 required of her ; that he would not intrude him- 
 self upon the family, and that by daybreak on 
 the morrow he should proceed on his way. 
 
 The woman assented to the reasonableness 
 of this proposal, and, having left the room, re- 
 turned presently with some cold meat and 
 bread, a flask of beer, and one of those enor- 
 mous drinking-glasses that are used in Saxony, 
 which she placed upon a little table before him ; 
 and after replenishing the fire in the stove she 
 wished him good- night and left him alone. 
 
 When the young man had refreshed himself 
 
12 STURMER. 
 
 with the homely fare set before him, he turned 
 his attention to the apartment in which he 
 found himself, and began to inspect it in its 
 details ; everything there was simple and hum- 
 ble, but there were the evidences of feminine 
 taste and good order in the midst of its home- 
 liness. An old piano stood in one corner ; some 
 plain book- shelves filled with a tolerable col- 
 lection of books, a tapestry-frame with its ac- 
 companying worsted-baskets, a writing-table, a 
 stand of beautiful flowers, and a cage of canary- 
 birds, made up the remainder of the furniture. 
 The walls were hung with several well executed 
 water-coloured views of the neighbouring pic- 
 turesque sites ; but the most remarkable object 
 in the room was an oil-painting suspended over 
 the piano, representing a young girl apparently 
 fourteen or fifteen years of age, of such ex- 
 quisite and ethereal beauty, that he w^ould have 
 supposed it to be a fancy picture, but for the 
 name of Charlotte which was carved upon the 
 
STURMER. 13 
 
 frame. Beneath it was suspended a faded chap- 
 let of white roses. 
 
 There was something in the expression of 
 that lovely countenance that irresistibly at- 
 tracted the stranger's attention ; " all youth, 
 but with an aspect beyond time," the pensive 
 smile seemed not to belong to this world ; he 
 returned more than once to examine it, and when 
 at last he stretched himself upon the sofa to 
 sleep, those large blue eyes, and that high 
 thoughtful brow, were mingled with his dreams. 
 
 He had not slept above two hours, when a 
 noise in the hitherto quiet house aroused him ; 
 he started up, rubbed his eyes, remembered 
 where he was, and then listened. There was 
 an opening and shutting of doors above, the 
 sound of hurried footsteps upon the stairs, 
 and as he opened the door to ascertain the 
 cause, he encountered the old woman already 
 alluded to, in an agony of tears. 
 
 "Oh, sir!" she sobbed forth almost inar- 
 
14 STURMER. 
 
 ticulately, " it is all over with the Frauleiii 
 Lolotte, poor dear child ! she is at the last 
 gasp — and I have not courage to see her 
 die ! My poor mistress will die too ; and to 
 think of the unfeeling doctor refusing to pass 
 the night here, though I begged him upon my 
 knees not to leave us ! Oh ! what shall I do, 
 what shall I do !" 
 
 " What is the meaning of all this ? " said 
 the stranger. " A doctor did you say ? per- 
 haps then I may be of use, for I have studied 
 medicine." 
 
 " Oh, sir I it is too late to be of any use 
 to our poor dear young lady ; Doctor Schramm 
 said, before he went back to Schandau, that 
 she would not pass through the night, land that 
 there would be no use in his remaining; but 
 now that it has come to the last, my mistress 
 has not courage to bear her up through the 
 scene ; she goes out of one faint into another, 
 — she will die too ! O sir, she will die too !" 
 
 " Show me up stairs," said the young man ; 
 
STURMER. 15 
 
 " perhaps I may be of use ; at all events it is 
 well worth trying." And without waiting for 
 an answer he bounded up the narrow stair- 
 case, followed by the old servant, and entering 
 the first open door on the landing-place found 
 himself in the chamber of death. 
 
 Upon a little white bed, which had been 
 drawn into the centre of the room, was stretched 
 a young girl, in whose wan and delicate fea- 
 tures he recognised the original of the picture 
 which had so forcibly struck him a few hours 
 before ; one of her hands was clasped in those 
 of a female who knelt on the ground at one 
 side of the couch, her face buried in the bed- 
 clothes, in an attitude of the most helpless 
 despair ; on the other side knelt an aged man, 
 his long white hair falling on his shoulders, his 
 streaming eyes raised to heaven, and his hands 
 joined in mute supplication, for the unuttered 
 prayer died upon his trembUng lips. The 
 stranger approached the bed and gazed upon 
 the countenance of the dying girl, over which 
 
16 STURMER. 
 
 a strong light was cast by the lamp which stood 
 upon the table near it. Her eyes were closed, 
 and through their transparent lids the blue orbs 
 were discernible, fixed as though in death ; the 
 foam that stood upon her parted lips told of 
 the struggle that had recently taken place ; and 
 the chill dews that were gathering on her brow 
 seemed to be the harbingers of instant disso- 
 lution. He placed his hand upon her heart 
 — its pulsations were weak and uncertain ; he 
 took the hand that lay upon the coverlet in 
 apparent lifelessness — it was cold and clammy, 
 and while he yet held it the pulse fluttered and 
 then stopped. 
 
 There was something in the whole scene which 
 struck powerfully upon the heart of the young 
 man who had thus so strangely become a witness 
 to it ; — the raging of the storm without — the 
 silent sorrow within — the solemn midnight 
 hour — all conspired to fill him with the deep- 
 est emotion, and to invest a naturally exalted 
 imagination with the most superstitious fancies. 
 
STURMER. 17 
 
 «' Would to heaven that I could save her," thought 
 he ; " and why should I not try ? Something 
 within me tells me that I shall succeed ; I feel 
 that I have been sent here for some especial 
 purpose; I feel as though endued with a 
 power to scare away death from its prey, and to 
 infuse into that almost breathless frame the 
 Ufe and warmth that animate my own ! " Then 
 turning to the old man, he continued aloud, 
 " Life is not quite extinct, but it hangs by a 
 fragile thread; still there is a hope, and I feel 
 as though it would not be a fallacious one; 
 allow me to take your place for a moment." 
 And the old man, as if subjugated by the tone 
 of confidence which the young one had as- 
 sumed, moved silently away, and took his 
 station at the foot of the bed, his eyes fixed 
 upon him in wondering anxiety. 
 
 The stranger who still retained the hand he 
 had taken of the inanimate girl, gently disen- 
 gaged the other one from the grasp of her 
 apparently unconscious mother, and held them 
 
18 STURMER. 
 
 for some moments in his ov/n, with his eyes 
 fixed upon her death-like countenance; then 
 stooping down he breathed upon her forehead, 
 appUed the tips of his fingers to it, and drew them 
 downwards to her feet without coming in con- 
 tact with her limbs. He continued these mani- 
 pulations for some minutes without producing 
 any apparent effect, but with a concentrated 
 energy that seemed to absorb all his faculties. 
 At last a slight change became perceptible in 
 the countenance of the young person; her 
 features lost their rigidity; the ashy paleness 
 that had overspread them gave way to hues less 
 livid; tears stole through the long lashes that 
 lay upon her cheeks ; and her lips moved as if 
 essaying to speak, but struggling sighs only 
 issued from them. The stranger bent over her, 
 " Tell me," said he, " what can I give you to 
 relieve you?" 
 
 " Water !" she answered, in an almost inarti- 
 culate murmur. 
 
 He poured out a glass- full from a decanter 
 
STURMER. 19 
 
 that stood upon the table, dipped his finger 
 into it, and then raising her head presented it 
 to her lips. She drank it eagerly, drew a deep 
 breath as if relieved from some painful oppres- 
 sion, and sank back upon her pillow. 
 
 " What more can I do for you ?" 
 
 " Let me sleep." 
 
 "How long?" 
 
 " Eight hours." 
 
 " Will you then awaken of yourself?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And, if I follow your injunctions, will you 
 be reheved from your sufiferings ?" 
 
 " I shall he saved!** 
 
 These answers were all made in a distinct 
 though feeble tone of voice, and as the last one 
 was articulated a smile for a moment hovered 
 around her lips. 
 
 " Sir," said the old man, for the first time 
 recovering his speech, " you perform miracles ! 
 for the last twelve hours our poor Lolotte has 
 been speechless and insensible, and we were 
 
20 STURMER. 
 
 told that in that state she would die ; and yet 
 by a look you have restored her lost faculties ! 
 Who and ivhat are you, that have thus won- 
 derfully interposed to snatch her from death, 
 and us from despair ? " 
 
 The youth placed his finger on his lips to 
 enjoin silence, laid his watch upon the table, 
 and drew a chair to the foot of the bed for the 
 old man ; then suddenly perceiving the pro- 
 strate mother, he raised her in his arms and 
 deposited her upon a sofa at the further end of 
 the room. She was in that state of stupor and 
 exhaustion that proceeds from over tension of 
 feeling, and made no resistance to anything that 
 was done; indeed she had ceased to be con- 
 scious of what was passing around her, and 
 thus was spared the intense anxiety of the 
 moment. As for the other two persons pre- 
 sent, they scrupulously followed every implied 
 direction of the stranger who had worked such 
 wonders, and silently occupied the seats to 
 which he had pointed ; while he, having placed 
 
STURMER. 21 
 
 himself in an arm-chair close to the bed-side, 
 silently watched the countenance of the sleeper 
 during the space of two hours, and then after a 
 few ineffectual struggles to keep himself longer 
 awake, fell into a deep slumber. 
 
 His sleep was visited by harassing dreams ; 
 but fantastic and disjointed as they were, the 
 fair form of Lolotte appeared as a prominent 
 feature in each. He saw her, as but a short 
 time before he had in reality beheld her, 
 stretched apparently lifeless before him, but it 
 w^as in a different place: the cold walls of a 
 sepulchre surrounded her; the clothing of the 
 grave wrapped her rigid limbs ; her blue eyes 
 were unclosed, but fixed and glassy; her mar- 
 ble lips were parted, and although they moved 
 not, sounds issued from them like the chill 
 blast rushing from some icy cavern, and formed 
 themselves into accents that froze his heart. 
 " Seek not to bring me to life," she said, 
 " where sin and sorrow alone await me ! As 
 yet I have known neither, and happy are they 
 
22 STURMER. 
 
 who can thus early escape from the evil to 
 come. Heaven is opening to receive me ; why 
 does thy shadow interpose between me and its 
 glories? stay the impious hand that would drag 
 me down to earth ! forbear, rash man ! thou 
 knowest not what thou doest ; thou would'st 
 save my body for a time, in order to prepare 
 my soul for everlasting perdition; but death 
 must come at last, and after that the judge- 
 ment!" 
 
 Then " a change came o^er the spirit of his 
 dream." He was in a gothic church; the sun- 
 beams streamed in gorgeous tints through the 
 stained glass windows ; the organ rolled its rich 
 tones through the lofty arches in peals of 
 solemn harmony ; a bridal party stood before 
 the altar, and in the bride he again beheld the 
 countenance of Lolotte, but of Lolotte in all 
 the pride of health and beauty. He endea- 
 voured to approach her, but the crowd inter- 
 vened and prevented him ; the ceremony com- 
 menced and finished — the party moved away — 
 
STURMER. 2S 
 
 he followed them, and as they passed through the 
 church door he stretched forth his hand and 
 grasped the veil of Lolotte; at his touch, her 
 bridal chaplet of white roses became withered, 
 like that which he had seen suspended over her 
 picture in the little parlour below, and fell from 
 her brow, while the veil remained in his hand; 
 she cast upon him a mournful and imploring 
 look, and moved quickly away across the 
 churchyard ; but when he would have followed 
 her his foot stumbled over some unseen object, 
 and he fell headlong into a yawning grave. 
 
 Again there was a change in his dream. He 
 was in the streets of Prague, his native city; 
 crowds of people were pouring from all quar- 
 ters towards the old bridge that crosses the 
 Moldau, in the centre of which was erected a 
 scaffold prepared for some public execution. 
 Again was Lolotte there ! She stood at its 
 foot, clothed in black, her eyes wildly strained 
 in the direction by which the expected criminal 
 was to approach. At last he appeared, but a 
 
24 STURMER. 
 
 thick veil shrouded his features from the gazer's 
 view. As he mounted the scaffold, every steeple 
 in Prague pealed forth a death knell, but above 
 their solemn clang arose the piercing accents 
 of Lolotte. " Save him ! " she shrieked. The 
 student struggled to obey the wild entreaty, and 
 the efforts he made caused him to awaken with 
 a start ; the horrid vision was dispelled, and he 
 was aroused to that chilling sense of discomfort 
 that is occasioned by having slept long in an 
 uneasy position. Still the bells appeared to be 
 ringing in his ears, but it was only the house 
 clock striking the sixth hour of morning; and 
 as he cast his eyes around the room, now par- 
 tially lighted by the cold grey dawn, they fell 
 upon the watch he had placed upon the table, 
 and he perceived that only half an hour re- 
 mained unexpired of the eight hours which 
 Lolotte had predicted that she should remain 
 asleep. 
 
 There she lay, in a slumber so calm and pro- 
 found, that, but for the gentle and regular 
 
STURMEK. 25 
 
 breathings that visibly stirred her nightdress, 
 she might have been mistaken for an alabaster 
 statue — so pale, so placid, and so pure was that 
 virginal countenance ; all traces of suiFering had 
 vanished from it, and the small hand that lay 
 locked within his own was yielding and moist 
 as that of a sleeping infant. 
 
 The other persons had kept vigil faithfully, 
 and it was evident that during his long slum- 
 ber the mother had shaken off her stupor and 
 been made aware of all that had passed ; for she 
 had resumed her place at the bedside of her child, 
 and with eyes, in which hope and fear struggled 
 for mastery, fixed upon those loved lineaments, 
 she sat intently watching her every breath. 
 But no sooner had the student started from his 
 dream than she moved hastily towards him, and 
 grasping his hand pressed it convulsively to her 
 lips and heart. " Oh, sir ! " she at length said, 
 " she will live, will she not ? " and she fixed her 
 eyes upon his with an intensity of expectation 
 that made her gasp for breath. 
 
 VOL. I. c 
 
26 STURMER. 
 
 " She herself has pronounced that she will 
 be saved, and I firmly believe in the predic- 
 tion," was the reply. 
 
 " God bless you ! — God for ever bless you ! " 
 ejaculated the mother, while tears and sobs 
 spoke her thanks more eloquently than the 
 most studied expressions of gratitude could 
 have done. 
 
 " The blessing of the widow be on you, and 
 prosper you, young man ! " said the old gentle- 
 man, laying his hand upon the student's head ; 
 " you have, under Heaven, saved the life of our 
 precious Lottschen — of her mother, and her old 
 grandfather ; for we should not long have sur- 
 vived her, should we, my poor Meta? But let 
 us not, in the excess of our gratitude to this 
 good youth, forget that which we owe to the 
 Giver of all good — to Him who directed his 
 steps hither, and bestowed upon him the power 
 to heal — in whose hands alone are the issues 
 of life and death, and to whom, above all, 
 praise and thanksgiving are due. Let us pray. 
 
STURMER. 27 
 
 my daughter ! " and, falling upon his knees, the 
 old man poured forth the fulness of his heart 
 in a flood of such eloquent devotion that the 
 stranger, as he gazed upon his pious counte- 
 nance, and listened to the deep tones of his 
 voice, murmured to himself, " Almost thou per- 
 suadest me to believe ! " 
 
 While he yet prayed, the sun slowly rose 
 above the horizon, and its first ray fell like a 
 glory upon the saint-like countenance of the 
 sleeping Lolotte, and seemed suddenly to warm 
 the statue into life ; for, slowly unclosing her 
 eyelids, she raised herself from her pillow, 
 clasped her hands as if in prayer, and with eyes 
 raised to heaven, fixed and dilated, she remain- 
 ed rapt and motionless, as though in ecstatic 
 communion with unseen spirits. 
 
 " As you value her reason," said the stranger 
 in a whisper, " be silent ! A word, an un- 
 guarded exclamation in her present state might 
 alarm her to a degree that would produce fatal 
 consequences. Consciousness is gradually re- 
 
 c 2 
 
28 STURMER. 
 
 turning, but we must not precipitate it ; above 
 all, she must not see me, as the sight of a 
 stranger would inevitably hurry her spirits ; and 
 she has not strength to contend with any great 
 agitation." 
 
 So saying, he glided round the room to the 
 head of the bed, where a large folding screen 
 had been placed, and taking up his position be- 
 hind it awaited the coming scene. 
 
 As he had predicted, consciousness slowly 
 returned to Lolotte, and the heavenly vision 
 that had rapt her spirit from the earth ap- 
 peared gradually to fade away ; her eyes lost 
 their fixed and upward gaze, and wandered be- 
 wilderedly from the countenance of her mother 
 to that of her grandfather, without at first seem- 
 ing to recognise either. For a moment she 
 passed her hands over her forehead, then looked 
 again : — " Mother ! dear, dear mother ! " she 
 murmured, bending forward ; and the fond 
 parent, voiceless from emotion, cast her arms 
 
STURMER. 29 
 
 around her child, and burst into a passion of 
 tears, as she strained her to her heart. 
 
 " Where am I ?" resumed Lolotte, in a weak 
 and hurried voice ; " and why do you weep, 
 mother ? Ah ! I see it all. It is because I 
 am dying ! And must I die, then?" she mut- 
 tered in an under tone. " So young and so 
 happy, it is hard to be taken from all I love ; 
 but, God's will be done ! " And her voice was 
 lost in a low, nervous sob, which gradually 
 increased until it assumed the character of a 
 violent hysterical paroxysm, that seemed to 
 shake her debilitated frame almost to disso- 
 lution. 
 
 As, weak and exhausted by the struggle, she 
 lay upon her mother's bosom, tears pouring 
 through her closed eyelids, and every breath 
 checked by convulsive sighs, the stranger, 
 emerging from his concealment, placed one 
 hand upon her forehead, while with the other 
 he described the mesmeric passes, which he had 
 
so STURMER. 
 
 already so successfully employed, and which in 
 this instance produced a still more rapid effect : 
 for, not only did the hysterical emotion at once 
 subside, but in a very few seconds she was 
 plunged in the same deep and dreamless trance 
 that had characterised her first magnetic sleep. 
 
 " Lolotte, are you asleep ? " said the youth. 
 
 " Yes," was the answer. 
 
 " And do you suffer now ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " You said, when last you slept, that when 
 you should awake all danger would be over ; 
 that you should be saved ? Yet, when you did 
 actually awake your sufferings returned. How 
 is this?" 
 
 " I said, that I should be saved, and / am 
 saved" replied Lolotte impressively. " At least," 
 she continued, as if correcting herself, " I shall 
 be so if my directions are followed." 
 
 " Point out what is to be done, and rest 
 assured that it shall be fulfilled to the verv 
 
 ml 
 
 letter." 
 
STURMER. 31 
 
 " In the first place, I must be allowed to 
 sleep for the next twenty-four hours without 
 being awakened, and during that period I shall 
 regain sufficient strength to support the con- 
 vulsions that will return to me to-morrow after 
 I awake. When the fit is over I must again be 
 put to sleep, but only for three or four hours ; 
 and every day during six weeks the same pro- 
 cess must be observed; at the end of which 
 period the fits will cease entirely, and I shall 
 be saved." 
 
 " But," said the student, " I cannot remain 
 with you for the period you specify : I must 
 depart to-day, Lolotte. What is to be done ?" 
 
 Lolotte drew his hands, in which her own 
 were clasped, towards her, and placing one of 
 them upon her forehead and the other upon her 
 heart, sighed deeply, and remained silent. 
 
 There was an eloquence in this mute ap- 
 peal that made the heart of the stranger thrill 
 with emotions hitherto unknown to him; a 
 mysterious sympathy appeared to have esta- 
 
32 STURMER. 
 
 blished itself between him and the unconscious 
 Lolotte, as though for every sensation that in- 
 fluenced her soul a corresponding one was to 
 be found in his own, an echo for every sigh 
 breathed by her ; an instinctive divination of 
 her untold wishes. Should he yield to the 
 influence, and remain ? or, rending asunder the 
 links that fate had so lightly and rapidly woven 
 round his imagination, fly, while it was yet 
 time, from the strange fascination before his 
 heart also became enthralled ? Inclination 
 prompted him to the former, and he was upon 
 the point of following its dictates, when a few 
 words from Lolotte's mother checked the head- 
 long impulse, and forced back the current of 
 warm feelings that had gushed forth, until it 
 recoiled upon his heart with a suddenness that 
 almost sickened it. 
 
 " You hear her, sir," said Meta imploringly. 
 " You alone can save my child ! and if you 
 abandon her she must perish ! Oh ! if I dared 
 
STURMER. SS 
 
 to supplicate you to remain with us yet a little 
 longer, that she might be restored to health, 
 and the happiness that awaits her. Not in my 
 name alone do I ask it, but in that of my father, 
 of my Lolotte herself, and of an absent one, her 
 betrothed — " 
 
 " It is impossible," hiterrupted the stranger, 
 coldly and sharply ; " I must leave you this 
 very morning. I have remained too long as it 
 is. But let us ascertain whether the magnetic 
 influence I possess over your child cannot be 
 exercised by yourself for her benefit ; if so, my 
 presence will be no longer necessary; and, by 
 following her own directions, you will be ena- 
 bled to effect her recovery without my assist- 
 ance, or that of any other person." 
 
 Then turning to the sleeper — " Lolotte," he 
 said, in a softened tone, " I must leave you ! 
 But is there no one near and dear to you who 
 can replace me when I am gone ? no one who 
 can produce the same effects upon you that I 
 
 c o 
 
34 STURMER. 
 
 have done? Your mother, for instance, will 
 she have the same power over you that I 
 possess ? " 
 
 '' Yes>" rephed Lolotte. 
 
 " And is there no other person ? " 
 
 " There is no other." 
 
 Why was it that the stranger's heart felt 
 lightened by these words, and that, as he placed 
 the hand of Lolotte within that of her mother 
 and clasped them in his own, to establish the 
 magnetic communication between them, he ad- 
 jured Meta, in an under tone, to delegate the 
 influence she was about to acquire, to no other 
 human being; to suffer no other person to 
 approach her child in the same character? 
 Perhaps he could not precisely have resolved 
 the question himself; perhaps, too, he would 
 have shrunk from believing that an undefined 
 sentiment of jealousy against an unknown per- - 
 son had insidiously crept into his bosom, and 
 assumed the garb and language of prudence 
 and precaution ; for the human heart, " deceit- 
 
STURMER. 35 
 
 ful " as it is, " above all things, and desperately 
 wicked," will sometimes carry its plausible de- 
 ceptions so far as to mystify even itself as to 
 the precise nature of its own motives and 
 impulses. 
 
 That which Lolotte had pronounced was 
 verified ; for no sooner had she been put into 
 magnetic communication with her mother than 
 she freely discoursed with her upon her own 
 state of health, and pointed out the remedies 
 that were to be adopted for its improvement and 
 final restoration ; and having done so, she re- 
 peated her injunction, that she should be left 
 in undisturbed silence and repose for the next 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 Meanwhile, the old woman-servant, Babet, 
 had prepared breakfast in the parlour below; 
 and the father and daughter, having in a great 
 measure regained their tranquillity, and buoyed 
 up with the hopes that had been infused into 
 them by the stranger, descended to do the 
 honours of the morning repast to their guest ; 
 
36 STURMER. 
 
 and while they hospitably pressed upon him the 
 best fare that their humble roof afforded, they, 
 in the fulness of their hearts, unreservedly 
 communicated to him not only the circum- 
 stances which had caused the extraordinary 
 illness of their beloved Lolotte, but the family 
 arrangements, which Meta had already touched 
 upon, when, in her uncontrolable burst of sor- 
 row, she had spoken to the stranger of Lolotte's 
 future husband. 
 
 They were simple people; but theirs was 
 not the simplicity of ignorance or vulgarity. 
 The Pastor Hartmann was celebrated for his 
 learning and piety ; his daughter Meta had re- 
 ceived from him an education above her station 
 in life ; she had married, when very young, an 
 officer in the Saxon army, who had died a very 
 few months after their marriage ; and Lolotte 
 was the posthumous issue of that union. She 
 was now sixteen years of age, and had been 
 betrothed a few months before to a nephew of 
 her father''s, who had also been a pupil of her 
 
STURMER. 37 
 
 grandfather's. Franz MoUer had subsequently 
 gone to make the tour of Germany on foot. 
 He had crossed the Tyrolese Alps, and pene- 
 trated into Italy, and, having sojourned for a 
 time in the various cities of both countries, 
 most celebrated for their learning and universi- 
 ties, he had announced, that in the ensuing 
 spring his wanderings would terminate, and that 
 he should return to his fatherland, and claim 
 his youthful bride. 
 
 " That is Lolotte's picture," said Meta, point- 
 ing to the beautiful portrait which had so pow- 
 erfully attracted the stranger's attention on 
 the preceding evening ; " it was painted by an 
 Italian artist, who had been sent for to Dresden 
 by the King, to restore some of the pictures in 
 the Royal Gallery ; and beneath it is her ' cou- 
 ronne de fiancie *; and those drawings were done 
 by Lolotte, from nature ; and there is her piano. 
 Oh, if you could but have heard her play and 
 sing ! Angels might listen to her harmony and 
 mistake it for their own ! " 
 
38 STURMER. 
 
 " And so good, so gentle, so pious as she has 
 ever been," said the old Pastor ; " with sense 
 that has outstripped her years, and a mind 
 whose innocent maturity has led her to contem- 
 plate with pity and wonder the folUes and vani- 
 ties which occupy almost all other young girls 
 of her age. Thoughtful and sedate at a time 
 of life when others are giddy and unreflecting, 
 she has for sixteen years been our blessing and 
 our joy, and the first sorrow, the only pang she 
 ever cost us was when we feared that we must 
 resign her to her God ! "" 
 
 " We were too proud of her, too happy, too 
 secure of our blessing," said the mother meekly ; 
 " and our pride, and love, and security, re- 
 quired chastening. But, oh ! how stubborn, 
 how rebelhous have our hearts been under the 
 infliction ! How far are they yet removed from 
 the Christian's unmurmuring submission ! We 
 selfishly forgot that our loss would be her gain, 
 and we could not resign her, even into the 
 hands of Him who gave her to us, without a 
 
STURMER. 39 
 
 struggle, and a prayer to be spared the sacri- 
 fice ! " 
 
 And then, in a voice tremulous from emotion, 
 she proceeded to relate that Lolotte's illness 
 had originated in a violent shock produced by 
 seeing the boat in which her grandfather, with 
 several other passengers, had embarked to pro- 
 ceed by the Elbe from Herrnskretschen to 
 Schandau, upset in a squall of wind at some dis- 
 tance from the shore ; and although other boats 
 had put off immediately to their assistance, and 
 rescued them from the waves, the terror of 
 Lolotte had been so overwhelming as to throw 
 her into convulsions, from which she was with 
 difficulty recovered, and which had returned peri- 
 odically with such obstinacy and violence as to 
 baffle the skill of her medical attendants, and 
 to reduce her in a very few months to the brink 
 of the grave. 
 
 " They averred that nothing but a miracle 
 could save her,'* continued Meta, " and they 
 were right. But there were no workers of mi- 
 
40 STURMER. 
 
 racles among them; and so, with folded arms, 
 they calmly contemplated the rapid break-up of 
 her strength, and, when the last struggle was 
 near, left her to sink under it unaided. But 
 a saviour was at hand, and in the very depth 
 of our despair we were made to feel that, with 
 God, all is possible. Oh ! could you but un- 
 derstand the tumult of emotions with which I 
 was aroused to a consciousness of what had 
 passed during my insensibility — the miracle 
 had been performed — the dead brought to 
 hfe ! " 
 
 " You were, however, aware of the agency 
 employed by me ? " inquired the stranger. 
 
 " We had already heard of Animal Magnet- 
 ism," said the Pastor, " but chiefly from those 
 opposed to it, who treat it either as a delusion 
 or a vehicle for imposture and the most shame- 
 less quackery ; and if we thought upon the sub - 
 ject at all, it was only in the point of view in 
 which it had been represented to us, as a thing 
 to be reprehended and discountenanced. But 
 
STURMER. 41 
 
 you have convinced us of its wonders in a way 
 that leaves no possibility for doubt or dispute — 
 you have enlisted all our best feelings, all our 
 energies, in its cause; and, from having been 
 sceptics, we are likely soon to become fanatics." 
 " It is a subject which admits of no half 
 measures in point of faith — no restrictions 
 upon our belief," observed the student with 
 enthusiasm ; " as for myself, I believe in it as 
 firmly as you do in the Bible ! Many persons 
 sweepingly discountenance Mesmerism, because 
 they cannot comprehend or account for the 
 principle which produces its phenomena; as if 
 the action of the loadstone upon the needle 
 were not to the full as wonderful and inexpli- 
 cable as the sympathies and attractions exhi- 
 bited by Animal Magnetism : others frown it 
 down because it interferes with their pre-esta- 
 blished theories ; — for instance, the Materialist 
 feels that, by its action on the mind, is deve- 
 loped the strongest argument that can be ad- 
 duced against his own annihilating creed — and 
 
4>2 STURMER. 
 
 Evangelical believers (many such I have met 
 v^ith) will not hear of it, because it accounts by 
 natural means for the so-called miracles related 
 in the Christian narrative, which were one and 
 all performed by Jesus laying his hands upon the 
 sick, and straightway they were healed." 
 
 " Young man," said the Pastor, in a tone 
 of grave rebuke, " if my belief in Magnetism 
 were likely to disturb, or even to call in question, 
 my belief in holier things, I would close my 
 understanding against it as resolutely as I now 
 close my ears to your last argument. The 
 miracles of our Lord are not to be tried by 
 such a test, nor must they be compared to the 
 discoveries of Natural Philosophy. They are 
 evidences of the divine mission of Him from 
 whom they emanated — they gave birth to Chris- 
 tianity — and the power of performing them was 
 delegated by Jesus to his disciples because, in 
 the first promulgation of revealed religion, 
 nothing but miracles could establish its autho- 
 rity. I cannot listen to any other — " 
 
STURMER. 43 
 
 But the youth, impatiently waving his hand, 
 interrupted him by exclaiming, " I know all 
 that you would say, but we are not here to 
 enter upon theological discussion. You are a 
 disciple of revealed, / am a follower of natural 
 religion ! Let us not attempt to interfere with 
 each other's belief; you would fail in converting 
 me, and I, on my part, have no wish to dis- 
 turb those conscientious convictions of yours in 
 which I cannot participate, even while I respect 
 and admire the unaffected piety that springs from 
 them. Could I bring myself to belong to any 
 particular sect, it should be to Christianity, 
 because it bears a stamp of greater moral per- 
 fection than any other; but my views of reli- 
 gion are as infinite as the attributes of the 
 Great Being himself who formed the world. I 
 cannot consent to enthrall my spirit by adoring 
 Him in forms that my reason rejects, or to pray 
 to Him at stated times in temples built by the 
 hands of men. My soul springs forth in spon- 
 taneous adoration of Him when I gaze upon 
 
44 STURMER. 
 
 the myriad stars or listen to the whirlwind, 
 but all my devotional aspirations would become 
 chilled were I to be obliged to confine them 
 to the words of any particular creed ; and I feel 
 that walls and roofs built by human hands draw 
 down my thoughts to human things, and inter- 
 pose between God and me. But enough of 
 this — it was of Mesmerism and its antiquity 
 that we were speaking; for Mesmer was not 
 the discoverer, but merely the reviver, of Animal 
 Magnetism." 
 
 " You believe then,'' said Hartmann, " that 
 it was known to the ancients ? " 
 
 " Unquestionably," rejoined the stranger ; 
 *' it was understood and practised by the an- 
 cients throughout the East, not, indeed, as a 
 healing art, but as a priestly artifice, to subju- 
 gate and enthrall the minds of the multitude 
 for especial purposes. I will not again ofi'end 
 you by reverting to the miracles of Christ as 
 connected with these natural causes, nor will 
 I even dwell upon those of Elisha recorded 
 
STURMER. 45 
 
 in the Old Testament, but I will instance the 
 Delphic Oracles, as being, to my firm belief, 
 pronounced under the influence of Animal Mag- 
 netism. All the accounts that have come down 
 to us of the state of the Pythoness, before and 
 after she was placed upon the tripod, agree 
 precisely with the phenomena I have so often 
 seen produced by the action of Mesmerism 
 upon epileptic patients — the convulsions — then 
 the syncope or trance, and then the lucidity 
 under which the oracle was pronounced, w^ere 
 but the natural effects of that agency being pro- 
 perly developed in highly susceptible patients." 
 
 "Can you," said Hartmann, "define to me 
 the precise nature of this wonderful agency?" 
 
 " My own opinions," was the answer, " are 
 as follow : — Assuming as the basis of my 
 argument, that the magnetic fluid forms a com- 
 ponent part of every human organisation, the 
 derangement of that fluid I look upon to be 
 the cause of epilepsy, insanity, convulsions, and 
 the whole train of minor nervous disorders 
 
46 STURMER. 
 
 which fall under the denomination of Hysteria. 
 Now, those persons who are the most suscep- 
 tible to Mesmerism, are invariably epileptic 
 or insane patients, and the first visible effect 
 of Magnetism upon them is to dispel, during 
 its action, the painful characteristics of those 
 visitations. This, according to my theory, is 
 accounted for by the equilibrium of the fluid 
 being restored by magnetic action, and equally 
 distributed throughout the organic system, 
 superinducing for the time being a return to a 
 natural and healthy state, but presenting none 
 of those wonderful phenomena which you have 
 just witnessed, which those who have not wit- 
 nessed Will not believe, (because it is too much 
 the habit of ordinary minds to measure all 
 things by the narrowness of their own experi- 
 ence,) but which I shall also endeavour to 
 account for by a continuation of the chain of 
 reasoning I have already adduced. It is in the 
 power of the magnetizer to direct so super- 
 abundant a mass of the magnetic fluid upon 
 
STURMER. 47 
 
 the patient's brain as to leave all the other 
 organs totally deprived of it, and therefore 
 completely insensible, while the brain itself ac- 
 cumulates all their superfluous susceptibility, 
 and acquires those prodigious faculties of per- 
 ception which are known by the denomination 
 of Hellsehen, and which the more fashionable 
 phrase of clairvoyance so much more feebly 
 conveys to the understanding. In this state, 
 objects the most subtle and far removed are 
 beheld, futurity is looked into, the thoughts 
 and wishes of the magnetizer are divined, and 
 the physical conformation of the magnetized 
 and of those persons placed in magnetic com- 
 munication with them is revealed to them — 
 they hear, see, and comprehend all things, not 
 indeed with the organs of the flesh (for those 
 are dead for the time being) ; but the eye of 
 the spirit is opened, the mind, illuminated by a 
 supernatural light, more nearly approximates 
 to the divine essence of which it is an emana- 
 tion, and for a moment soars into that spiritual 
 
48 STURMER. 
 
 state of existence which will be ours after 
 death, when the imperishable soul, emanci- 
 pated from the thraldrom of matter, shall drink 
 at the fountain of Eternal Truth, and nothing 
 shall be hidden from it ! This, the highest 
 point at which magnetic lucidity can arrive, is 
 never developed in a healthy state, for it is an 
 incontestable fact, that the more the body is 
 shattered, the more acute, clear, and oracular 
 do the previsional faculties become. The subju- 
 gation of the somnambulist is then at its height, 
 and the will of the magnetizer all powerful 
 over every sensation : in proportion as the 
 patient recovers his health the lucidity dimin- 
 ishes; and when strength is completely re- 
 established it frequently disappears altogether. 
 All of the most remarkable previsional cases of 
 somnambulism that have come under my own 
 observation, as well as all that I have ever 
 heard of, have been developed in cases of 
 idiotcy or of epilepsy (which is a temporary 
 frenzy) ; and this fact accounts to me for the 
 
STURMER. 49 
 
 origin of that belief which is current throughout 
 the East, that insane persons are chosen beings 
 whom God has inspired with a higher gift than 
 reason, and therefore are they looked upon 
 with a respect amounting to veneration, and 
 their ravings believed to be prophecies." 
 
 As with flashing eyes and a flushed cheek, 
 the young enthusiast gave utterance to opinions 
 that to the sober judgment of his listeners 
 appeared like the vagaries of a distempered 
 imagination, the good Hartmann gazed upon 
 him with melancholy interest, and sighed to 
 think that the false meteor-like glare of modern 
 philosophy had so dazzled and lured that young 
 and ardent mind, as to make him close his eyes 
 to the pure sunbeams of Gospel Truth, which 
 alone can be " a light to our path and a lantern 
 to our feet," and that with the presumption of 
 youth and of error (for conviction is ever 
 modest), he had rushed upon conclusions as 
 false as they are fatal, and had chosen a path 
 where, if he continued, he must surely fall. 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
50 STURMER. 
 
 " My dear young friend, suffer me to call 
 you so," he said, laying his hand upon the 
 stranger's arm, " I have listened to you uninter- 
 ruptedly, not because I agree with all that you 
 have said, but because persuasion and not 
 passion are the arms with which I would com- 
 bat some of your delusions. I do not mean 
 your opinions upon magnetism, (for I am not 
 competent to argue upon a subject which is still 
 a mystery to me,) but I allude to the deplorable 
 error which causes you to reject the Highest 
 and Holiest of all subjects, and sweepingly to 
 condemn the Christian Faith, with all other 
 forms of established worship, as mummeries 
 incompatible with the exercise of your reason ! 
 I do not despair, however, of reclaiming you to 
 better thoughts, for your mind is of that fine 
 order which error may for a time mislead but 
 cannot finally pervert, and which Truth can 
 alone satisfy ! give me but an opportunity, and," 
 he added, looking reverently upwards, " with the 
 aid of Him whom you now reject, of the blessed 
 
STURMER. 51 
 
 Saviour who died for your redemption, I shall 
 lead back the stray lamb to the flock from 
 which he will never more wish to wander ! '' 
 
 At this moment the conversation was inter- 
 rupted by Babet bustling into the room, and 
 announcing that Doctor Schramm, mounted 
 upon his mule, was approaching the house. 
 Meta, at this intelligence, hurried out of the 
 parlour and ascended to the chamber of her 
 daughter, while the Pastor sallied forth to the 
 garden-gate to meet the new comer, and having 
 assisted him to dismount, they both proceeded 
 into the house together, and followed Meta up 
 the staircase into the presence of the sleeping 
 Lolotte. 
 
 No sooner did the stranger find himself alone, 
 than approaching the picture he gazed upon it 
 for some moments in mute admiration ; then apo- 
 strophising it with passionate emotion, " Beau- 
 tiful Lolotte ! " he exclaimed ; " what strange 
 mysterious charm dwells in the depths of those 
 Sybil eyes, that even upon senseless canvass 
 
 D 2 
 
 ""'"t'-s-ry Of au«a« 
 
 UBRARY 
 
52 STURMER. 
 
 their glances should awaken in my soul visions 
 of passion, and joy, and confidence, shared in 
 by thee, despite of cold reason, which recalls 
 the vow that binds thee to another ! Alas ! 
 it was predestined that I should look upon 
 that fair face, and that it should become my 
 fate. I fly from thee, because I know the 
 fatal power that I could exercise over thy soul, 
 (for thou would'st love me, Lolotte !) ; but I 
 fly in vain, for my heart is darkened with thy 
 shadow, and never more can the sunbeams of 
 love warm it even into transient passion for 
 another ! Lolotte ! thou shalt be the bride of 
 my soul — the haunting spirit that shall purify 
 me fi'om every grosser impulse ! On earth we 
 may meet no more, but in another world I will 
 claim thee as mine own, and with this chaste 
 kiss I seal the holy compact !" 
 
 So saying, he mounted upon a chair, and 
 pressed his lips to the picture with impassioned 
 tenderness. As he descended with trembling 
 haste, the bridal wreath, suspended beneath, 
 
STURMER. 53 
 
 fell to the ground ; for a moment he gazed 
 upon it with a changing countenance. " De- 
 tested symbol of another's felicity ! even as 
 my hopes have been crushed, even so will I 
 stamp thee into annihilation !" he exclaimed, 
 gnashing his teeth, and raising his foot to tram- 
 ple upon the withered flowers; " but, no !" he 
 continued, in a softened voice, " thou hast bound 
 the brows of Lolotte, and that touch has conse- 
 crated thee — thou hast become to me as the 
 holy relic of some saint, to be approached only 
 in prayer, and thus I place thee upon the shrine 
 where she is worshiped ! " And raising the 
 chaplet from the ground, he thrust it into his 
 bosom, slung his knapsack across his shoulder, 
 and rushing out of the house was soon lost in 
 the depths of the Ottowaldergrund. 
 
 In less than half an hour afterwards the 
 party assembled in the chamber of Lolotte, 
 were heard descending the staircase in eager 
 disquisition, the angry voice of Doctor Schramm 
 predominating over the calm accents of the old 
 
54 STURMER. 
 
 Pastor and the deprecating tones of Meta, 
 while the epithets of " quack," " knave," " sor- 
 cerer," " dupes," and " credulous fools," rung 
 in various changes by him, supplied the place 
 of cool reasoning and dispassionate argument. 
 
 " Magnetism !" he vociferated, " fiddle-stick, 
 — humbug, — nonsense ! there is no such thing 
 — it is physically impossible ; and those empirics 
 who pretend to practise it, laugh in their sleeve 
 at the silly dupes they make ! " 
 
 " But," said fiartmann ; " we have witnessed 
 wonders done by it, and those who see must 
 believe. Have you ever examined the subject, 
 Doctor, or seen any experiments performed?" 
 
 " Never !" he replied ; " and nothing should 
 tempt me to do so, because I have no fancy 
 to be made a fool of — because such impudent 
 charlatanism ought to be discountenanced — 
 because " 
 
 " Doctor," interrupted the Pastor hastily, and 
 betrayed into momentary anger by the rude- 
 ness of the Schandau practitioner; " I have 
 
STURMER. 55 
 
 no hesitation in saying that the man who be- 
 heves nothing but what he sees, and the man 
 who beUeves everything that he is told, are 
 equally fools. Those only, who take a middle 
 course between the two extremes, and will in- 
 vestigate for themselves, can hope to arrive at 
 the truth." 
 
 " And do you know where your investiga- 
 tions will lead you ?" said the Doctor ; " to 
 Sonnenstein,* my good friend, to Sonnenstein, 
 where there are already so many discoverers 
 of new systems." 
 
 " Calm yourself, dear Doctor Shramm," in- 
 terposed Meta mildly ; " and when you hear 
 all, I think you will revoke your opinions — 
 indeed I am sure I shall yet make a convert 
 of you, for I have learned the art, and intend 
 to practise as well as preach magnetism." 
 
 " I tell you, Frau Moller, that you are a 
 
 * Sonnenstein is a village between Dresden and Pima, 
 on the road to the Saxon Switzerland, where there is u 
 celebrated asylum for lunatics. 
 
56 STURMER. 
 
 silly dupe, and I am ashamed of you; but as 
 you are a weak woman I pity you, and can 
 forgive you too; but as for Herr Hartmann, 
 I looked for better sense in him, and have no 
 words to express my wonder and indignation 
 at his credulity ! I affirm that the last potion 
 I ordered for the Fraulein Lolotte has done 
 wonders for her, as I predicted yesterday when 
 I told you the effects it would produce, and — " 
 
 " Nay,"" said Meta mildly ; " you yourself 
 told me last evening, that all was over with 
 my child, and that before midnight she would 
 be an angel in heaven; when your potion ar- 
 rived she was past the power of swallowing 
 it, and there it stands on the landing-place 
 untouched ! But speak to the stranger your- 
 self, and he will explain to you by what won- 
 derful means he recalled my Lottschen to life ; 
 he is here to answer for himself," and she 
 threw open the parlour door, and as they all 
 entered they looked around for the object of 
 their discussion, but the room was empty ! 
 
STURMER. 57 
 
 Babet was called — she had not seen him ; the 
 house and garden were ransacked — he was 
 nowhere to be found ! They gazed upon one 
 another with blank countenances ; at last the 
 Doctor broke the silence, and shrugging his 
 shoulders said in a compassionating accent : — 
 
 " My poor friends, grief and watching have 
 made you light-headed, go to bed and repose 
 yourselves; you have had the night-mare, or 
 between sleeping and waking have dreamed 
 all that you have told me ;" and then catching 
 a glimpse of Babet, as with a significant shake 
 of the head she negatived his supposition, he 
 spitefully added, looking at her that his words 
 might produce the terror he intended, " or, 
 (my dear friends, such things are possible, al- 
 though I do not believe in them,) you have 
 seen a vampire, or the devil himself, and I 
 wash my hands of whatever may now happen 
 to the Fraulein Lolotte ! " 
 
 D o 
 
58 STURMER. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 She pined in tliouglit. 
 
 Twelfth Night. 
 
 Queen. Whereon do you look ? 
 
 Ham. On him ! on him ! Look you, how pale he glares ! 
 
 Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain. 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 Years rolled on, like billow succeeding bil- 
 low, upon the ocean of eternity, and in their 
 restless and unerring course had borne towards 
 "the silent shore" two generations of the Pas- 
 tor Hartmann's family. The good old man 
 and his gentle daughter Meta slept with their 
 fathers in the quiet churchyard of Lokmen, 
 and Lolotte, and her husband Franz Moller, 
 with Babet the old servant, and a younger 
 assistant, had become the sole occupants of 
 
STURMER. 59 
 
 the lone house in the Ottowaldergrund. Few 
 changes had been made in its interior deco- 
 rations. The old piano stood in the same 
 place ; but the book-shelves had been enlarged, 
 (for Franz was a savant,) and a writing bureau 
 covered with the litter of authorship, had 
 usurped the place of Meta's tapestry-frame. 
 The beautiful picture of Lolotte was still sus- 
 pended over the piano; but not alone, as be- 
 fore : two seraph countenances had been added, 
 with eyes serenely bright, like those of angels, 
 and golden hair falling back in wavy clusters 
 from the calm expansive brows, and a sweet 
 serious smile, unlike that of infancy, parting 
 the baby-lips, — two infant transcripts of Lo- 
 lotte's ineffable loveliness, — the children which 
 had blessed her union, and which, after a brief 
 space of maternal happiness, she had been 
 required to resign to Him who had given them 
 to her ! i 
 
 Poor Lolotte ! her fate had not been a happy 
 one ; the loved, the loving, and the lovely, had, 
 
60 STURMER. 
 
 one by one, been taken from her, — ^her mother, 
 her grandfather, and her two children, — and 
 it seemed as though her heart lay buried 
 with them in their graves ; for, although Franz 
 was a good man, and loved his wife with 
 as much warmth as it was possible for him 
 to love anything, except musty folios, he was 
 too much absorbed in his studies, too much 
 satisfied with the honesty and loyalty of his 
 heart towards her, to bestow upon her any 
 of those thousand nameless little demonstra- 
 tions of tenderness, those refinements of sen- 
 timent which take captive the heart and ima- 
 gination of woman, and charm her into the 
 happy consciousness of being the first and 
 dearest object in her husband's thoughts. In 
 that interchange of fond endearment in which 
 she had been brought up by Hartmann and 
 Meta, he took no delight; and when the time 
 came that there was no longer any one to lavish 
 it upon her, — none on whom she might bestow 
 it, — she drooped and languished, like a flower 
 
STURMER. 61 
 
 from which the dews of heaven have been sud- 
 denly withdrawn. No complaint passed her 
 lips, for she esteemed her husband's good qua- 
 lities and admired his talents; but she was 
 made for the poetry of life, not for the mere 
 mechanical performance of its duties, to which, 
 in conformity with his tastes, she had circum- 
 scribed her efforts to please. The charm of 
 existence had passed away from her, with its 
 innocent illusions : it was as though there was 
 no music in the temple, no perfume in the flow- 
 ers, no sunshine on the waters. All was dark 
 and colourless around her ; she felt alone in the 
 universe with one who did not understand her, 
 — and for her to feel so, was to wish to die ! 
 
 Slowly her health failed beneath the des- 
 pondency that had crept over her ; languor and 
 depression were succeeded by nervous parox- 
 ysms and fits of insensibility. The sickness of 
 the mind had communicated itself to the body ; 
 and, at the expiration of eight years after the 
 period at which this tale commences, Lolotte 
 
62 STURMER. 
 
 was reduced to a state of health as alarming 
 and as impracticably proof against medical 
 treatment as that from which she had been 
 rescued by the efforts of the wandering disciple 
 of Mesmer. 
 
 Just eight years, day for day, from the date 
 of that mysterious person's visit to the Otto- 
 waldergrund, Lolotte and her husband were 
 seated, towards the decline of day, in the 
 little parlour already alluded to. The season 
 had been unusually mild for that northern cli- 
 mate, and autumn, in all its glorious hues of 
 gold, and crimson, and russet lingered amidst 
 the wild scenery as if loth to resign it to the 
 cold breath of winter's heralds. The garden 
 was still gay with China-asters and late roses, 
 and the windows were garnished with pots of 
 Balsams and other late-blooming flowers ; while 
 the interior of the room was decorated with 
 rare plants and a profusion of bouquets, as if 
 for some particular occasion. As long as INIeta 
 and her father lived, they had kept the anni- 
 
STURMER. 63 
 
 versary of the day, from which they dated the 
 wonderful recovery of their child, with extra- 
 ordinary rejoicings. It was to them not only 
 a festival of the heart, but a day of pious 
 thanksgiving; and after their death, that ob- 
 servance did not fall into disuse, for it still 
 continued to be a jour de fke for the little 
 household in general, and for Lolotte a day 
 dedicated to tender and solemn recollections. 
 
 As she sat by the casement in the old Pas- 
 tor's arm-chair, plunged in deep thought, fancy 
 peopled the airy solitude with sounds and forms 
 that had long since passed away. The joyous 
 laugh and the bright faces of her children, the 
 mild accents of her mother, the venerable coun- 
 tenance of her grandfather, seemed once more 
 to ring in her ears and flit around her. It was 
 but for a moment; for in the next, her eyes, 
 which had been wistfully fixed upon the clouds, 
 wandered from them to the distant church spire, 
 as it gleamed brightly in the golden sunset, and 
 pointed out the spot where those loved ones 
 
64 STURMER. 
 
 slept their last sleep ; and a sigh so deep and 
 hollow burst from her bosom, that it startled 
 Franz from the writing with which he had been 
 busily occupied. He looked up, and for the 
 first time seemed to become fully aware of her 
 sad state, and of the inroads which mental 
 suffering had caused in her slender frame ; and 
 that conviction indued him with a delicacy and 
 gentleness of feeling not habitual to him. He 
 forbore to remark upon what had so suddenly 
 struck upon his heart ; but laying down his pen, 
 aroused her from her melancholy pre-occu- 
 pation in a voice of unwonted tenderness. 
 
 " Dear Lottschen," he said, " it is long since 
 I have heard your voice : sing me one of those 
 simple airs in which our good grandfather used 
 so to delight, and it will cause my ideas to flow 
 more freely and harmoniously than they do 
 at present; — sing to me, mein kind, and your 
 music will inspire me with eloquence." 
 
 " I will sing you his favourite," said Lolotte, 
 with a pensive smile; and opening the piano. 
 
STURMER. 65 
 
 she ran over the keys with admirable skill and 
 science for a few minutes, and then struck into 
 the accompaniment of that beautiful song of 
 Goethe's, " Konn 'st du das Land, &c/*' the 
 music of which was so popular some years 
 ago throughout Germany, that the whole coun- 
 try resounded with it from the palace to the 
 cottage — from the well-organised orchestra 
 to the itinerant ballad- singer and hand-organ 
 grinder. Lolotte was one of Nature's own 
 musicians; the deep rich tones of her sweet 
 and powerful voice would have made the for- 
 tune of a public singer, but the great charm 
 of her performance consisted in the expression 
 which she threw into it, and the judgment with 
 which she adapted that expression to the words 
 she sang — not treating them, as so many pro- 
 fessors do, merely as vehicles for sweet sounds, 
 but joining sense to sound with a truth and senti- 
 ment that spoke to the hearts of the most in- 
 sensible, and showed that she ever identified 
 herself with the subject to which she gave ut- 
 
66 STURMER. 
 
 terance. And now, as she poured forth those 
 exquisite lines in a flood of harmony, there was 
 a passion and a pathos in her voice, a pleading 
 eloquence in her eyes, that gave to her song the 
 character of an extempore outpouring of the 
 heart, and roused even the phlegmatic Franz to 
 undivided attention. With his eyes fixed upon 
 her, he listened until the last notes had died 
 away into silence; and then a pause ensued. 
 Lolotte was the first to break it. 
 
 " I wonder," she said, in a solemn voice, " if 
 it be accorded to the spirits of the departed to 
 behold what passes upon earth, — to be con- 
 scious of the enduring sorrow with which their 
 memory is cherished — '*'' 
 
 " Lolotte," interrupted her husband, some- 
 what sharply, " you are always thinking of the 
 dead ! That is not very complimentary to me : 
 have you no thoughts for the living also?" 
 
 " Surely on this day I may be pardoned for 
 thinking of them" she answered, repressing a 
 starting tear ; " and that song which you made 
 
STURMER. 67 
 
 me sing just now, my dear grandfather's favou- 
 rite, brought back the past so vividly to me ! 
 I thought I saw his benignant face smiling 
 upon me again; I thought I beheld them all 
 once more ! I fancied they might be hovering 
 near, and watching me; and yet," she con- 
 tinued, in an under tone, " I ought not to de- 
 sire it; for then they would know all that I 
 feel, and that knowledge would surely change 
 their blessedness into bitter anguish ! " 
 
 *' These are foolish fancies,"" said Franz, in 
 reply to the first part of her remark, (for the 
 latter part had not been heard by him;) "and 
 if you loved me, you would not indulge in them. 
 However, let us change the subject. When 
 I was yesterday in Dresden, I casually heard 
 that the famous Dr. Wolfgang Sturmer, of 
 Prague, has been staying there for a short time, 
 and has performed some wonderful cures by 
 means of Mesmerism ; now, I should wish you 
 to see him, and consult him about your fainting 
 fits : so to-morrow we will go into town for 
 
68 STURMER. 
 
 that purpose : but you must not fall in love 
 with the Doctor, Lolotte, as all the Dresden 
 ladies have done," he added, laughing. " His 
 picture is in all the print-shops already ; and I 
 must own, that it is a very handsome one, and 
 quite the sort of face to turn a romantic lady's 
 head. But here is Babet with your choco- 
 late." 
 
 Now, upon the anniversary in question, it 
 had been the custom of each mem^ber of Lo- 
 lotte's family to make her some little offering 
 of love, for they looked upon it as a second 
 birthday to her ; and even the servants were not 
 behindhand in furnishing some simple testi- 
 mony of their affection to their beloved young 
 mistress upon those occasions. On the day in 
 question, Franz had prepared his gift in con- 
 junction with Babet; a handsome silver choco- 
 late pot, which he had brought from Dresden, 
 was accompanied by a porcelain cup and saucer, 
 which Babet had commissioned him to purchase 
 for her ; and as the good old creature, nodding 
 
STURMER. 69 
 
 and smiling to her master, in anticipation of the 
 pleasure which their gifts would procure to 
 Lolotte, placed the tray upon the table, she 
 hastened to fill her cup and present it to her 
 mistress. But in doing so, her eyes fell upon 
 the window close to which Lolotte was seated, 
 and, uttering a loud scream, she staggered into 
 a chair, clasped her hands before her eyes ; and 
 the cup and saucer escaping from her grasp 
 fell to the ground, and were shivered to atoms. 
 
 "What can this mean?" exclaimed Franz 
 and Lolotte in a breath, as they surrounded 
 and supported the terrified Babet. The shades 
 of evening had fallen around, and half shrouded 
 in obscurity the little parlour and the cluster- 
 ing garden beyond. 
 
 " Get a light, dear Franz," said Lolotte, 
 " that we may see what is the matter with her ;" 
 but Babet clung to her master with all the 
 strength of terror. At last, the power of speech 
 returned, and, with a violent effort, she pointed 
 to the window, and shudderingly exclaimed : — 
 
70 STURMER. 
 
 " I have seen him ! I have seen him ! — 
 — there !" 
 
 "Who?" inquired Lolotte, turning pale. 
 
 " The devil ! — the devil himself ! — the vam- 
 pire ! vi^ho vanished, nobody knows how, this 
 day eight years ago ! There he was, outside of 
 the window, with his eyes fixed upon Xhefrau- 
 lein, just as they were when he bewitched her 
 into talking after we all believed her dead ; and 
 the minute he saw me, away he vanished again ! 
 Lord save us ! " 
 
 Away rushed Franz into the garden, followed 
 by Lolotte and Babet; and every corner of it 
 was visited and examined by them, — but in 
 vain. No trace of any human being was to be 
 seen, either within its precincts, or beyond in 
 the wild woodland, that began to be partially 
 lighted by the rising moon. 
 
 " You were dreaming, Babet," said Franz, as 
 they all returned to the little parlour; and the 
 other servant lighted the candles and closed the 
 window^shutters. 
 
STURMER. 71 
 
 " Yes," replied Babet, slowly, *' dreaming as 
 Doctor Schramm said my old master and mis- 
 tress were eight years ago ! As sure as I live 
 and am wide awake, I have seen the devil him- 
 self. What else, do you think, could have 
 frightened the cup out of my hands ? Oh, my 
 poor cup and saucer ! aJles in tausend stilck" 
 she added, stooping to pick up the frag- 
 ments. 
 
 Lolotte raised her up, and kissed her cheek : 
 " Good Babet," she said, " I will keep the 
 broken china for your sake, and put it by with 
 all your other gifts to me on this day ; so fret 
 no more about it !" 
 
 " Nay, as for that, I am not thinking of the 
 cup, and would rather break a hundred than 
 that any harm should come to you; but that 
 face, that face ! why was it glaring there upon 
 you ? and why did it vanish as soon as I looked 
 at it, if it was there for any good ? Doctor 
 Schramm was right, honest man ! when he said 
 that nothing human could have come and gone, 
 
72 STURMER. 
 
 and have done what that pretended traveller 
 did for you eight years ago." 
 
 " He cured me, Babet," interrupted Lolotte ; 
 " would to heaven that I could but once more 
 behold him!" 
 
 " The Lord forbid that you should !" ejacu- 
 lated Babet ; " if there had been any sense in 
 his pawing and clawing, why should not Herr 
 Franz be able to produce the same effects upon 
 you that he did ? and yet I have seen him try it 
 hour after hour without making you wink, much 
 less sleep. To be sure, your dear mother could, 
 for it was one of his devices to teach her his 
 sorceries, and then whenever she put you to 
 sleep you would be talking of him as if you saw 
 him; but I can testify that she never had her 
 health for a single day after he came here, and 
 that shews what he was, and that he came to 
 kill, and not to cure ! No, no, God keep us 
 from such visitors for ever more, say I, for that 
 it was the devil I am ready to testify — der 
 Teufel er selbst r 
 
STURMER. 73 
 
 The next day Franz and Lolotte repaired to 
 Dresden to consult Doctor Sturmei:, but to 
 their great disappointment they found, upon 
 arriving there, that the distinguished stranger 
 had taken his departure for Prague on the pre- 
 ceding day. Such, however, was the fame his 
 deeds had left behind him, and so miraculous 
 were the cures performed by him, that Franz 
 (whose fears for Lolotte having suddenly been 
 roused, led to a sort of remorseful feeling at 
 having so long been inattentive to her declining 
 state, which could only be appeased by some 
 great exertion on her behalf) determined upon 
 making a journey to Prague with his wife, for 
 the purpose of placing her under the Doctor's 
 care. That he did so may be gathered from 
 the following letters, which are subjoined, in 
 order to throw some light upon the anUcedens 
 of Doctor Sturmer. 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
74 STURMER. 
 
 LETTER FROM WOLFGANG STURMER TO 
 BARON ANTON VON PREINL. 
 
 « Prague, October 29, 18—. 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " Only two hours ago I returned home 
 from Dresden, punctual to the very moment I 
 had promised to meet you here; but the re- 
 ward of my exactitude has been a bitter dis- 
 appointment to me — a letter from you, instead 
 of yourself in person ! However, I feel that I 
 have no right to reproach you for the substitu- 
 tion, since you tell me that nothing less than 
 your sister's marriage could have interfered with 
 our engagement, and that as soon as that happy 
 event has taken place you will turn your 
 horses' heads towards Prague. Assure my fair 
 friend the Baroness Bertha of my heartfelt 
 participation in her happiness, and tell her that 
 the fame of her beauty and accomplishments 
 has flown before her to Dresden, where, during 
 my late sejour, I heard her universally cited as 
 
STURMER. 75 
 
 the prettiest woman who had appeared at 
 TopUtz this season. Expectation is on the 
 tiptoe for her arrival in Dresden, as old Count 
 Carlowitz, who has decided upon all matters of 
 taste, at the court of Saxony, for the last fifty 
 years, pronounces her to be in all respects the 
 most charming German woman he ever met 
 with ; and as far as my own poor judgment goes, 
 I have never seen but one countenance that 
 could surpass hers ; but of that, more anon. 
 
 " Well, I have returned from my tour in 
 Northern Germany, and I may, without exag- 
 geration, compare it to a triumphal march. In 
 Berlin and Dresden, my public lectures upon 
 Animal Magnetism have produced the most suc- 
 cessful and satisfactory results — that of inducing 
 people to investigate the subject as calmly and 
 dispassionately as such a subject will admit, and 
 leading them to submit those persons in whose 
 honesty they have the firmest reliance to be 
 experimentalised upon for the developement of 
 truth. In this manner I have been enabled 
 
 e2 
 
76 STURMER. 
 
 to make some wonderful discoveries of hidden 
 diseases, and to perform cures which have 
 startled the most sceptical into belief; and so 
 great has been my success, and the popularity 
 that has followed it, that I have been suppli- 
 cated to abandon my native city, and to settle 
 in Dresden, where fortune and honours would 
 be showered upon me. 
 
 " What a difference to the journey which I 
 performed eight years ago through the same 
 country — alone, on foot, unknown, with my 
 whole fortune in my knapsack, and that fortune, 
 I believe, did not exceed five gold Fredericks ! 
 but how rich was I in enthusiasm, and enter- 
 prise, and energy — how happy in the inexperi- 
 ence of twenty years ! Life then appeared to 
 me a beautiful romance, of which I impatiently 
 longed to turn over the first leaves; now, at 
 twenty-eight, I look upon it as a melancholy 
 reality. I have scanned those pages, and found 
 in them nothing but disappointment and vanity ! 
 True it is, that the chapter of ambition has sur- 
 
STURMER. 77 
 
 passed my expectations ; I have there seen the 
 name of the obscure Wolfgang Sturmer raised to 
 celebrity, and become known, not only in his own 
 country, but throughout Europe, as the success- 
 ful advocate of a persecuted system ; but to the 
 romantic temperament of the Poet and the 
 Idealist fame alone has not been sufficient to 
 secure happiness. As long as I had difficulties 
 to combat and assailants to overcome, the blank 
 in my heart was not felt by me ; but now that 
 I have rendered the path comparatively smooth 
 for my successors in the same cause, and that 
 by my writings and personal practice I have 
 raised the veil of prejudice from the public 
 mind, and prepared it to receive the lights of 
 truth which our revived system will one day 
 shed upon it, — although neither you nor I shall 
 live to see that day, — I feel as though my mis- 
 sion were at an end; there are no more rocks 
 against which the torrent of my energies may 
 be broken — and the tide rolling onward unob- 
 structed, and expending itself upon the smooth 
 
78 STURMER. 
 
 and barren sands, now overwhelms my soul with 
 an intolerable sense of restless monotony. 
 
 " 'Tis when these dreary convictions press 
 upon me that I sigh for the days of Gottingen, 
 when the poor student, with his mine of ima- 
 ginary happiness still unexplored, parted at the 
 gates of the University with the only real trea- 
 sure that he ever possessed — his friend Anton 
 Von Preinl, and set forth in pursuit of ' the 
 bubble reputation,' which, now that it is at- 
 tained, he finds insufficient to satisfy the crav- 
 ings of his soul. Do you know that, in the 
 midst of my late successes in Dresden, I be- 
 came more than ever convinced of the pre- 
 dominancy of that feeling, and with a captious- 
 ness which so often follows the triumphs of 
 mere vanity, I turned from the intoxicating 
 flatteries of the most beautiful women there, 
 to dwell upon an episode in my early life, in 
 which, God knows, vanity had no share. 
 
 " You may remember the circumstance that 
 I related to you eight years ago, of my first 
 
STURMER. 79 
 
 essay in Animal Magnetism, and of the romantic 
 feeling which had sprung up in my bosom for 
 the young person whom I had, through that 
 mysterious agency, rescued from death. It was 
 one of those sudden sympathies which would 
 puzzle a philosopher to account for, but which 
 are to me evidences of the truth of one of my 
 favourite theories, which has so often met with 
 your unqualified ridicule, namely, the doctrine 
 of metempsychosis. That the soul of that 
 young girl should have been known to mine in 
 some pre-existing state, is an idea which I love 
 to cherish ; — we may have been friends, per- 
 haps lovers ; — and thus I account for the feel- 
 ing with which, when all in that youthful form 
 that could awaken the grosser impulses of 
 passion lay cold and inanimate in the grasp of 
 death, a love not less passionate, but more pure 
 than earthly love, should have pervaded my 
 whole being, and directed all the energies of my 
 soul to recall her fleeting spirit, which, although 
 struggling to emancipate itself from its mortal 
 
80 STURMER. 
 
 coil, paused at the voice of its old companion, 
 and, obedient to the call, returned to place 
 itself under that loved dominion ! It matters 
 not now to dwell upon the romantic dreams in 
 which my imagination then revelled for a mo- 
 ment: the sum of them was, that I would 
 remain near Lolotte, restore her to health, win 
 her affections, and then make her my wife ; but 
 one word served to dispel the visionary scheme 
 of happiness. I casually heard from her mo- 
 ther that she was engaged to be married to 
 another, and I tore myself from the spot that 
 held her, before she could be restored to a con- 
 sciousness of my presence there. But I never 
 forgot her ; nor has it since been in the power 
 of woman, however beautiful or captivating, to 
 awaken in me the same tender emotions that 
 she did. And so, at the end of eight years, 
 when I once more found myself in the same 
 country with her, and separated only by a few 
 leagues from the very spot where I had first 
 beheld her, an irrepressible desire took pos- 
 
STURMER. 81 
 
 session of me to ascertain whether she still 
 lived, and still inhabited that place. I had 
 intended to make a solitary pilgrimage to it on 
 my way from Dresden to Prague, but that plan 
 was defeated by the decision of the Countess 
 Mannteufel, who, resolved upon rendering my 
 departure from Dresden worthy of my sojourn 
 there, had organized a select party to accom- 
 pany me as far as Schandau, where a senti- 
 mental farewell fete was to be got up for me, 
 and our mutual regrets at parting were to be 
 expressed by eating, drinking, and dancing ! 
 
 " As soon, however, as the latter part of the 
 entertainment had commenced, I contrived to 
 slip away unperceived by the society; and 
 taking the well-remembered path that leads 
 from Schandau to the Ottowalder-grund, I ar- 
 rived in sight of Lolotte's habitation just as the 
 shades of evening were falling around and en- 
 veloping everything in obscurity. Strange that 
 it should have been the very anniversary of the 
 day upon which, eight years before, at the same 
 
 E 5 
 
82 STURMER. 
 
 evening hour, I had first approached that house; 
 and now, as with a stealthy step and beating 
 heart, I stole through the garden enclosure, a 
 strain of music directed me towards an open 
 casement, close to which I stationed myself, 
 screened by the creepers that clustered around 
 it from the observation of those within, and 
 listened to one of our popular German ballads, 
 so exquisitely performed as to give the charac- 
 ter of novelty and freshness to it. The song 
 was sung by a woman's voice of such wondrous 
 sweetness and compass, that, as I hung entranced 
 upon its rich round tones, I remembered the 
 expression that Frau Mbller had made use of 
 when, in describing to me her daughter's sing- 
 ing, she had said, ' Angels might listen to her 
 harmony and mistake it for their own/ and I 
 felt convinced that I listened to none other than 
 Lolotte. When the last chords of the piano- 
 accompaniment closed the song there was a 
 silent pause, followed by the murmur of voices 
 in conversation, and then only I ventured to 
 
STURMER. 83 
 
 emerge so far from my hiding-place as to be 
 able to obtain through the open window a view 
 of the interior of the apartment. It was the 
 well-remembered parlour, from which I had fled 
 like a felon eight years before ; but one object 
 alone in it fixed my attention, the beautiful 
 spirit-like figure of Lolotte, dressed in white, 
 and seated at the piano close to the window, 
 her face half shaded by the hand on which she 
 leaned, but still sutficiently revealed to leave no 
 doubt of her identity ; a young man, her hus- 
 band, I suppose — and I could have hated him 
 for being so, — was seated near her, holding her 
 other hand, and speaking to her with earnest- 
 ness. I caught the sound of my own name 
 pronounced by him, and, incautiously advancing 
 to hear more of his discourse, I discovered 
 enough of my person to betray myself, for an 
 old woman (the same who had admitted me into 
 the house on my former visit) caught a glimpse 
 of me while she was in the act of serving some 
 refreshment to her mistress; and whether she 
 
84 STURMER. 
 
 remembered my countenance, or that she mis- 
 took me for a robber, I know not, but she 
 uttered a piercing shriek, and letting the tray 
 fall from her hand gave the alarm. Without 
 allowing myself time for reflection I sprang 
 over the garden fence, and quickly regained the 
 road to Schandau, from whence, when I paused 
 to take breath, I could perceive lights moving 
 about in the garden, and hear the shouts of 
 those who were in pursuit of me. 
 
 " I reached Schandau before the ball was 
 terminated, and accounted for my absence as 
 well as I could ; but my thoughts were far from 
 the scene, and still hovered round the spot I 
 had so recently quitted ; the transient view I 
 had just obtained of Lolotte, instead of tran- 
 quillising my mind as to her fate, had revived 
 in it all the folly and madness that had charac- 
 terised my feelings during my first extraordi- 
 nary approximation to her. I found that nei- 
 ther time nor absence had conquered that 
 strange infatuation, and that now, as heretofore, 
 
STURMER. 85 
 
 my only safety would be in flight; and thus 
 convinced of the ungovernable nature of my 
 sentiments for her, and of the existence of the 
 insuperable obstacle which rendered the further 
 indulgence of those sentiments a deliberate 
 crime, I resolved never to attempt to disturb 
 her tranquillity by obtruding myself into her 
 presence, or allowing her to become aware of 
 the extraordinary power which she so uncon- 
 sciously exercised over me. 
 
 " I did not retire to rest until I had gathered 
 from the innkeeper at Schandau some particu- 
 lars of the actual state of Lolotte's family ; and 
 from him I learned that the good Pastor Hart- 
 mann and his daughter were both dead, that 
 Lolotte had been married more than seven 
 years to her cousin, Franz Moller, who is a 
 savant and an author, but, that since she lost 
 her children her health has declined, and that 
 she has not been once to Schandau during the 
 whole of the summer. Poor beautiful Lolotte ! 
 she has not, then, escaped the common lot of 
 
86 STURMER. 
 
 humanity, and afflictions and bereavements have 
 fallen upon her in the very noontide of her 
 life. May the undivided affection of her hus- 
 band compensate to her for all that she has 
 lost ! Now, then, I might be her friend. Her 
 friend ? alas ! I fear that I could not be satis- 
 fied with that title alone ! 
 
 " I have been insensibly led on to make this 
 written confession of my weakness, just as I 
 should have confided it to you in the unre- 
 stricted flow of conversation, had we met ; just 
 as I have ever opened to you every thought 
 and feeling of my heart since the commence- 
 ment of our boyish friendship, without shrink- 
 ing from the consequences my candour has 
 inevitably entailed upon me, in the shape of 
 your (sometimes) well-directed censure, and 
 ever good-humoured ridicule. In the present 
 instance I am aware that I am furnishing you 
 with arms against myself, upon a point which 
 we have so often argued together, namely, the 
 proneness of imaginative people in general, and 
 
STURMER. 87 
 
 of myself in particular, to create their own 
 misery by rejecting the real good that offers 
 itself to them in the natural course of events, 
 and running after visions of ideal happiness 
 which exist in their exalted imaginations alone, 
 and lead them from folly to folly, from dis- 
 appointment to disappointment, until at last 
 they are forced to comprehend one great reality 
 — the moral of the fable — that in grasping 
 at the shadow the substance has been sacri- 
 ficed, and both have disappeared together in 
 the treacherous waves. I feel that this may be 
 very appositely applied to me, for I have all 
 the elements of rational happiness within my 
 reach, — moderate wealth, celebrity, popularity, 
 youth, health ; and yet all these positive bless- 
 ings are overlooked by me in the morbid yearn- 
 ing for a shadowy felicity, the possession of 
 which would not perhaps after all contribute 
 to my happiness ; for who knows whether Lo- 
 lotte is in reality what my imagination has loved 
 to depict her? But in thus anticipating the 
 
88 STURMER. 
 
 arguments which I know you will use against 
 me, I feel that I have ensured your generous 
 forbearance upon a subject, which I candidly 
 confess to you I could not bear should be 
 treated with ridicule ; and it will be a suflicient 
 triumph for you to read, under my own hand, 
 the admission that I acknowledge the justice 
 of your opinion, and that I envy the calm tem- 
 perament and sober judgment which have ever 
 enabled you not only to steer your own course 
 clear of the shoals and quicksands of passion, 
 but to pilot your friend through the breakers 
 into which his rashness has so often precipitated 
 him. 
 
 " Adieu, my dear Anton ! a press of pro- 
 fessional occupation will prevent my writing 
 to you again for many days ; let me hear, how- 
 ever, in the mean time of all the gay proceed- 
 ings at Falkenstein, and believe me to be as 
 ever your faithful friend, 
 
 " Wolfgang Sturmer." 
 
STURMER. 89 
 
 LETTER FROM WOLFGANG STURMER TO 
 BARON ANTON VON PRIENL. 
 
 " Prague, Nov. 7th, 18—. 
 
 " Of what use are our wisest resolutions, 
 
 my dear Anton ? idle vanities all ! the puny 
 
 efforts of pigmies to wrestle with a giant ! 
 
 Call that giant what you will, either Fate, or 
 
 the force of circumstances, it eventually masters 
 
 us all; we struggle for a season against its 
 
 tyranny — we think we have escaped from its 
 
 dominion — in vain ! with an iron grasp it again 
 
 clutches us, makes us its slaves, and laughs to 
 
 scorn the idle show of strength with which we 
 
 dared to brave its power. As for myself, I 
 
 give up the contest, I feel myself to be le 
 
 jouet d'une etrange fatalite, circumvented in all 
 
 my best intentions, and come what will to me 
 
 now, of weal or woe, I shall say with Diderot's 
 
 hero, that ' c'etait ecrit la-haut !' 
 
 " When I tell you that the person whose 
 presence I had, as you know, most religiously 
 
90 STURMER. 
 
 determined to fly for ever, is here - — that Lo- 
 lotte Moller, of v/hose strange power over my 
 feelings I had made no secret to you, is in 
 Prague, brought by her husband purposely 
 to consult me, and to be placed under my pro- 
 fessional care — that I am obliged to see her 
 daily, watch the fluctuations of her charming 
 countenance, listen to her gentle accents, and 
 I fear I must add that I would not now^ if I 
 could^ relinquish the dangerous delight of being 
 of use to her ! — when I tell you all this, Anton, 
 the meaning of my preceding remark will be 
 intelligible to you. 
 
 " To render my recital coherent, I must re- 
 trograde, and begin by the beginning of this 
 strange adventure. It was only two days after 
 my last letter had been despatched to you that 
 as I was sitting alone in my study in the dusk 
 of the evening, Gottfried announced to me that 
 a gentleman from Dresden wished to see me ; 
 I desired him to be shewn in, supposing that 
 it might be one of my numerous acquaint- 
 
STURMER. 91 
 
 ances from that place passing through Prague, 
 but, when the visitor entered and hghts were 
 placed upon the table, I beheld a person with 
 whom I had no previous acquaintance, but 
 whose countenance, nevertheless, struck me as 
 being one of which I had some vague recol- 
 lection, although I could not at that moment 
 remember when or where I had seen it. He 
 was a handsome young man, with one of those 
 open, honest, phlegmatic German countenances, 
 which prepossess one in their favour without 
 exciting any particular interest; his manner 
 was frank and gentleman-like, and, without 
 any unnecessary circumlocution or attempt at 
 compliment, he told me that he had heard 
 sufficient of my success at Dresden (although 
 he had heard of my stay there too late to 
 profit by it on the spot) to induce him to fol- 
 low me to Prague with his wife, whose health 
 had been long in a declining state, from a com- 
 plication of nervous disorders, which had re- 
 sisted the skill of the medical practitioners 
 
92 STURMER. 
 
 near her; but as she had once, a few years 
 before, derived extraordinary benefit from Mes- 
 meric treatment, he entertained a hope that 
 it might again restore her to health ; at all 
 events, he was anxious to make the trial. He 
 had therefore brought her to Prague, in order 
 that she might remain a sufficient time under 
 my care to enable me to ascertain whether 
 her ailments were likely again to yield to the 
 influence of Animal Magnetism, and he en- 
 treated that I would see her without loss of 
 time. They were lodging, he said, at the 
 hotel of the 'Drei Linden,' (which you know 
 is on the Graben, a great distance from my 
 residence near the Hraschin,) but he would 
 bring his wife to me at any hour of the next 
 day that I might name. I replied that I would 
 wait upon her at the hotel at eleven o'clock 
 on the following day ; and in compliance with 
 my request that he would furnish me with her 
 name, he took a card from his pocket, laid it 
 
STURMER. 93 
 
 upon the table, and making his parting com- 
 pliments to me retired. 
 
 " No sooner had the door closed upon him 
 than I glanced my eye over the card, and read 
 upon it Franz Moller ! At that name my heart 
 leaped into my throat, and I felt thankful that 
 he was not present to witness an emotion which 
 I could not have repressed, neither could I have 
 accounted for it to him, in any rational manner. 
 I passed the night in a tumult of agitation, but 
 before the hour arrived for my appointed inter- 
 view with Lolotte the next morning, I had suc- 
 ceeded in regaining all the external calm which 
 it was necessary for me to exhibit on such an 
 occasion ; and at eleven o'clock precisely I drove 
 to the Drei Linden, where, upon inquiring for 
 Monsieur and Madame Moller, I was shewn 
 into a sitting-room where I found the husband 
 alone. He told me that in consequence of the 
 fatigues of her journey, his wife had been visited 
 by some of her most alarming symptoms during 
 
94 STURMER. 
 
 the night, and had therefore been unable to 
 rise early enough to be ready to receive me, 
 but that she was dressing and would join us in 
 a few moments. 
 
 " « Poor dear Lolotte ! ' he said, — and if there 
 had been any previous doubt upon my mind as 
 to the patient I was about to see, it vanished at 
 that long-cherished name; — 'I cannot bring 
 myself to think that she can be seriously ill, still 
 less can I forgive myself for having been so long 
 unconscious of her declining state ; but the fact 
 is that her beauty is so little impaired, and she 
 has so constantly abstained from any expres- 
 sion of suffering, that I have mistaken her in- 
 creasing bodily languor for a protraction of the 
 mental depression that followed the loss of her 
 children. I must tell you that she has oc- 
 casional aberrations of intellect, during which 
 visitations she becomes quite exaltte, although 
 perfectly harmless ; she will then write the most 
 beautiful and sublime fragments of poetry, and 
 compose music worthy of Weber himself, but 
 
STURMER. 95 
 
 not a line or a note of either does she remember 
 when she returns to her natural state." 
 
 " I at once discovered that what her husband 
 mistook for aberrations of intellect, were mani- 
 festations of natural somnambuhsm, and I was 
 proceeding to tell him so, when the door opened, 
 and the subject of our discourse herself ap- 
 peared. 
 
 " How beautiful she looked, that fair and 
 graceful Lolotte, and how little changed at 
 twenty-four from what she had been at six- 
 teen ! Years appeared to have glided so lightly 
 over her, as to leave no trace of their passage 
 on her smooth white brow and delicate child- 
 like features ; there was none of the fretfulness 
 of disease perceptible in her countenance — all 
 there was characterised by a sweet, serious 
 calm, which might have cheated the casual ob- 
 server into a belief that she had never known 
 sorrow or suffering ; but those who looked be- 
 yond the surface might read in the soul- sub- 
 duing expressions of her eyes a history of feel- 
 
96 STURMER. 
 
 ing repressed, something mystic and melan- 
 choly in their abstracted gaze, as though the 
 objects upon which they wandered were not 
 conveyed by the sight to the sense, and that 
 her thoughts dwelt in inward contemplation 
 upon things which had no link in the chain 
 of passing events. 
 
 " I know not what was said during the first 
 moments of our interview ; I can only distinctly 
 remember the moral agitation which her pre- 
 sence occasioned me, and the feeling of wonder 
 almost amounting to displeasure with which I 
 contemplated her own calm self-possession, and 
 the modest dignity with which she met my 
 gaze; never recalling to mind that although 
 she had been the romance of my life, I, to 
 her, was a perfect stranger. 
 
 " Very soon Franz led the conversation to the 
 subject of her health, and at his desire Lolotte 
 related to me all the circumstances of her 
 former illness, and of the part I had acted in 
 effecting her recovery, not a single particular of 
 
STURMER. 97 
 
 which was either altered or exaggerated by 
 her. 
 
 " ' I have,' she said, ' so often heard the whole 
 circumstance related by my dear mother, that 
 I could almost fancy I had seen it all myself; 
 and her descriptions of my unknown preserver 
 were so vivid, — his pale countenance, his dark 
 flashing eyes, and his high, noble forehead, 
 shaded by raven curls, were so minutely deli- 
 neated by her, that I think I should recognize 
 him in a multitude.' 
 
 "As she pronounced these words she raised 
 her eyes to mine, and, for the first time, wist- 
 fully scanning my features, a deep blush sud- 
 denly overspread her transparent cheek. She 
 hesitated in what she was going to add; but, 
 after a moment's painful embarrassment, pro- 
 ceeded to say, ' Is it not strange that he should 
 have disappeared as he did, without leaving 
 a name by which we might remember him in 
 our prayers ? And is it not still more strange 
 that he should never have returned, or in any 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
98 STURMER. 
 
 way endeavoured to ascertain whether the won- 
 derful cure commenced by him had ever ter- 
 minated successfully? I suppose that such 
 events were of every-day occurrence to him, 
 and that, in losing sight of us, he forgot us 
 altogether ; — but we can never forget 1dm I ' 
 
 " I could have fallen at her feet at these 
 words, and, in avowing to her that the nameless 
 wanderer and Wolfgang Sturmer were one and 
 the same person, have discovered to her the 
 fond secret of my soul ; but I checked the wild 
 impulse, and, forcing myself to remember that 
 I ought now to be nothing more to Lolotte 
 than her physician, I proceeded to suggest that 
 a trial of my magnetic influence over her should 
 be forthwith essayed. 
 
 " And now, Anton, mark what followed, as it 
 will bear out what I have so often told you, of 
 that most remarkable and unaccountable pheno- 
 menon elicited by Animal Magnetism in the hu- 
 man frame, — the developement in the person 
 magnetised of a state of being wholly distinct 
 
STURMER. 99 
 
 from their every-day existence, and apparently 
 unconnected with it by any hnk of association or 
 memory. This is one of the characteristics of 
 the highly lucid state; and I have never met 
 with it but in cases of extreme physical debility. 
 It was some minutes before I succeeded in pro- 
 ducing any visible effects upon Lolotte; but, 
 at last, after breathing upon my hands and 
 applying them to her forehead, she sank into 
 a slumber so profound that her very respiration 
 appeared to be suspended. 
 
 " Then stooping down, and taking her hand, 
 I whispered to her the never-failing first ques- 
 tion of 'Do you sleep?' 
 
 " Instead of answering me, a smile of glad 
 recognition irradiated her countenance, and the 
 words ' 'Tis He ! ' burst from her lips ! 
 
 " What I then felt it would be impossible for 
 me to describe; if worlds had been offered to 
 me as the price of another word, I could not, at 
 that moment, have uttered it. To my inex. 
 pressible relief, Mbller hastened to make some 
 
 F 2 
 
100 STURMER. 
 
 observations, which, by occasioning a pause in 
 my experiment, gave me time to recover my 
 self-possession. 
 
 " ' You must know,' said he, ' that whenever 
 my wife has been Mesmerised, her mind has 
 reverted to the first person who acted upon her 
 through that agency, and whom she always 
 designates as He or Him. Her mother has 
 told me, that each time she magnetised her, 
 her allusions to that person were unceasing. 
 She would call upon and apostrophise him, and 
 any attempt to explain to her that he was be- 
 yond her reach, would produce such momen- 
 tary exasperation, that it was thought advisable 
 not to thwart her belief that she would again 
 see him. His image seems to be so inseparably 
 connected with every stage of her magnetic 
 trance, that it is plain she now mistakes you 
 for him. I think it better that you should 
 favour the illusion by replying to her as 
 though you were indeed that person, — for op- 
 
STURMER. 101 
 
 position only irritates her, and, after all, the 
 deception can create no dilemma ; for when she 
 awakens, she will have no recollection of any- 
 thing that has occurred during her magnetic 
 sleep.' 
 
 " I could almost have smiled at the simplicity 
 and bonhomie of the unsuspecting husband; 
 but to have resisted his suggestion would have 
 been beyond human forbearance, — at least, be- 
 yond the share of it that I possess ; so I obeyed 
 him. 
 
 " * Lolotte,' I said, ' 'Tis I, indeed ; have you 
 anything to say to me ?' 
 
 " ' You must leave me no more,' she replied. 
 ' Why have you remained away so long ? ' 
 
 " ' I am now here to do your bidding, — to 
 remain near you as long as you wish, and to 
 give you all my attention. Where do you suf- 
 fer, Lolotte ? ' 
 
 " ' Here,' she answered, laying my hand upon 
 her heart, and holding it there. 
 
lOlS STURMER. 
 
 " ' Can you give me any insight into the 
 cause of that suffering? and can you describe 
 to me the actual appearance of your heart?* 
 
 " With surprising clearness she gave me a 
 description of the state of that organ, showing 
 that it was acted upon by a violent nervous 
 contraction and spasmodic affection, which, al- 
 though producing alarming and painful sym- 
 ptoms, was wholly unconnected with any ' organic 
 vice.' There was also a morbid affection of the 
 liver, such as I have frequently known to result 
 from any great and continued mental affliction, 
 — a spasmodic cough. The circulation of the 
 blood was completely deranged, and the whole 
 nervous system in a state of the greatest irrita- 
 tion. 
 
 " All of this was described by her with ana- 
 tomical precision, to the inexpressible astonish- 
 ment of her husband; who, however, when he 
 recovered his speech, assured me, that she must 
 be quite mistaken, as it was the opinion of 
 Dr. Schramm, of Schandau, that her symptoms 
 
STUKMER. 103 
 
 were all pulmonary. I told him, however, that 
 I had such faith in the accuracy of all that she 
 had just told me, which was not an opinion, but 
 an insight into her case, that I should not 
 balance my own, or any other professional per- 
 son's opinion, against it ; but treat her for the 
 complaints she had pointed out, and according 
 to the remedies she herself should suggest. I 
 then asked her if magnetism would be beneficial 
 to her, and she replied, that it would be in- 
 dispensable to her recovery; but that other 
 remedies must also be adopted, some of which 
 she pointed out, but professed not to be able to 
 see the rest of them at that time. She then de- 
 clared herself to be wearied with my questions, 
 and desired that I would suffer her to remain 
 quiet for half an hour. 
 
 " Her injunctions were obeyed, and Moller 
 and myself retired to the further end of the 
 room to await the result. Precisely as the half- 
 hour expired she stretched her limbs, raised 
 herself upon the sofa, and rubbing her eyes as 
 
104 STURMER. 
 
 a child does, when half roused from slumber, 
 recovered her perception by degrees. 
 
 " ' Well, Lottschen,' said her husband, * you 
 have had a famous sleep : how do you feel after 
 it?' 
 
 " ' Oh ! so well, — so much better,' was her 
 reply ; ' surely I must have slept several hours ; 
 for all my fatigue appears to have passed away ! ' 
 
 " ' No,' said I, ' you have only been three 
 quarters of an hour asleep; but tell me, have 
 . you had any dreams? Do you recollect any- 
 thing that passed during that period ? ' 
 
 " « Nothing,' she replied, ' except the inde- 
 scribable sensation of calm that gradually stole 
 over me. After that, all was oblivion.' 
 
 " « Well,' I rejoined, ' having now satisfied 
 myself of the power of Magnetism over you, I 
 must hear from you a statement of your sym- 
 ptoms and sensations according to your waking 
 perceptions of them.' And then proceeding to 
 question her closely upon the subject of her 
 health, I drew fi*om her a minute description of 
 
STURMER. 105 
 
 all that she suffered, and also a confession of her 
 own conviction that she was dying of an aneurism 
 of the heart, to which had recently been super- 
 added symptoms of pulmonary consumption. 
 
 " Thus you see how widely dissimilar were 
 the suppositions she hazarded waking^ from the 
 decision she had so oracularly pronounced while 
 asleep! When I told her of it, she shook her 
 head with a languid smile and said, ' You are 
 deceiving me, but you are mistaken in doing so. 
 I am prepared to hear the worst — I have been 
 long prepared to meet it, and have familiarized 
 myself with the idea of death, even in its most 
 painful form, so do not shrink from telling me 
 the truth. Doctor Sturmer ! And as for my 
 husband, he must learn to look it in the face 
 also ; I shall have courage for us both ! Only 
 tell me ivlien it is likely to be — that is the 
 only point upon which I have now any anxiety, 
 for I have a yearning to die at home, that I 
 may be laid in the same grave with my chil- 
 dren !' 
 
 F 5 
 
106 STURMER. 
 
 " ' You talk of leaving me,' said Moller, ' as 
 if it would cost you no regret to do so ! Is it 
 fair or kind in you thus to express yourself, and 
 does it not look like a reproach for my having 
 been so long unconscious that you were ill? If 
 you had only told me that ' 
 
 " * Pardon me, dear Franz," she interrupted, 
 taking his hand, ' pardon me if I have pained 
 you — and do not imagine I could ever intend 
 to reproach you; you have been all goodness 
 and patience with me, and God knows, I feel 
 it!' 
 
 " Goodness and patience ! they are often mis- 
 applied terms where carelessness and apathy 
 would approach nearer the truth. Love and 
 tenderness should have been the sentiments 
 exhibited towards Lolotte by the man so blest 
 as to be her husband. But are they in MoUer's 
 nature ? — I fear not. Even at that moment 
 there had been more oi pique than of tenderness 
 in the tone with which he had remarked upon 
 those affecting expressions of Lolotte, (which, 
 
STURMER. 107 
 
 in unconsciously revealing to me the desolate 
 state of her feelings, had caused the tears to 
 rush into my eyes,) but it vanished before the 
 charm of her frank and gentle manner, and 
 recovering his good humour he kissed the hand 
 she had placed in his, and proceeded to read to 
 her the notes he had made of the opinions pro- 
 nounced by her in her magnetic trance* 
 
 " As for me I felt that it was time to be 
 gone; I had tried my feelings to the utmost 
 in that interview, and another moment might 
 have betrayed me into some imprudence ; so 
 promising to return the following day, I took 
 my leave of them, and left the hotel like one 
 bewildered. Such are the particulars of my 
 first visit to Lolotte ; since then I have seen 
 her every day, and by following her own pre- 
 scriptions I have already produced most bene- 
 ficial effects. I shall restore her to health, 
 but it will be at the sacrifice of my own — of 
 my peace of mind — perhaps of my reason. I 
 cannot thus constantly approach her with im- 
 
108 STURMER. 
 
 punity, and a nearer acquaintance with her, 
 instead of destroying my illusions, has confirmed 
 and strengthened the passionate predilection 
 which the first sight of her awakened in me — 
 and so matters remain for the present. 
 
 " I have never met with a case of greater 
 lucidity than Lolotte's, or one which more com- 
 pletely proves the existence of two separate 
 states of being in the same person. One of the 
 peculiar features of her magnetic state is a 
 total oblivion of all her natural ties — the 
 recollection of her mother, grandfather, chil- 
 dren, and husband, is completely obliterated for 
 the time being ; that circle of affection which 
 had been all the world to her, and which, when 
 broken, had well nigh caused her heart to 
 break also — the loves and the sorrows of her 
 youth are then totally obliterated from the 
 tablets of memory ; — but she has moments 
 of ecstatic delirium which occasionally super- 
 vene, when she will remain with her eyes 
 
STURMER. 109 
 
 raised to heaven and fixed, her hps moving as 
 though she spoke, (and yet no sounds issue 
 from them,) and an expression so subUme and 
 so beatified spread over her whole countenance 
 and person, that one might imagine the glories 
 of heaven were then revealed to her spiritual 
 gaze. Once, and once only, as the vision ap- 
 peared to fade away from her, she murmured 
 ' I have seen them !' but nothing more could 
 we extract from her, for the characteristics of 
 her usual magnetic sleep immediately returned, 
 and she again became ' the queen of a fantastic 
 realm,' in which, apparently, two persons only 
 exist - — herself and me ! At those times no- 
 thing can exceed the fond familiarity of her 
 manner to me, or the tender deference with 
 which she obeys my every injunction — but 
 when she awakens to her natural state, all is 
 changed; she is still amiable and charming — 
 but retiring, almost reserved with me. 
 
 " I must not omit to tell you, that in conse- 
 
110 STURMER. 
 
 quence of Lolotte having found the hotel too 
 noisy and confined for a continuance, Mbller 
 has hired the small house communicating with 
 my garden, which you know I have lately had 
 thoughts of purchasing and fitting up as a 
 pavilion, and they are settled there for the 
 winter ; he is busily occupied in a work con- 
 nected with his particular studies (he is a Pro- 
 fessor of Persian and Arabic), and she passing 
 all her intervals from suffering in such feminine 
 employments as are the evidences of a well-re- 
 gulated mind. Every morning when I pay my 
 professional visit there, I determine to restrict 
 myself to that limited intercourse alone ; and 
 yet every evening I find myself again at the 
 door of the little habitation, where a smiling 
 welcome ever awaits me. I am ashamed of the 
 feelings which I carry there, when I contrast 
 them with the guileless confidence that is 
 evinced to me by both husband and wife. Come 
 to me, dear Anton, and snatch me from this too 
 
STURMER. Ill 
 
 dangerous society. I see her too often for my 
 tranquillity — too little for my happiness ! I 
 ought to fly, but were I to do so her health 
 would be sacrificed ; if I remain, I am lost ! 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 " Wolfgang Sturmer." 
 
112 STURMER. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 And her who was his destiny came back. 
 * -K- * * * 
 
 What business had she there at such a time ? 
 
 Lord Byron. 
 
 Unfortunately for Sturmer, his friend 
 could not then obey the call; family affairs 
 rendered his presence necessary in a distant 
 part of the country, and although his letters 
 were filled with the best advice urged with all 
 the good feeling and fearless candour that 
 were his distinguishing characteristics, although 
 he shrank not from placing before Sturmer a 
 picture of the dreadful consequences to which 
 the indulgence of his unauthorized feelings 
 
STURMER. llo 
 
 must lead, and, divesting it of the dazzling 
 sophistries of sentiment, held it up to him 
 in its true colours, a black transcript of un- 
 lawful affection and dishonourable purpose — 
 yet, those letters shared the fate of almost all 
 loritten counsels — they were perused with 
 emotion, aroused the mind to temporary com- 
 punction and virtuous resolves, and then were 
 thrown aside to be forgotten in the whirlwind 
 of conflicting feelings which a guilty passion 
 had raised in his bosom, or to be superseded 
 by the all-absorbing enchantment of a con- 
 stantly sustained intercourse with its lovely 
 object, where every good purpose — every wise 
 resolution — everything but love and Lolotte 
 were forgotten ! Whereas the personal au- 
 thority of Anton Von Preinl would have been 
 exerted to tear his friend from the scene of 
 temptation, or, failing to do so, to have roused 
 Lolotte to a sense of her danger, and have led 
 her to remove herself in time from its conse- 
 quences. This, however, was not to be, and 
 
114 STURMER. 
 
 everything appeared to conspire to throw 
 Lolotte and Sturmer more constantly together, 
 and thus to rivet more strongly the fetters 
 which passion had long since forged for the 
 heart of the one, and love, with gentler but 
 not less subtle power, was preparing for that 
 of the other. Besides that the almost undivided 
 attention which Mbller gave to his literary 
 labours left him little time to devote to his wife, 
 and that satisfied with the exertion of having 
 brought her to Prague, and placed her under 
 the care of one of the most celebrated prac- 
 titioners in Germany, he thought that further 
 anxiety or derangement of his usual habits on 
 her account would be a useless waste of time, 
 he had found out two or three literary acquaint- 
 ances at Prague, with whom he fell into the 
 habit of occasionally passing the evening, and 
 glad of an excuse for not leaving Lolotte alone, 
 he invariably chose the moment of Sturmer's 
 evening visit to absent himself for that pur- 
 pose. 
 
STURMER. 115 
 
 How fraught with dangerous delight were 
 those long tke-a-tttes to both ! Sometimes 
 Sturmer would read to Lolotte selections from 
 Schiller's and Goethe's works ; sometimes 
 Schlegel's translation of Shakspeare ; at others, 
 portions of her favourite poem, Klopstock's 
 Messiah. But such was his admiration of the 
 innocence of her mind, and so great the invo- 
 luntary awe and respect with which the modest 
 dignity of her demeanour had inspired him, 
 that he never attempted through the insidious 
 agency of immoral writers to undermine that 
 purity, which was at once the source of his 
 admiration and of his despair. And in that 
 reserve lay the greatest peril for Lolotte. It 
 deceived her as to the state of Sturmer's feel- 
 ings for her, and left her wholly unsuspicious 
 of the nature of her own for him, wholly un- 
 guarded against their daily encroachments upon 
 her heart ! For Lolotte had never before loved; 
 and, what is more, from having lived out of 
 the world, she was a stranger to those conven- 
 
116 STURMER. 
 
 tional flirtations, those privileged sentimentali- 
 ties permitted in society, which impart such 
 premature experience to the minds of young 
 women, and, by accustoming them to the lan- 
 guage of love before the sentiment is under- 
 stood, endue them with the dangerous power 
 of coldly playing with the passions; of inter- 
 preting every guarded word, and appropriating 
 every unguarded look as vanity may prompt ; 
 of encouraging or repelling the advances of 
 love, as prudence may direct ; of venturing to 
 the very confines of vice, and believing them- 
 selves to be virtuous because they have stop- 
 ped short there ; — finally, of becoming adepts in 
 that heartless science which, while it makes the 
 coquette, spoils the woman. Of all those arts 
 of attack and defence poor Lolotte was pro- 
 foundly ignorant ; but in their place she pos- 
 sessed a charm more powerful for the delicate 
 mind, more attractive, perhaps, even for the 
 libertine, that " tender bloom of heart " which, 
 once rubbed off*, nothing can restore, that virgin 
 
STURMER. 117 
 
 purity of feeling for which, if lost, the jargon 
 of sentiment^ or the calculations of the most 
 refined coquetry, however artfully applied, can 
 never compensate. She did not, therefore, at- 
 tempt to conceal the pleasure which Sturmer's 
 society afforded her, or to analyse the feelings 
 which gradually led her to identify his image 
 with all her thoughts and occupations ; for they 
 were naturally accounted for by her as evi- 
 dences of her deep and grateful sense of all the 
 benefits he had showered upon her. He had, 
 by his unremitting care, relieved her from severe 
 bodily suffering, and restored her to compa- 
 rative health ; he had opened new sources of 
 intellectual enjoyment to her; he was, besides, 
 her only society ; the only person who had 
 rescued her mind from preying upon itself; the 
 only one who possessed the power to divert her 
 thoughts from the gloomy contemplation of the 
 grave. And, if those thoughts now dwelt upon 
 him, absent as well as present ; if she learned 
 to live upon the expectation of beholding him 
 
118 STURMER. 
 
 " ogni sera, ogni mattina, ciascun ora, e poi 
 domani," still, gratitude, exalted and enthusiastic 
 gratitude, were the only feelings which she 
 believed had caused that fond pre-occupation of 
 her mind. 
 
 It was at this period of our history that 
 Moller, having terminated the first part of his 
 voluminous work, and anxious to present it to 
 the public, announced his determination of going 
 to Dresden to superintend its publication. The 
 winter had then set in with unusual severity ; 
 the cold was piercing, and the snow lay many 
 feet upon the ground ; it was therefore out of 
 the question that Lolotte, in her delicate state 
 of health, should accompany him at that incle- 
 ment season, even if he had wished that she 
 should do so ; but he did not ; for her presence, 
 and the care she required, would have entailed 
 upon him more trouble than gratification ; he 
 therefore made hasty arrangements for his de- 
 parture alone, and promising to return to 
 Prague as soon as the nature of his business 
 
STURMER. 119 
 
 would allow, he set out for Dresden in the 
 month of January, leaving Lolotte to the care 
 of the man whom he looked upon as his best 
 friend, the soul of honour, the type of all that 
 is noble and honest in human nature. 
 
 And Sturmer was an honest man ; his nature 
 was essentially noble and generous, his inten- 
 tions upright and pure; but, alas ! we have 
 seen that there was no governing principle of 
 religion in him, none of " that strength which 
 Cometh from above," to enable him steadily to 
 wrestle with and overcome temptations, how- 
 ever alluring, or render easy the task of daily 
 disciplining his feelings into the ways of peace 
 and virtue. He was the creature of passion 
 and impulse, driven hither and thither by them, 
 sometimes to good, sometimes to evil, never 
 to deliberate treachery. The confidence placed 
 in hira by Franz Moller touched him to the 
 soul ; it called forth all his better feelings, and 
 made him shrink with horror from the mere 
 idea of abusing it. In the first glow of gener- 
 
120 STURMER. 
 
 ous emotion which it had elicited, he believed 
 that henceforward every sacrifice of selfish in- 
 dulgence would be possible to him, and, strong 
 in his virtuous resolve, he determined to impose 
 such restraints upon his intercourse with Lo- 
 lotte, during her husband's absence, as would 
 leave him no opportunity of betraying the sa- 
 credness of the trust that had been placed in 
 him. He had been in the habit of following 
 his magnetic treatment of Lolotte always in the 
 presence of her husband, that is to say, in the 
 same room with him, and liable to his super- 
 mtending and overhearing all that passed upon 
 those occasions ; but, after the first two or three 
 experiments had been successfully made, Mol- 
 ler had ceased to give his attention to them, 
 and, absorbed in his writing at the further end 
 of the room, he would leave Sturmer in undis- 
 turbed communion with his wife, free to listen 
 to, and to encourage those fond outpourings of 
 her soul, which he had not the courage to 
 
STURMER. 121 
 
 repress, and which so eloquently, and unequivo- 
 cally convinced him of the power he possessed 
 over her in that state, and of the strange mys- 
 terious sympathy which existed between them, 
 and was then, and then only, revealed to him by 
 look or word. But, to pursue those dangerous 
 experiments with Lolotte alone, unrestrained by 
 the presence of her husband, and exposed to 
 the combined fascinations of her unequalled 
 beauty and her unresisting tenderness, would 
 have been an effort beyond his strength of mind 
 to achieve, a mad tempting of fate, that could 
 only have ended in defeat and remorse. He 
 suddenly suspended his magnetic treatment of 
 her, upon the plea that, for the present, her 
 health would not require its continuance ; and 
 when in her presence sought for safety in the 
 contemplation of that rare union of dignity and 
 sweetness which characterized her natural state, 
 and seemed to possess the magic power of 
 awing into respectful adoration every wild, un- 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
1^2 STURMER. 
 
 hallowed wish of his heart, and of imparting to 
 his feelings some of the redeeming purity and 
 gentleness of her own. 
 
 But he soon grew restless and unhappy un- 
 der this continued restraint; he had never ac- 
 customed himself to any sustained self-control, 
 and his spirits and temper failed him in this 
 first trial of his fortitude; even his courage 
 sank to the lowest ebb, when, at the end of 
 a few days, he perceived that Lolotte began to 
 droop and languish under the too-suddenly al- 
 tered system of treatment he had adopted, and 
 that symptoms of nervous excitement were again 
 becoming visible in her. Then wild thoughts 
 and wilder wishes would obtrude, and assert 
 their temporary sway over his reason. A thou- 
 sand times in the day he determined to throw 
 himself at Lolotte's feet, avow his mad passion 
 for her, and urge her to fly with him to some 
 distant land, where, forgetful of every other tie, 
 they might be all the world to each other. 
 Was she not already all the world to him ? — 
 
STURMER. 123 
 
 her love, her innocent, unconscious love he 
 already possessed, but that was no longer suffi- 
 cient for his happiness — earth held no bless- 
 ing for him unconnected with the possession of 
 Lolotte — she must participate in his guilty 
 thoughts and wishes — she must abandon her- 
 self to him unconditionally — she must be his 
 alone ! but would she ever consent to such a 
 sacrifice ? and at that thought he shrank within 
 himself, abashed by the imagined scorn of her 
 calm reproving eye, and the bitter indignation 
 with which he felt that she would resent so 
 deep an insult to her purity, so ungenerous 
 an advantage taken of her unprotected state ! 
 
 Such were the struggles with which the mind 
 of Sturmer was now torn, and against which 
 he felt himself each day less equal to contend. 
 During the day-time his innumerable profes- 
 sional avocations carried him away from the 
 contemplation of his own misery, and procured 
 him a temporary suspension of suffering, but 
 in the evening the reaction was dreadful. He 
 
 G 2 
 
124 STURMER. 
 
 had ceased to go into the world because the 
 irritation of his spirits rendered him unfit to 
 enact with proper calm and decorum his part 
 in that heartless and frivolous comedy of which 
 society is the theatre. He had ceased, too, to 
 visit Lolotte in the evening as heretofore, and 
 had contrived to time his interviews with her 
 immediately after dinner, because at that hour 
 he was sure to find her maid knitting in the 
 same room with her, and he felt that the pre- 
 sence of a third person was now necessary to 
 restrain his expressions within the bounds of 
 prudence. Thus unsettled in mind he shut him- 
 self up in his study during the long evenings, 
 and endeavoured to force his attention to the 
 investigation of some point of scientific interest, 
 but the effort was fruitless ; his eye glanced 
 over the page while his thoughts wandered 
 far from it; and in a fit of uncontrolable ex- 
 asperation against himself, against fate, against 
 the world, which he accused of having created 
 conventional rules of conduct, falsely termed 
 
STURMER. 125 
 
 virtue and wholly inconsistent with happiness, 
 he would dash his book to the ground, and 
 pacing up and down the room abandon him- 
 self to those dreams of passion which have 
 already been described. 
 
 One night when he had been more than 
 usually excited by these conflicting emotions, 
 and that, exhausted by the struggle, he felt 
 the impossibility of longer protracting it, he 
 came to the resolution of writing to Lolotte, 
 and unfolding to her the whole history of his 
 heart, from the first dawn of his affection for 
 her, to the present period ; yes, he would tell 
 her all — even the encouragement which she 
 had so unconsciously given to his love during 
 her magnetic trances, and the mad hopes to 
 which those looks and words of tenderness had 
 given birth — she should know of the long strug- 
 gle between passion and honour that had al- 
 most driven him to frenzy, and had ended in 
 despair, because no sophistry could reconcile 
 to his mind the possibiHty of both triumphing ; 
 
126 STURMER. 
 
 — either honour must be forgotten, or love sa- 
 crificed — vanquished it could never be by him ! 
 He felt that he dare trust himself in her pre- 
 sence no more, for the pleadings of passion 
 would silence the voice of virtue — he would 
 tear himself from the place that held her ; but 
 in this apparently heartless abandonment of 
 the trust her husband had placed in him by 
 leaving her to his care — in this humihating 
 avowal of all his weakness and all his misery, 
 he would force her to confess that Wolfgang 
 Sturmer was an honest man ! He sat down to 
 embodv these confessions in the most coherent 
 language he could command, but the burning 
 tears that fell from his eyes blotted and effaced 
 the words as fast as he traced them, and ren- 
 dered the task a work of time. When the 
 letter was terminated it was almost midnight; 
 the cold was intense, and the snow, as it fell 
 in thick flakes upon the ground, was drifted 
 by the wind against the windows that opened 
 into the garden ; all without was in unison 
 
STURMER. 127 
 
 with his own dreary heart. Sturmer hghted a 
 lamp and went into an adjoining room, where, 
 in the drawer of an antique cabinet, was de- 
 posited Lolotte's bridal crown, which he had 
 determined to send to her with his letter, as 
 a symbol of his identity with the wandering 
 student. Long and fondly did he gaze upon 
 the faded memorial of his ill-fated passion be- 
 fore he summoned courage to displace it from 
 the corner which it had so long occupied; at 
 last, in doing so, the chaplet caught in some- 
 thing that lay beneath it, and, drawing forth 
 both objects, Sturmer perceived that it had 
 become entangled in the lock of an old pistol 
 of his father's, the only relic he possessed of 
 that parent. A gloomy thought, tinged with 
 superstitious feeling, suddenly shot through his 
 mind. 
 
 " Ha ! '* he said with a bitter smile ; " fate 
 placed you there together to point out to me 
 the only cure for my ills — the hint shall not 
 be given in vain ! " and placing his lamp upon 
 
128 STURMER. 
 
 the table he proceeded to examine the lock 
 of the pistol. 
 
 At that moment the noise of a window open- 
 ing in the next room startled him from his 
 occupation. The lateness of the hour and the 
 fact of all the servants having gone to bed 
 rendered any such unseasonable intrusion a 
 matter of considerable surprise to him, and he 
 hastily advanced to the door that communicated 
 with the study, to ascertain who the midnight 
 visitant might be; but he suddenly stopped 
 there, transfixed by what he beheld, and, for 
 the moment, believed that he gazed upon some 
 " unreal mockery," which, in the next instant, 
 would " vanish into thin air." There stood 
 the form that for ever haunted his thoughts. 
 Was it the breathing form of Lolotte, or only 
 a shadowy semblance conjured up by his dis- 
 turbed imagination, to delude him into the 
 belief that he beheld once more her whom he 
 had but a moment before relinquished for ever ? 
 For an instant the figure remained motionless 
 
STURMER. 129 
 
 at the open casement, then, stepping forward 
 deliberately closed the window after her, and 
 advancing into the centre of the room more 
 fully revealed to him her features ; and Sturmer 
 saw that it was indeed the living Lolotte, but 
 in that mysterious state of natural somnam- 
 bulism which irresistibly impels the sleeping 
 body to follow the impulses of the waking mind. 
 She had evidently just risen from her bed, for 
 her only vestments consisted of a loose white 
 wrapping-gown thrown over her night-dress, 
 and a pair of slippers into which her small 
 white feet had been hastily thrust; the cap 
 that confined her beautiful hair was covered 
 with snow, and the light which she held in 
 her hand had been extinguished by the falling 
 flakes as she traversed the garden. There was 
 a restless melancholy in her countenance not 
 natural to its usual serene expression, and the 
 sad abstracted gaze of her large dilated eyes 
 told of some vision of sorrow that was passing 
 within. 
 
 G .5 
 
130 STURMER. 
 
 Sturmer dared not move ; he scarcely dared 
 to breathe, lest, by suddenly awakening her, he 
 might occasion one of those alarming paroxysms 
 which are the inevitable consequence of dis- 
 turbing sleep-walkers in the midst of their 
 wanderings ; and so, with the pistol and chaplet 
 in his hand, he remained motionless as a statue 
 at the door, following her movements with his 
 eyes only, but prepared to interfere should she 
 meditate any egress that would involve her in 
 danger. 
 
 When she had reached the table at which 
 Sturmer had been writing, she paused for a 
 moment in a listening attitude, then shook her 
 head as if in disappointment, and sighing deeply 
 sank into the chair which he had occupied 
 while tracing his confessions, and buried her 
 face in her hands — but presently removing 
 them, with an impatient gesture she dashed 
 the gathering tears from her eyes, and draw- 
 ing the pen and ink towards her busily oc- 
 cupied herself in arranging materials for writing. 
 
STURMER. 131 
 
 The first sheet of paper that fell under her 
 hand was the blotted transcript of Sturmer's 
 stormy feelings, which he had scrawled in cha- 
 racters as illegible and incoherent as the un- 
 controlable passion that had dictated them ; 
 and deliberately folding it in the form of a 
 letter, she placed it, without reading its con- 
 tents, in her bosom. Again she listened — 
 then drawing the paper before her, with a rapid 
 hand traced upon it her thoughts, while Stur- 
 mer, noiselessly advancing to the back of her 
 chair, leaned over it, and followed with his eyes 
 the course of those rambling reflections. 
 
 " It is strange," she wrote, " that I cannot 
 hear him, and yet I feel that he is not far off — 
 then why does he not come to calm these ter- 
 rors which have destroyed my rest ? 
 
 " We were but two in the world — we were 
 everything to each other. Every day that 
 brought us together but served to rivet more 
 closely the links that united our souls. If I 
 suffered, he stretched forth his hand, and that 
 
132 STURMER. 
 
 magic touch restored me to ease ! Now all is 
 changed — all is silent — I hear not his step, I 
 hear not his voice — and yet I have watched for 
 them, hung upon their expectation for days. 
 What has become of the time when a wish of 
 mine brought him to my side — when his pre- 
 sence dispelled all my sufferings, and shed life 
 and light upon my darkened soul ? Now I am 
 alone — always alone ! alas, what have I done 
 to deserve so cruel an abandonment ? 
 
 " Return to me, my only friend, I can bear 
 this solitude no longer — the silence and the 
 chill of death have suddenly surrounded me, 
 and a vague terror of evil impending to both of 
 us has scared away my rest — even now a mys- 
 sterious voice whispers within me ' the danger is 
 near — seek him and save him, even if you perish 
 in the attempt ! ' " 
 
 There was something so solemn and startling 
 in this strange illustration of the theory of pre- 
 sentiments (those forebodings of evil which a 
 French author has fancifully styled " Les fan- 
 
STURMER. 133 
 
 tomes du futur'') — an evidence so strong of 
 that mysterious sympathy which binds with 
 electric chain the soul of one being to that of 
 another, that even Sturm er, prepared as his 
 mind was to beUeve in every phenomenon of that 
 nature presented by somnambuHsm, whether 
 magnetic or natural, could not but marvel at the 
 prophetic instinct which it had developed in 
 Lolotte of misfortune impending to himself — 
 an instinct so strong and so unerring that, 
 although the precise nature of the evil appeared 
 to be undefined to her, — yet he, who then held 
 in his hand the instrument which had sug- 
 gested to him the idea of self destruction, well 
 knew its magnitude ! — the sense of his danger 
 had impelled her towards him with irresistible 
 force at the exact moment when her presence 
 might save him from himself. He flung the 
 pistol from him with a mixture of awe and 
 horror, but the noise it made in falling to the 
 gi'ound did not arouse the Somnambulist, who 
 had no sooner traced the last w^ords than she 
 
134 STURMER. 
 
 threw the pen from her, and starting to her 
 feet with a frenzied gesture, seized the extin- 
 guished hght she had placed upon the table, and 
 rushed towards the door which opened from the 
 study into the vestibule ; and it is a remarkable 
 circumstance that although the pistol lay in her 
 way, she turned aside to avoid it, shuddering as 
 she did so. 
 
 There was no time to be lost in arresting her 
 progress ; her hand was already upon the lock 
 of the door, and in another moment she would 
 have been wandering through the house to the 
 imminent risk of discovering herself to some of 
 the servants ; but Sturmer well knew that to 
 have awakened her might have been fatal to her 
 reason, and he, therefore, interposed the au- 
 thority of magnetism to calm her delirium ; 
 advancing gently behind her he stretched forth 
 his hand, and held it over her head for a second. 
 The transition effected by that simple gesture 
 was instantaneous — her countenance, which but 
 a moment before had presented all the phrenzy 
 
STURMER. 135 
 
 and exaltation of a Pythoness, suddenly became 
 fixed and motionless as that of a statue; her 
 eyes, which had been dilated to their utmost 
 extent, closed ; her hands fell powerless by her 
 side, and she would have sunk to the ground 
 had not Sturmer received her in his arms. He 
 bore her to the chair she had just quitted, and 
 placing his hand upon her forehead, " determin- 
 ed" by that magic touch the magnetic trance to 
 the utmost limit of its profoundness and lucidity. 
 
 " Ah !" she murmured with a deep and pro- 
 longed inspiration, as though a weight of misery 
 had suddenly been removed from her breast, 
 " I have found him — he is here — he is safe ! " 
 and she stretched forth her hands towards him. 
 Sturmer only replied by pressing those beauti- 
 ful hands to his lips. " Oh, my friend ! " she 
 continued, " I see you at last ; but let me hear 
 your voice — speak to me — tell me that you 
 will leave me no more — promise me that you 
 will not abandon your poor Lolotte." 
 
 " I promise it !" 
 
136 STURMER. 
 
 " Swear it to me." 
 
 " I swear it ! " 
 
 A smile of rapture so sublime in its ex- 
 pression lighted up her lovely features, that 
 Sturmer, in speechless admiration, fell upon 
 his knees as though he beheld a being of 
 another world before him. " Oh ! " she said in 
 a tone of thrilling tenderness, and pressing his 
 hands to her heart, " now, indeed, I feel that 
 death even cannot tear you from me ! " 
 
 Lost in a delirium of happiness, intoxicated 
 by the beauty and the tenderness of Lolotte, 
 Sturmer paused not to weigh the peril of yield- 
 ing to the temptation that assailed him — he 
 forgot that the innocent being before him was 
 unconscious of the power which she was so un- 
 compromisingly giving him over her, and that he 
 alone must be responsible for the consequences ; 
 he forgot the sad resolves which but an hour 
 or two before he had formed ; — he forgot that 
 if Lolotte were to be discovered by any of his 
 servants alone with him at that midnight hour, 
 
STURMER. 137 
 
 that her reputation would be at their mercy ! 
 With the selfishness of passion he thought only 
 of the joy of being with her, and of prolonging 
 to the utmost the dream of love that had suc- 
 ceeded to the darkness of his despair ; the mo- 
 ment for calm reflection had passed away, and 
 impulse had asserted its wild sway over him. 
 Kneeling at the feet of Lolotte, her hands 
 clasped in his, he covered them with passionate 
 kisses ; — a word from her recalled him to him- 
 self and to a sense of her situation : — "I am 
 cold !" she murmured, shuddering, and drawing 
 more closely around her the light night-dress 
 which so insufficiently shielded her from the 
 freezing atmosphere, " take me back to my 
 room." 
 
 Sturmer threw open the window, and raising 
 the unresisting form of Lolotte in his arms, 
 rapidly bore his light burthen through the 
 garden, guided by the light which glimmered 
 from her bedroom window across the white 
 waste. 
 
138 STURMER. 
 
 The door of her house was ajar, and every- 
 thing within buried in the silence of profound 
 repose. It was evident that the servant had not 
 been awakened by her mistress descending the 
 stairs and leaving the house ; and the heavy 
 breathings that proceeded from the half open 
 door of her room as they passed it, told audibly 
 of slumbers that would have required more 
 noisy efforts to dispel. 
 
 Sturmer lightly ascended the staircase, the 
 dim rays of the night lamp which streamed 
 through the open door of Lolotte's chamber 
 lending its mysterious light to guide his steps ; 
 not a word was spoken by either of them — 
 the last step was gained — Lolotte was safe ! 
 For a moment he hesitated ere he crossed the 
 threshold of her room — it was but for a mo- 
 ment — in the next he stepped forward, and 
 with a throbbing heart deposited Lolotte in her 
 chamber — that sanctuary which he had never 
 before entered ! 
 
STURMER. 139 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Les liens du sang qui ont tant de poids sur les natures 
 vulgaires, que sont-ils au prix de ceux que nous forge le 
 ciel dans le tresor de ses mysterieuses s}Tiipatliies ? 
 
 George Sand. 
 
 When, at a late hour the next morning, Lo- 
 lotte awakened, with no trace upon her memory 
 of anything which had occurred during the night, 
 or any recollection save that of having retired 
 to rest in a state of nervous irritation, which 
 had exhausted itself in tears ; and subsequently 
 yielded to a deep, dreamless, and unbroken 
 slumber, the first object which her eyes fell 
 upon was a sealed letter lying upon the table 
 near the bedside, and directed in her husband's 
 
140 STURMER. 
 
 hand-writing. Close to it lay a paper, folded 
 in the form of a letter, but without any address. 
 They had apparently been placed there by her 
 servant before she awakened ; and she hastened 
 to peruse them, beginning with her husband's, 
 which was as follows : — 
 
 " Dresden, January 31st, 18 — . 
 " DEAR LOTTSCHEN, 
 
 " Although in my last letter I told you 
 that I should by this time be able to announce 
 to you my return to Prague, I find that it will 
 be impossible for me to leave Dresden for some 
 time longer, or at present to fix any certain 
 period for my doing so ; for the publication of 
 my book is unavoidably retarded by the neces- 
 sity of adding notes to it in the form of an 
 Appendix, (which was suggested to me by Pro- 
 fessor Winter, to whom I submitted the MSS.), 
 and in the compiling of which I am now busily 
 occupied ; so that the business of printing, re- 
 vising, and correcting, is yet all before me, and 
 
STURMER. 141 
 
 I cannot see my way through it for several 
 weeks to come, — certainly not before the be- 
 ginning of March. At that period there is to 
 be a sale of Retch's library, at Leipzig, which 
 I would not miss attending upon any account, 
 as he has in his collection several curious old 
 editions, which I should be glad to purchase; 
 therefore, a journey to Leipzig will be indis- 
 pensable, and will involve a week or ten days 
 longer absence from you; — say till the middle 
 of March. 
 
 " In this state of affairs, I leave it to you 
 to decide whether you will join me at Dresden 
 or remain where you are until my business will 
 allow of my returning to bring you home. I 
 should recommend the latter alternative upon 
 many accounts ; principally because you are 
 evidently deriving so much benefit from our 
 good friend Sturmer's treatment of you, that 
 it would be a pity to interrupt it prematurely, 
 and thus throw away all the time and expense 
 which it has cost us to place you under his 
 
142 STURMER. 
 
 care. Besides, this is a bad season for tra- 
 velling, and we shall, under all circumstances, 
 be obliged to pay for the house at Prague until 
 the spring; and should you come here, I must 
 take a lodging for you, — an additional expense, 
 — for a bed-room and cabinet now suffice for 
 me; and I have brought in Babet from the 
 Ottowaldergrund to manage my bachelor esta- 
 blishment. So, all things considered, you had 
 better remain quietly where you are until the 
 spring. However, do as you like; and if you 
 have set your heart upon joining me, come. 
 
 " I hope you continue as well as when you 
 last wrote. Say all that is kind from me to 
 our good friend Sturmer, who is looked upon 
 here as a demi-god. Entre nous, my writing 
 goes on much better at a distance from you and 
 him. Those musical evenings distracted my 
 attention in spite of myself; but now that I 
 have nothing to divide it, I throw off page after 
 page in the evening with surprising celerity. 
 I shall get a good price for the work when 
 
STURMER. 143 
 
 finished. Adieu ! dear Lottschen, and believe 
 me to be your affectionate husband, 
 
 " F. W. A. MOLLER." 
 
 Lolotte perused the apathetic communication 
 of her husband with fluctuating feelings; at 
 one moment grateful for his indulgence in leav- 
 ing to her own discretion to decide whether she 
 should join him or not; then chilled and mor- 
 tified by the absence of all expression of so- 
 licitude, on his part, as to what her decision 
 might be, and the superior interest which, it 
 was evident, his book possessed for him over 
 his wife ; and finally thankful that he had pro- 
 nounced in favour of her remaining where she 
 was : for at the mere suggestion of leaving 
 Prague, a pang had shot athwart her heart, 
 which it would have been difiicult for her then 
 to have accounted for, blind as she still re- 
 mained to the precise nature of her feelings. 
 She, however, quickly adopted her husband's 
 views; and having determined to write to him 
 
144 STURMER. 
 
 by return of post to acquaint him with her 
 willing acquiescence, was rising to do so with 
 an exhilaration of spirits which she had not ex- 
 perienced for many days, when the other letter, 
 which had been overlooked by her in the flutter 
 occasioned by Moller's epistle, caught her eye ; 
 and she paused to examine it also. 
 
 It was the confession of Sturmer's love and 
 despair, which she had appropriated to herself 
 during her nocturnal visit to him, and which 
 must have fallen from her bosom when he bore 
 her into her chamber on the preceding night, 
 and, in all probability, had been picked up by 
 her maid, and deposited upon the table when 
 she had brought in the other letter that morn- 
 ing. 
 
 At first her eye wandered carelessly over the 
 blotted lines ; but soon her attention became 
 riveted and absorbed by them. Her colour 
 went and came, now fading to ashy paleness, 
 now flushing to deepest crimson as she read 
 on ! Her bosom heaved until she gasped for 
 
STURMER. 145 
 
 breath ! At last, a broken cry burst from her 
 lips, — a cry where terror, surprise, and joy were 
 mingled in strange confusion, — and crushing 
 the paper to her heart as though she would 
 have hidden it there for ever, she sank back 
 upon her pillow overwhelmed by the intensity 
 of her feelings ! 
 
 Yes ! those passionate avowals of long-che- 
 rished, irrepressible love had suddenly awaken- 
 ed an echo in her bosom which death alone 
 would henceforth have the power to silence. 
 That incoherent yet eloquent history of Stur- 
 mer's heart had, as with a lightning flash, un- 
 veiled to her the secrets of her own, — she loved 
 and was beloved ! Oh ! moment of unequalled 
 felicity ! to be experienced but once in our lives ! 
 and then to be experienced only by the novice 
 in sentiment, — when the heart, with a thrill of 
 ecstasy, awakens from its torpor of tranquillity 
 to a sense of emotions beautiful as new, — the 
 blessed consciousness of its untold yet requited 
 tenderness ! Life has nothing to offer com- 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
146 STURMER. 
 
 parable to that fleeting joy, — why, then, is it so 
 often doomed to be followed by remorse ? Why 
 are sensations, so gracious and heaven-born, 
 destined so soon to catch the taint of earth, 
 and become for ever quenched in tears of agony 
 and repentance ? 
 
 Alas ! for frail humanity that it should be so ! 
 With Lolotte it could not be otherwise. That 
 transient glow of ineffable joy, which for a mo- 
 ment had usurped the place of every other sen- 
 timent in her bosom, quickly subsided into the 
 chill of despair, as, with a shudder, she remem- 
 bered that she was the wife of another, and that 
 Sturmer could never, without a crime, be more 
 to her than he now was. With tearless, burn- 
 ing eyes, she resumed the perusal of his letter, 
 and read to the end the too faithfully delineated 
 struggles of a heart which passion had en- 
 slaved, yet had not blinded to the dictates of 
 virtue, — the avowal of over-tasked energies, 
 which had prostrated his mind to more than 
 woman's weakness, yet had left him sufficient 
 
STURMER. 147 
 
 strength to seek for safety from her fatal pre- 
 sence in flight, and to choose his own despair 
 in preference to her indignation and scorn ! 
 All this she read with breathless attention ; and, 
 pondering over each expression, vainly sought 
 for a word which might, by wounding her deli- 
 cacy, arouse her woman's pride to resent the 
 avowal of a sentiment forbidden by the laws of 
 God and man. There was not one to be found ! 
 — not even in the allusion he had made to the 
 tenderness she had so fatally and unwittingly 
 evinced for him during her magnetic trances. 
 Love, idolatry, respect, despair were there;-— 
 but the pleadings of passion had, with a last 
 effort, been forced back upon his bursting heart, 
 and no evidence of selfish weakness was to be 
 traced upon that paper, save in the stains left 
 by the burning tears that had fallen upon and 
 almost effaced the confession of his misery ! 
 
 This absence of selfishness in the love she 
 had inspired, completed the subjugation of Lo- 
 lotte's soul. One hope imphed, one entreaty 
 
 H li 
 
148 STURMER. 
 
 urged by him, would have alarmed the dignity 
 of outraged virtue into severity and reproach; 
 but his hopeless devotion had totally disarmed 
 her, and where she would have blamed she 
 could only pity and admire, and, alas! — what 
 is more, — love and despair as he did. Terrified 
 by the vehemence of emotions so new to her, 
 she fell upon her knees and invoked the aid of 
 Heaven in restoring calm to her mind, and 
 granting it strength to resist and vanquish the 
 unhallowed sentiment that had thus insidiously 
 crept into her heart. Who is there that has 
 not experienced, in moments of painful excite- 
 ment and self-abandonment, the benign influ- 
 ence of prayer? Who has not felt its efficacy 
 in calming the troubled and bewildered spirit, 
 when all the arguments of philosophy and the 
 reasoning of worldly wisdom have failed to 
 soothe, to persuade, or to control? Lolotte, 
 from her earliest years, had been accustomed 
 " to cast her cares upon Him who careth : for 
 us ;" and now she rose from her knees purified 
 
STURMER. 149 
 
 and strengthened in mind by that devout sup- 
 plication to her heavenly Father. Tears, — the 
 first that she had shed, — tears of humility and 
 contrition for her involuntary fault, had fallen 
 from her eyes, and calmed the tumult of her 
 soul as she prayed; but they were not the 
 childish tears of a weak and vacillating mind, 
 vainly mourning over difficulties which it has 
 not energy to contend with. They were the 
 harbingers of loftier, purer thoughts, and, as 
 they rolled unheeded over her pale cheeks, her 
 courage and her composure returned : she blush- 
 ed for the emotions into which a momentary de- 
 lirium had surprised her, and resolved to atone 
 for them by the sacrifice of every unholy sen- 
 timent upon the altar of duty and principle. 
 
 But, oh ! the difficulty of conveying her re- 
 solution to Sturmer in language that should 
 not betray the anguish of her soul ! For, al- 
 though she had determined to relinquish all 
 intercourse with him for ever, she could not 
 thus resign him without a pang that made her 
 
150 STURMER. 
 
 heart die within her. Page after page was 
 written by her, and torn in despair as express- 
 ing too much or too little of what she felt. 
 She had not the courage to reproach him — 
 and why should she ? he had asked nothing 
 of her but her pity and her esteem, and if his 
 sentiments were unfortunately beyond his own 
 control, he had proved to her that his actions 
 were not; he had, to the last, behaved like a 
 man of honour ! Still less must she betray the 
 tenderness of her soul to him, or raise one 
 hope which virtue forbade should be realised ; 
 she would enclose his own letter to him, and 
 confining herself to an announcement of her 
 intention to leave Prague immediately, request 
 that he would receive her farewell in writing, 
 and not seek to see her before her departure ; 
 and having thus determined to restrain her 
 feelings within the limits which prudence dic- 
 tated, she wrote to him as follows : — 
 
 " I return you a letter which ought never 
 
STURMER. 151 
 
 to have been addressed to the wife of Franz 
 Moller ! that it has pained and surprised me 
 in every way, you may well imagine; but I 
 will not suffer myself to dwell upon its con- 
 tents further than to tell you that they have 
 pointed out to me the only course I ought to 
 pursue, and which I shall adopt without delay. 
 I anticipate your design of leaving Prague, and 
 to-morrow I shall commence my journey home- 
 wards ; a letter received from my husband this 
 morning enables me to do so without any ex- 
 traordinary appearance being occasioned by my 
 departure, as he himself suggests that I should 
 immediately join him at Dresden. Remain 
 therefore where you are — where there are so 
 many claims upon your presence — where you 
 are identified with so many great and good 
 actions — where you are so useful, so beloved, 
 and so respected, that your absence would be- 
 come a public calamity, — and in the fulfilment 
 of those duties which have hitherto rendered 
 your life a blessing to suffering humanity, you 
 
152 STURMER. 
 
 will eventually, I trust, regain that peace of 
 mind which my presence has so unhappily dis- 
 turbed. Forget, if possible, that such a being 
 as Charlotte Moller exists — or, if that may not 
 be, remember her only as one whom your phil- 
 anthropy has rescued from suffering and death, 
 and as the wife of a man who loves and honours 
 you above all others upon earth. 
 
 " Farewell — farewell for ever ! do not seek 
 to see me again — such an attempt would ap- 
 pear to me now as a deliberate insult, and 
 would for ever deprive you of those sentiments 
 which you now possess, and which I may own 
 without a blush, namely, the gratitude, esteem, 
 and respect of 
 
 " Charlotte Moller." 
 
 While Lolotte was thus employed, Sturmer 
 had been aroused from the feverish slumber 
 into which he had fallen at break of day, by 
 the arrival of an express from Czaslau, de- 
 spatched to him by the beautiful Bertha, the 
 
STURMER. loo 
 
 sister of his friend Anton Von Preinl, to sum- 
 mon him thither without delay. The courier, 
 who had travelled all night, was the bearer 
 of a letter from that lady written in the greatest 
 alarm, telling him that her husband. Count de 
 Kcenneritz, had been seized with an apoplectic 
 attack at Czaslau, on their journey from Vienna 
 to Prague, and was unable to move onward, 
 and adjuring him to lose no time in coming 
 to his assistance. It was one of those sum- 
 monses that admit of no hesitation in obeying, 
 and in the confusion of his ideas between sleep- 
 ing and waking Sturmer started from his bed, 
 and was mechanically preparing to comply with 
 it, when a second packet was handed to him, 
 and the superscription, in the hand-writing of 
 Lolotte, suddenly brought back to his recol- 
 lection the events of the past night; they 
 crowded upon him in all the vivid confusion 
 of a troubled dream, and so strange and im- 
 possible did they appear, that for a moment he 
 doubted of their reality, but the contents of 
 
 H O 
 
154 STURMER. 
 
 Lolotte's letter, and the sight of his own in- 
 coherent scrawl forced the truth upon him; a 
 whirlwind of emotions accompanied that con- 
 viction, but the feeling then strongest in his 
 mind was terror at the idea of losing Lolotte ; 
 and regardless of her request that he would 
 not again seek to see her, he hastily dressed 
 himself and rushed into her presence. 
 
 After Lolotte had despatched her letter to 
 Sturmer, she had tasked her energies to com- 
 mence the various arrangements which her pre- 
 cipitate departure necessitated ; and that nervous 
 excitement, that fever of mind, which is neither 
 strength nor courage, but which often assumes 
 the semblance of both, and will sometimes, in 
 great emergencies sustain the sufferer through 
 exertions which at other times would be deemed 
 impossible to encounter, enabled her for a brief 
 space to perform wonders; and having de- 
 spatched her servant to the Eil-wagen office 
 to secure places to Dresden for the next day, 
 she was busily employed in collecting together 
 
STURMER. 155 
 
 the books and music which Sturmer had lent 
 her, that they might be returned to him after 
 her departure, when he suddenly appeared be- 
 fore her. 
 
 The sight of one arisen from the grave could 
 not have startled and overpowered Lolotte more 
 completely than did the presence of Sturmer 
 at that moment ; her heart beat tumultuously, 
 her tongue clove to the roof of her mouth, and 
 her knees trembled so that she would have 
 sunk to the ground had she not grasped at 
 the nearest chair to support her ; and thus with 
 averted eyes and a changing cheek she stood in 
 speechless emotion before him. One glance at 
 that speaking countenance revealed to Sturmer 
 all that was passing within ; — he read the strug- 
 gles of her heart in her swollen eyes and quiv- 
 ering lips — they were evidences to him of 
 the empire he possessed over her feelings, but 
 they spoke eloquently, too, of the barrier which 
 principle would oppose to the indulgence of 
 those feelings, for he saw at once that she 
 
156 STURMER. 
 
 would rather die than make an avowal of them 
 to him, and perhaps that very conviction ren- 
 dered more intense the unutterable tenderness 
 with which he gazed upon her exquisite face. 
 Lolotte felt that his eyes were fixed upon her ; 
 she struggled to regain her composure — to 
 assert her dignity — to mark her displeasure ; 
 with a desperate effort to be calm she raised 
 her eyes to his, but something in the expression 
 she there encountered caused her suddenly to 
 withdraw them, while a burning blush suffused 
 her cheek and brow with crimson, and then 
 left them paler than before. Sturmer seized 
 her hand, and would have carried it to his lips, 
 but hastily disengaging it from his grasp, and 
 drawing herself proudly up, she waved him 
 from her. 
 
 "Lolotte!" he exclaimed, " you now know 
 all ! — The secret of my heart, its madness, its 
 struggles, — its long-enduring hopeless love have 
 been divulged to you, and they have called forth 
 your indignation, your scorn, perhaps ; and yet 
 
STURMER. 157 
 
 you know not all my madness — God forbid that 
 you should ! for then your hatred might fall 
 upon me too ! " 
 
 " Mr. Sturmer," said Lolotte, in a tone and 
 with a look of indescribable dignity, "I had 
 hoped to have been spared this intrusion ; I 
 had hoped that my written request would have 
 been respected by you ; but I see that you are 
 bent upon offending me to the utmost. Leave 
 me, sir, and insult me no longer by a repetition 
 of sentiments which ought never to have come 
 to my knowledge." 
 
 " Would to God that they had not !" he 
 vehemently replied. " Would that that fatal 
 letter had never fallen into your hands ! — you 
 would not then have adopted the cruel resolu- 
 tion of flying far from me. Could I, by the 
 sacrifice of all that I possess on earth purchase 
 for you oblivion of its contents, I would joy- 
 fully resign all, and feel myself rich indeed in 
 the restoration of your confidence and esteem ; 
 but that may not be, and regrets arc now all 
 
158 STURMER. 
 
 too late, and unavailing. Nay, hear me ! " he 
 continued, seeing that she was about to inter- 
 rupt him ; and kneeling at her feet, — " Dearest, 
 best-beloved, most respected of created beings ! 
 I came not here to insult you by urging a 
 passion which outrages your purity; on the 
 contrary, I came with deepest remorse to pro- 
 mise, to swear by all that is most holy never 
 again to touch upon that forbidden topic, pro- 
 vided you will relinquish your determination of 
 leaving Prague. Try me ; put my courage but 
 this once to the test, — and if it should break 
 down, if by a word I should allude to the past, 
 then surely it will be time enough for you to 
 visit that sin upon me, by withdrawing yourself 
 from me for ever. But it shall not ; for, oh, 
 Lolotte ! although but yesterday I thought that 
 Heaven could bestow upon me no higher gift 
 than your love, I now feel that there is a higher, 
 dearer possession still, and that without your 
 esteem I could not live." 
 
 And he spoke truly ; for at that moment. 
 
STURMER. 159 
 
 with the conviction full upon his mind of how 
 completely he must have forfeited the confi- 
 dence and esteem of Lolotte by the declaration 
 of his guilty passion for her, he clung to that 
 precarious possession with the trembling anxiety 
 of one w^ho, treading upon the edge of a preci- 
 pice, feels the earth crumbling away beneath 
 his feet, and, to save himself, grasps with de- 
 sperate tenacity at the falling stones which are 
 to crush him in the abyss below. He felt, that 
 were the secret hopes of his heart to be re- 
 vealed to Lolotte she would fly his presence 
 with horror and execration, and that to retain 
 her still near him, he must dissimulate ; he felt 
 too ^- oh, strange inconsistency of human na- 
 ture ! — pride in preserving her still unstainedly 
 free from the guilt of yielding to his love ; he 
 shrank from the idea of beholding tainted by 
 a participation in his own wild thoughts and 
 wishes that lovely purity of mind which was 
 her distinguishing characteristic, and without 
 which the fatal beauty which had first enslaved 
 
160 STURMER. 
 
 him would soon have ceased to charm ; and his 
 heart wept tears of blood when he thought of 
 her modest self-respect withering beneath a 
 sense of shame and debasement, — she, the inno- 
 cent, the virtuous, the high-minded, — but yet 
 to resign her was impossible ! And these re- 
 flections communicated a melancholy earnest- 
 ness to the eyes and voice of Sturmer, which 
 thrilled to the soul of Lolotte. 
 
 " You deceive yourself," she said, " for I will 
 not think so ill of you as to believe that you 
 would deliberately deceive me. But were I to 
 yield to your arguments I should deserve to 
 be again offended by a renewal of declarations, 
 which no sophistry can reconcile with virtue. 
 No ! we must part ! You yourself have point- 
 ed out to me the necessity of doing so, and 
 it has required no reflection to convince me 
 that your first decision was the only right one. 
 My mind is irrevocably made up, and nothing 
 can tempt me to alter it." 
 
 "Nothing, Lolotte !" he said reproachfully; 
 
STURMER. 161 
 
 " not even a knowledge of the misery it will 
 inflict upon me ?" 
 
 " No ! " she replied resolutely ; " for my con- 
 science will lend me strength to resist even 
 that." 
 
 "Beware!" he exclaimed; "beware, Lo- 
 lotte, of driving me to desperation by this stern 
 impracticability. Do you not know the power 
 I possess over you, and that if I but raise my 
 hand I can fix you, in spite of yourself, to this 
 spot for hours?" 
 
 "I know it," she replied calmly; "but I 
 cannot believe you so lost to honour as to exer- 
 cise that power over me for evil purposes." 
 
 Sturmer buried his face in his hands and 
 wept bitter tears of mingled passion and sorrow. 
 At that moment he would have resigned even 
 the affection of Lolotte to have been able to say 
 to her with a clear conscience, " You do me 
 but justice, Lolotte ; I am worthy of your noble 
 confidence, worthy of your tender commisera- 
 tion ; and sooner would I die than abuse the 
 
162 STURMER. 
 
 one or forfeit the other ! " But something 
 passing within forbade him to utter that proud 
 assertion of honest feehng. He was meditating 
 to mislead her; he was about to make pro- 
 mises which he felt that he never could per- 
 form ; and humihated under the sense of his 
 duplicity, unable to meet as it deserved the 
 opinion which Lolotte had so fearlessly pro- 
 nounced of him, he shrank abashed within 
 hiraselfi and made no effort to surmount his 
 emotion. 
 
 Lolotte felt that it was time to put an end to 
 the interview; the contagion of his tears was 
 fast gaining upon her, and she feared that her 
 courage would not long be proof against the 
 deep anguish that overwhelmed him. 
 
 " Farewell, Mr. Sturmer," she said, in a soft- 
 ened voice ; " time presses, and I have much to 
 do. Farewell ! and believe that at a distance 
 I shall remember only the debt of gratitude I 
 owe you as the preserver of my life and health. 
 May God reward you for the good you have 
 
STURMER. 163 
 
 done ! and may He soon restore you to better 
 thoughts and to your better self !" 
 
 She dared not trust herself to say more, and 
 was moving away from him when he started 
 to his feet, and rushing between her and the 
 door grasped both of her hands in his, and 
 forcibly detained her. 
 
 " You disregard my protestations ; you over- 
 look my solemn promises ; you distrust me, 
 Lolotte. And perhaps you are right in doing 
 so," he exclaimed almost breathlessly. " Be it 
 so. I will urge them no more. I will no 
 longer appeal to your indulgence on behalf of 
 my wretched self. But there are other consi- 
 derations which I must not lose sight of; and 
 for your sake I will urge, entreat, enforce; — 
 nay, I will never leave this spot until you listen 
 to them. This precipitate departure in a season 
 so inclement, with no precautions taken to 
 guard you against it, delicate and suffering as 
 you are, must not be thought of. You are ill 
 now, Lolotte, and you would sink under such 
 
164 STURMER. 
 
 an effort. As your physician, I prohibit it; 
 and as the friend of your — of Moller — ," and 
 his voice faltered, " by whom the care of your 
 health was confided to me, I feel that I have a 
 right to interfere. Listen to me. I have been 
 sent for by express to Czaslau, under circum- 
 stances of the greatest urgency. The brother- 
 in-law of my dearest friend, Anton von Preinl, 
 is lying dangerously ill in that comfortless 
 place, and I ought already to be on the road to 
 attend him; but your letter has arrested my 
 departure. And now, Lolotte, mark me ! I 
 swear to you that I will not go to him at all, 
 that I will turn my back upon the claims of 
 friendship and humanity ; that I will forfeit the 
 regard of my best friends ; that I will never 
 lose sight of you unless you promise me not to 
 leave Prague until I return. I shall not be 
 absent above three days ; and all I ask of you 
 is, to remain those three days here. Let me 
 but see you once more at the end of that period, 
 and then, if you still persist in going, I will 
 
STURMER. 165 
 
 no longer oppose your departure. I will myself 
 suj^erintend the arrangements for it, and secure 
 proper protection for you during your journey. 
 Is this asking too much of you ? — and can even 
 your virtue start at the idea of passing three 
 days in the place where I shall no longer be, and 
 then affording me the melancholy satisfaction 
 of personally arranging a journey which is to 
 remove you from me for ever?" 
 
 Lolotte hesitated. She knew not what to 
 reply. She feared to exasperate him by a fur- 
 ther refusal, and yet she felt that she ought to 
 make no concession to him. In this dilemma 
 she remained silent. 
 
 " Speak, Lolotte," he said; and his dark 
 eyes flashed impatiently. " I will not relin- 
 quish this dear hand until I am answered. 
 Grant my request, and I leave you this moment 
 to fly to Czaslau ; but refuse it, and I will 
 never quit you again ; I will remain here in 
 spite of yourself, and never lose sight of you 
 until your natural protector comes to claim you 
 
166 STURMER. 
 
 at my hands. You see what a heavy responsi- 
 biUty hangs upon your decision, — the Hfe, per- 
 haps of ray friend's husband, — my own reputa- 
 tion, — yet, what are these when weighed in the 
 balance against your safety ? " 
 
 " Unhand me, sir ! " said Lolotte ; " I will 
 not answer you under this unmanly force." 
 
 He dropped her hands, folded his arms upon 
 his breast, and stood with his eyes fixed upon 
 her : — " And now, Lolotte," he said, " I trust 
 to your generosity alone to save me from a 
 heavy delinquency against friendship. In the 
 name of that friendship, in the name of your 
 former confidence and regard for me, in the 
 name of the past, I adjure you to grant my 
 request ! " 
 
 " Leave me," said Lolotte, struggling to re- 
 press her tears ; " leave me this moment, and I 
 will promise to remain here until your return." 
 
 Sturmer again seized her passive hand, and 
 carried it fondly to his lips and heart : — " God 
 
STURMER. 167 
 
 bless you ! God bless you ! beloved Lolotte ! '' 
 he exclaimed, and then rushed from the room. 
 
 As he swiftly retraced his way along the 
 garden walk to his house, she followed his re- 
 ceding figure with her eyes until it disappeared 
 within the study window. 
 
 " I have seen him for the last time !" she 
 murmured to herself. " Forgive me, O my 
 God, for having deceived him ! " And a deadly 
 sickness came over her ; a black mist seemed 
 to spread before her eyes ; her heart ceased to 
 beat ; she grasped helplessly at vacancy to sup- 
 port her, and sank to the ground in total in- 
 sensibiUty. 
 
168 STURMER. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Better be with the dead 
 
 Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
 
 In restless ecstasy, 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 " My dear Bertha," said the Count de Kcen- 
 neritz to his beautiful young wife, as, wrapped 
 in her fur peUsse, she sat shivering by his bed- 
 side, on the evening of that day, in the barnhke 
 room which served for saloon and sleeping- 
 chamber, at the comfortless gasthof of Czaslau, 
 " as you have sent for your friend Sturmer 
 without my knowledge, I must stipulate before 
 he arrives that I am not to be subjected to any 
 of his magnetical malpractices. It is quite bad 
 enough to be detained in such a hole as this, 
 
STURMER. 169 
 
 and almost bled to death by a horse-doctor, 
 without undergoing any other trials of human 
 patience ; and so, my love — " 
 
 " Oh, never fear !" interrupted the fair 
 Grqfinn^ gaily, " Sturmer is not such a maniac 
 as to substitute magnetism for the lancet in 
 such a case as yours. Besides, thank God ! 
 the horse-doctor has saved your life, and has 
 really left nothing for our good friend to do 
 when he arrives ; and you know, if magnetism 
 should become necessary, I am a worthy pupil 
 of his, and quite competent to become the ope- 
 rator myself." 
 
 " Yes, truly,"" said the Count, smiling, " you 
 are nearly as mad as your master, and fit to be 
 classed by my good friend Ludwig Tieck 
 among his Wundersuchti^en." * 
 
 " Your friend Ludwig Tieck is my aversion," 
 exclaimed the Countess, " notwithstanding his 
 great talent; I am longing to know him only 
 that I may quarrel with him ! He will write 
 
 Wonder-mongers. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
170 STURMER. 
 
 down the imagination of our good Germans as 
 Cervantes wrote down the chivalry of Spain, 
 and with a stroke of his pen consign to the 
 regions of ridicule many of our national charac- 
 teristics ; — in short, he is tearing up the flowers 
 with the weeds in his ardour for cultivating 
 common sense only, and will leave a desert where 
 he found — a wilderness, perhaps, — but a wil- 
 derness of sweets !" 
 
 " Bravo, Bertha ! " replied her husband ; 
 " never surely had poor common sense a more 
 inveterate opponent, or lucky nonsense a more 
 charming advocate than yourself. Why, you will 
 absolutely make me in love with the whimsical 
 divinity who has enrolled you among her wor- 
 shipers, and some of these days I shall be 
 found gliding in your train into the vestibule of 
 her temple." 
 
 " Very well," said Bertha, laughing ; " but 
 pray remember that the divinity I worship does 
 not acknowledge the name of Nonsense ; Imagi- 
 
STURMER. 171 
 
 nation, Enterprise, Genius, Science, would be 
 better adapted to her — " 
 
 " My love, we will not dispute about her 
 real name," interrupted the Count; " she shall, 
 if you please, have as many aliases as the veriest 
 rogue in the annals of cheating, and " 
 
 At this moment the sound of a postilion's 
 horn, and the deadened clatter of horses' feet 
 upon the hard snow, were heard approaching the 
 Gasthof; the Count and Countess listened in 
 silence for a few seconds while the carriage 
 drove up to the door. " And here," resumed the 
 Count, taking up the thread of his discourse 
 where he had suddenly dropped it, " here 
 comes her high priest in person, to aid and 
 abet in my conversion." 
 
 The door was thrown open, as he ceased to 
 speak, and the Countess's Heiduque entering, 
 announced " Herr Von Sturmer." 
 
 If any doubts yet remained upon the mind of 
 Bertha that her terrors alone had magnified the 
 
 I 2 
 
172 STURMER. 
 
 illness of Monsieur de Kcenneritz into apoplexy 
 and approaching death, they were at once re- 
 moved by the unhesitating opinion of Sturmer, 
 that indigestion and imprudent exposure to the 
 intense cold had alone caused the syncope 
 which she had mistaken for an apoplectic 
 attack, and that nothing now ailed him but the 
 languor and debility consequent upon the copi- 
 ous bleedings which had been administered to 
 him by the Czaslau Esculapius ; and as both of 
 the evils above stated were likely again to be 
 visited upon him through the medium of the 
 execrable cuisine and the ill-contrived doors and 
 windows of the comfortless inn at which they 
 had been detained, Sturmer advised a speedy 
 removal from it ; and the next day saw them all 
 together on the road to Prague in the travelling 
 carriage of Count de Kcenneritz. 
 
 " Pray, Sturmer," said Bertha, as they were 
 journeying along, *' tell me something of your 
 charming Somnambule, Madame, Vjhat is her 
 name^ of whom I have just heard enough from 
 
STURMER. 173 
 
 my brother Anton to piquer my curiosity au vif, 
 and too little to satisfy it ; she must be a most 
 interesting creature, and I am dying to see her, 
 for two reasons — first, the female curiosity just 
 avowed — and lastly, because I do believe, 
 that if anything can convert that infidel of a 
 husband of mine to our belief in magnetism, 
 it will be your beautiful patient in one of her 
 lucid trances. So I shall just remain twenty- 
 four hours at Prague to get a glimpse of her, 
 and then en avant for Dresden, where we ought 
 to be already." 
 
 This abrupt allusion to the object of his 
 thoughts, whose very existence he believed to 
 be unknown to the lively Countess, startled and 
 confused Sturmer beyond his power of conceal- 
 ing ; a crimson blush, which did not escape the 
 piercing eyes of Bertha, mounted to his fore- 
 head as he replied, " that Madame Moller 
 would feel herself honoured by being presented 
 to the Countess Koenneritz; but that she had 
 an invincible repugnance to being exhibited to 
 
174 STURMER. 
 
 strangers in her magnetic trances, and that he 
 felt that he had no right to interfere with her 
 feelings upon that subject." 
 
 " Precisely ; I can understand all that," said 
 Bertha, " but I really wish to be introduced to 
 her upon her own account, and I am persuaded 
 she will soon cease to consider as a stranger so 
 old a friend and ally of yours." 
 
 " She could not but be flattered by your 
 wishes, which I shall lose no time in making 
 known to her when we reach Prague,'* replied 
 Sturmer, " but she is on the eve of returning to 
 Dresden, and I fear will have no opportunity of 
 receiving you." 
 
 These repeated objections, joined to the 
 unconquerable emotion which Sturmer had 
 betrayed at the sudden mention of Lolotte, 
 sank deep into Bertha's mind and aroused 
 her suspicious conjectures. She said nothing 
 of them, however, and speedily changed the 
 subject, but she narrowly watched Sturmer 
 during the remainder of the journey ; and his 
 
STURMER. 175 
 
 fits of preoccupation and absence of mind, the 
 altered character of his countenance where 
 melancholy had clouded the brilliancy of his 
 fine dark eyes, and spread a paler tint over the 
 clear olive of his complexion — the contraction 
 of his brow, and the compression of his lips 
 attesting to the painful workings of the mind 
 within, spoke volumes to the penetration of 
 Bertha. " So !" thought she, "he is in love 
 with this fair dreamer — but he loves hope- 
 lessly ! " As they approached Prague, his rest- 
 less abstraction increased ; fortunately for him 
 the darkness of evening prevented it from be- 
 coming visible to his fellow travellers : he felt, 
 however, the impossibility of sustaining anything 
 like conversation with them, and feigned sleep 
 to account for his silence. They had promised 
 to become his guests during the short stay they 
 were to make at Prague, and when the carriage 
 drove up to his house and that they had alighted. 
 Bertha felt the arm upon which she leaned as 
 she entered the lighted saloon tremble violently. 
 
176 STURMER. 
 
 and glancing furtively at his countenance be- 
 held it pale even to ghastliness. 
 
 " Welcome, noble lady and dear friend," said 
 Sturmer, kissing Bertha's hand, as he led her 
 to the sofa ; " welcome, Excellency," turning 
 to the Count, " to my poor abode. We want 
 but the presence of the beloved Anton to fill 
 the measure of my content!" But his face 
 was in sad contradiction with his words, and 
 told most eloquently and more truly of the mea- 
 sure of his woes being nearly filled, 
 
 " Anton," said the Count, " is still at Vienna, 
 and likely to be detained there for months to 
 come, by his lawsuit. The dilatoriness of all 
 legal proceedings under your government, Mr. 
 Von Sturmer, are such as would lead one to 
 suppose that the most difiicult thing to be ob- 
 tained in Austria injustice ! and yet the Emperor 
 Francis is an eminently just man, and truly 
 the father of his people, be they Hungarians, 
 Bohemians, or Italians; but the system of ob- 
 taining redress for their grievances calls loudly 
 
STURMER. 177 
 
 for reform^ — a word which, I suspect^ grates so 
 harshly upon his Majesty's ears as to make him 
 cling to old abuses rather than favour inno- 
 vations, however salutary, that would be usher- 
 ed in under auspices so suspicious. And so 
 our good Anton is suffering under this sloio and 
 sure policy, not, indeed, with Christian patience, 
 but with most commendable loyalty, chafing 
 upon the bit, but never kicking against the 
 master's hand ; et four passer le temps^ he has 
 fallen in love with a very pretty woman, whose 
 fascinations will enable him to bear his trials 
 with equanimity." 
 
 While the Count, who was a declaimer and 
 loved to hear himself talk, was speaking, the 
 eyes of Sturmer had wandered from his in- 
 terlocutor eagerly to fix themselves upon the 
 window from which the habitation of Lolotte 
 could be distinguished in the day-time, and, 
 piercing through the obscurity that reigned 
 without, they sought for the light which, 
 for months past, he had been accustomed to 
 
 I 5 
 
178 STURMER. 
 
 watch burning till a late hour in her cham- 
 ber; but it was there no longer, — all was 
 shrouded in darkness, — and the twinkling 
 of the stars in the clear frosty sky did not 
 afford sufficient light to enable him to distin- 
 guish even the outline of that loved abode. 
 AH was dark, vague, and mysterious as his own 
 gloomy forbodings. " She is gone ! " thought 
 he ; and, forgetful of the presence of his guests, 
 he was about to rush from the room to ascer- 
 tain the truth, when the sweet accents of Bertha 
 recalled him to himself. She had remarked 
 his perturbation, and with feminine tact and 
 good feeling wished to relieve him from the 
 constraint of their presence by an act of her own. 
 "My dear friend," said she, "we are tra- 
 vellers and invalids, and claim permission to 
 retire early ; but before we disappear, pray ex- 
 plain to me the subject of that exquisite picture 
 over the piano. Is it an original or a copy ? a 
 saint or a sinner ? The upturned eyes and the 
 redundant fair hair give it the air of a Mag- 
 
STURMER. 179 
 
 dalen ; but the countenance is that of a Mag- 
 dalen who has had no cause for repentance." 
 
 " That is the portrait of Madame MoUer," 
 said Stunner, with as much sang-froid as he 
 could command, " painted in one of her ecstatic 
 trances, by desire of her husband, who pre- 
 sented it to me. It is an admirable likeness/' 
 
 The Count and Countess drew near to ex- 
 amine it, and remained in silent admiration 
 before what appeared to them a masterpiece of 
 art. The artist had caught with rare fehcity 
 the unearthly character of Lolotte's beauty in 
 those moments of ecstatic delirium which some- 
 times followed her magnetic trances. — The smile 
 of beatitude that parted her lips, — the rapt ex- 
 pression of her matchless eyes, in whose full 
 orbs of deepest blue seemed reflected the holy 
 joy of that heaven to which they were turned, — 
 the serene and lofty brow gleaming in spotless 
 lustre between the parted tresses of light golden 
 brown hair, that fell luxuriantly round her 
 swan-like throat and pure shoulders, — the deli- 
 
180 STURMER. 
 
 cately rounded arms and slender hands, crossed 
 meekly upon her snow-white bosom, — all were 
 delineated with a truth and sentiment that gave 
 to the performance the character of a heavenly 
 inspiration. 
 
 " A noble and delicate beauty," observed the 
 Count, " and I should think a most perilous 
 patient for a young physician to take charge 
 of!" 
 
 " What an exquisite creature !" said Bertha; 
 " she looks as though ' no mortal mixture of 
 earth's mould' entered into her composition. 
 Positively, Sturmer, you must make me known 
 to Madame Moller to-morrow. I am dying to 
 see her ! and now good night ! I shall cer- 
 tainly dream of this lovely vision." And with 
 these words they parted. 
 
 Sturmer had no sooner attended his guests 
 to the door of their apartment, than he hurried 
 breathlessly to the habitation of Lolotte. The 
 window-shutters were all closed, and the sound 
 of the door-bell, as he repeatedly rang it, was 
 
STURMER. 181 
 
 not followed by any answering footsteps within. 
 It was evident that Lolotte had broken faith 
 with him, and resentment mingled with his 
 grief as the conviction flashed upon his mind. 
 He hastily re-trod his way to his own house, 
 and, ordering lights into the study, shut himself 
 up there. The first object that he perceived 
 was a pile of books and of music belonging 
 to himself, which he had lent to Lolotte, — a 
 sealed letter was laid upon them. He eagerly 
 tore it open, and sought in vain for some glim- 
 mering of hope in the few lines it contained; 
 but those tremulous characters, although be- 
 traying the physical agitation under which they 
 had been traced, breathed only the spirit of 
 moral firmness which had dictated them. 
 
 " Forgive me for having deceived you,'' she 
 wrote ; " the idea of duplicity is so repugnant 
 to me, that even in a case like the present, 
 where the end may be said to justify the means, 
 I blush to have had recourse to it; but you 
 
182 STURMER. 
 
 have left me no alternative ! and, to save you 
 from sinning against friendship, humanity, 
 honour^ — to shield myself from the coercion 
 with which you threatened me, — to spare us 
 both a renewal of that fearful struggle for 
 mastery between passion and principle, which 
 too surely must have been the consequence of 
 another meeting, I have, for the first time in 
 my life, stooped to falsehood. My lips assured 
 you that I would await your return here; but 
 never, for a moment, did my mind waver from 
 its first decision, — and by that decision I will 
 abide. When these lines meet your eyes, I 
 shall be beyond the reach of entreaties, threats, 
 or reproach, — in that home which I ought never 
 to have left, and which I shall never again 
 leave, except for my eternal one, — in that home 
 which I forbid you to approach : for, oh ! Stur- 
 mer ! we are severed by more than distance 1 
 On earth we must meet no more ; but there is 
 a world beyond the grave, where ' the pure in 
 heart' may hope to ' see God,' and, in His pre- 
 
STURMER. 183 
 
 sence, be re-united to those they loved m life. 
 What would this pilgrimage of sorrow be with- 
 out such a blessed hope ? — and what, oh ! what, 
 are the poor fleeting triumphs of passion, when 
 compared to an eternity of joy? Sturmer, on 
 my knees I write these words, — I adjure you to 
 fix your hopes there, where nothing can defeat 
 them. Let your soul soar above the earthly 
 longings that now chain it to the dust. Purify 
 your heart from the sinful passion that has led 
 it astray, and the sacrifice shall not be made 
 in vain; for, although virtue enjoins that we 
 should be separated in this world, we may still 
 look for a reward beyond earthly recompenses, 
 and in exchange for a few brief moments passed 
 together here, claim an eternity of happiness in 
 those blessed realms where parting and tears 
 are unknown. 
 
 " Charlotte Moller." 
 
 The traces of tears were visible on the paper, 
 and Sturmer pressed them to his lips with 
 
184 STURMER. 
 
 reverential love. In his heart he could not but 
 applaud and admire the firmness of Lolotte, 
 so different from that soidisant virtue which, 
 springing from coldness, costs not an effort to 
 exercise : but, with the selfishness which, alas ! 
 characterises man's love, he could have wished 
 her less immaculate ; and a feeling of irritation 
 sprang up in his mind as he thought that she 
 had preferred the repose of her conscience to 
 the repose of his heart, and, with that feeling, a 
 determination never to relinquish the object of 
 his adoration but with hfe. " She has made me 
 desperate," said he, " and she must take the 
 consequences." He rang the bell, and Gott- 
 fried appeared. 
 
 " When did Madame Mbller leave Prague?" 
 inquired Sturmer. 
 
 " Early this morning, by the Eilwagen," was 
 the reply. 
 
 There was no possibility of overtaking or in- 
 tercepting her : she would be at Dresden the 
 next morning. Besides, he remembered with 
 
STURMER. 185 
 
 dismay that the Count and Countess de Kcen- 
 neritz were to be his guests the following day 
 and night, and that, under no pretext, could he 
 absent himself from them. He must rein in 
 his impatience until they departed, and then, — • 
 but let us not anticipate events. 
 
 How the next four-and-twenty hours were 
 passed, Sturmer scarcely knew ; but the fact is, 
 that they were got over by him much better 
 than he had expected. Lolotte's precipitate 
 departure had driven him to a final resolution 
 with respect to her, which nothing now could 
 alter; and that irrevocable determination im- 
 parted a concentrated calm to his manner, so 
 different from the nervous abstraction of the 
 preceding day, as almost to deceive Bertha into 
 a belief that she had been mistaken in her con- 
 jectures about him, and to restore the whole 
 party to that ease which had been banished 
 from them during the journey from Czaslau. 
 
 The whole of the night preceding their de- 
 parture from his house was passed by Sturmer 
 
186 STURMER. 
 
 in writing. He addressed a voluminous letter 
 to his friend Anton explanatory of his inten- 
 tions with respect to Lolotte, but as the first 
 part of it contained a full account of the events 
 which have been already detailed, it would be 
 unnecessary to reproduce it here. Suffice it 
 to say that amidst its incoherencies and its 
 sophistries, glimpses of better feeling and 
 touches of compunction occasionally predomi- 
 nated, like broken rays of sunshine piercing 
 through the obscurity of a stormy sky, and for 
 a moment lighting up the dark mass of clouds 
 with a fleeting glory, only to render the suc- 
 ceeding gloom more terrible. 
 
 " Light and darkness, 
 And mind and dust, and passions and pure thoughts, 
 Mix'd and contending without end or order," 
 
 were there. Good still appeared to struggle 
 with evil for mastery in his bosom, even while 
 announcing to his friend the desperate decision 
 to which his ungovernable feelings had driven 
 him ; above all, he rendered honest and ample 
 
STURMER. 187 
 
 justice to the purity of Lolotte's heart in the 
 doubts which breathed throughout his letter 
 that she would ever be persuaded to yield 
 to his prayers, and plunge into irremediable 
 guilt with him. Yet while explaining his rea- 
 sons for making this communication to Anton, 
 it was evident that something yet remained to 
 be told ; for the first time there was constraint 
 and inconsistency in his confidences. 
 
 " And now, Anton," he continued ; " know 
 that when this letter reaches Vienna, my fate 
 will be decided ! I shall either be the happiest 
 of men, or I shall cease to be numbered among 
 the living. The flight of Lolotte has convinced 
 me of one great truth, that without her / cannot 
 live. The mere idea of her belonging to an- 
 other is now worse than a thousand deaths to 
 me. She must know all that I feel, all that I 
 sufier; she will then perhaps separate herself 
 from him — she will be mine — mine alone, vo- 
 luntarily and unconditionally ! Oh ! unutter- 
 
188 STURMER. 
 
 able happiness, too great a recompense for 
 mortal love ! Dare I, or ought I to expect, then, 
 that it should be vouchsafed to one so unde- 
 serving as I am? But between that supreme 
 felicity and the annihilation of the grave, there 
 can be no medium for me. To-morrow, as 
 soon as your sister departs, I shall follow Lo- 
 lotte to the home which she has forbidden me 
 to approach; I shall unburthen my feelings to 
 her, and hear my fate from her lips. Should 
 she, vanquished by the force of my arguments, 
 listen to the dictates of her heart and yield to 
 my supplications, I shall fly with her to Italy, 
 or wherever else she may choose, (for I know 
 that her own country would then become in- 
 supportable to her,) and my life shall be one 
 unbroken manifestation of grateful adoration for 
 the sacrifice she will have made ; but should 
 she reject me, her disdain will nerve my hand, 
 and one moment will terminate all ! She will 
 then know that she was my universe, my heaven, 
 my fate -— that in her hands were the issues 
 
STURMER. 189 
 
 of life and death for me — that my existence 
 hung upon her breath — she will know all this 
 too late ! — But mark me, Anton ! the mystic 
 thread which, living, bound our destinies to- 
 gether, death even shall have no power to snap 
 asunder ; she will not long survive me ! — and 
 virtue, the unbending idol to which she will 
 have sacrificed me, shall not save her heart 
 from breaking ! 
 
 " When I look back upon the various cir- 
 cumstances that have thrown us together, I 
 cannot admit that chance has had any share 
 in bringing them to pass ; fate has ruled all — 
 fate, which I have vainly endeavoured to elude, 
 for it has baffled all my best intentions, cir- 
 cumvented all my most conscientious efforts, 
 and made me what I now am, the underminer 
 of innocence — the false friend — the premedi- 
 tated suicide ! Yes, we two were sent into 
 the world predestined to form each other's hap- 
 piness or each other's misery ; and that strange 
 sympathy was felt by me the first moment I 
 
190 STURMER. 
 
 beheld her. Look back with me, dearest friend, 
 to the opening scene of our first approximation : 
 how unhke in every respect to those liaisons 
 which the world mistakenly calls love ! — and 
 which flutter into life in the artificial atmosphere 
 of ball-rooms, are nurtured by the smiles and 
 glances of satisfied vanity, live upon the excite- 
 ment of false sentiment, and when that tem- 
 porary craving has exhausted itself languish 
 into extinction and expire without a pang, 
 leaving the unscathed heart free and willing 
 to recommence the same hollow game ! Now 
 mark the difiference. A conflict of the ele- 
 ments, a terrible symbol of that conflict of pas- 
 sions which was afterwards to devastate my 
 heart, drove me to seek for shelter in an ob- 
 scure habitation where no welcome greeted 
 me ; for death was hovering over that lonely 
 roof ready to seize upon his prey, and deso- 
 late bosoms were gathered beneath, whose 
 yearnings to save the fair young victim were 
 fast chilling into despair. My presence there 
 
STURMER. 191 
 
 was unheeded, and my only companionship was 
 with a picture — a piece of senseless canvass ! 
 and yet that picture exercised over my feeUngs 
 the strongest fascination. I gazed upon the 
 pure and youthful lineaments it represented 
 with more than admiration of their beauty ; 
 there was something in the expression of the 
 eyes that vibrated through my soul like ' the 
 music of a dream,' indistinctly floating upon 
 the memory in a waking hour, and reviving 
 the mysterious charm that had in sleep ' lapped 
 the soul in Elysium.' It seemed to me that 
 the harmonies breathing from that face had 
 ever possessed an answering chord within me, 
 silent to every other touch ; and that although 
 for the first time they were revealed to my 
 senses, they had haunted my spirit from the 
 commencement of my being. Was this ima- 
 gination, presentiment, or sympathy? Weary 
 and way-worn as I was, I could not for a length 
 of time withdraw my eyes from that fair shadow ; 
 at last I slept, and in my dreams it seemed to 
 
192 STURMER. 
 
 hover around me. From those dreams I was 
 suddenly aroused to be summoned to a scene 
 of suffering and despair; I stood by the bed 
 of death, and beheld stretched upon it the 
 original of the picture which had so fascinated 
 me an hour before, and with inexplicable emo- 
 tion I gazed upon those lovely features fixed 
 apparently in death, yet even in death so di- 
 vinely fair as to awaken in my bosom a ten- 
 derness which no living beauty had ever in- 
 spired, and to close it for ever to the admission 
 of any other love. With an energy unknown 
 to me before — the energy of new-born pas- 
 sion, I exercised over her that mysterious 
 agency which I had often seen successfully 
 applied where every other remedy had failed ; 
 I infused into her sinking frame my own vital 
 warmth, and she whom we had believed dead, 
 awoke to life beneath my reviving touch ! Then 
 I looked upon her as my own — her restored 
 existence was my creation — my breath had 
 
STURMER. 193 
 
 stayed her fleeting breath — my hand had 
 rescued her from the icy grasp of Death ! 
 
 " The remainder of that night was passed 
 by me at her bed-side, her soft hand clasped 
 in mine; and again slumber stole upon my 
 senses, and again in dreams did her image 
 haunt me, but not as before ; — mingled with 
 visions of death and terror, she prophetically 
 appeared to me exercising that power over my 
 feelings which she was in reality destined to 
 fulfil. — Were those dreams meant to warn 
 me ? if so, they were disregarded at the time, 
 and I awoke from them to indulge in waking 
 ones, to form rash hopes which were doomed 
 to be crushed almost in their birth, and to 
 hear that she, whom I fondly fancied fate 
 had led me there to restore to life, and claim 
 as my own, was the affianced bride of an- 
 other ! Then I fled from her presence ; and 
 years rolled on, and I beheld her no more; 
 yet she lived in my heart — and when I turned 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
194 STURMER. 
 
 my thoughts to other women, her image rose up 
 between me and them, and chilled me into in- 
 difference. 
 
 " At the end of several years I found my- 
 self in the vicinity of her home, and a feeling 
 of curiosity, of interest in her fate — no ! it 
 was neither — it was that powerful attraction 
 of sympathy, stronger far than my will, which, 
 like the fascination exercised by the serpent 
 over the struggling bird, has ever mastered 
 me, led me to seek once more to behold her. 
 In doing so, I almost hoped to find her so 
 changed by the lapse of time, or the vulgar 
 cares of life, that one glimpse would suffice 
 to disenchant me of the romantic preference 
 with which I still cherished her image in my 
 bosom : but that furtive glance, in revealing 
 her to me lovelier even than memory had de- 
 picted her, betrayed me into still deeper in- 
 fatuation; sad, yet serene, her pensive coun- 
 tenance eloquently told that even in that so- 
 litude she had not escaped the sorrows of a 
 
STURMER. 195 
 
 world where, " les plus belles choses ont le 
 pire destin." 
 
 " Perhaps that very conviction lent a more 
 dangerous charm to her loveliness. I might 
 have successfully resisted the triumphant flush 
 of conscious and happy beauty ; but my heart 
 was vanquished by the melancholy sweetness 
 of her aspect, and bowed in tender commise- 
 ration before the untold sorrows that brooded 
 there. She sang, and the enchantment was 
 complete; but while my whole soul, dissolved 
 in tenderness, hung entranced upon her divine 
 accents, the spell was rudely broken by another 
 voice — the voice of her husband! It recalled 
 me to myself — what had I to do there? and 
 again I fled the dangerous delight of her pre- 
 sence, determined that it should he for ever ! 
 
 " But my worst trials were all before me. 
 She whom I had resolved to shun was brought 
 to the very spot inhabited by me, placed by 
 her husband in my hands, delivered up to that 
 mysterious power which I knew I possessed 
 
 k2 
 
196 STURMER. 
 
 over her, thrown into constant contact with 
 me ; in that state all her secret thoughts were 
 revealed, and the treasures of her heart and 
 mind were unlocked to my wondering admi- 
 ration. Then I found that her beauty was 
 her least charm — then I felt the immensity of 
 the temptation which assailed me; she loved 
 me, but her love was of that spiritualized na- 
 ture which angels may be supposed to feel, — 
 which few women understand, and of which no 
 man is capable. I loved her like a madman, 
 and yet my respect for her equalled my idola- 
 try; the innocence of her soul and the purity 
 of her thoughts, while they awed me into al- 
 most trembling adoration, increased tenfold the 
 intensity of my fatal passion. Long and vainly 
 did I struggle with it, and God only knows 
 with what desperate energy I endeavoured to 
 silence the guilty wishes of my heart ! Her hus- 
 band's presence was a barrier, of which I con- 
 scientiously availed myself, to prevent the ex- 
 pression of them to her; but the fatality that 
 
STURMER. J97 
 
 pursued me ordained that he should absent 
 himself from Prague, and leave us exposed to 
 the peril of being constantly together alone. 
 My courage and forbearance I knew would 
 not be proof against such a temptation : she 
 indeed was above all human frailty, but I could 
 exercise a power over her which would leave 
 her helpless ; and what will not passion dare ? 
 With a last effort to remain true to honour, 
 I resolved to tear myself away from oppor- 
 tunities which I felt I could no longer resist. 
 I wrote to tell her all — all my love and all 
 my madness — to account for my strange aban- 
 donment of her, and to bid her an eternal fare- 
 well ! but my heart was crushed by the sa- 
 crifice, and I determined to end the struggle 
 by death. At that moment she whom I was 
 relinquishing for ever, because I knew that to 
 see her would be to destroy my best resolutions, 
 appeared before me alone, in her sleep ! At that 
 midnight hour, led by a mysterious presenti- 
 ment, she came to snatch me from the despair 
 
198 STURMER. 
 
 that had overwhelmed me. Fate thrust her 
 between me and death, remorselessly deter- 
 mined that the measure of my temptations 
 should be filled. But no more of this ! the 
 struggle is over, and my mind has at last taken 
 an irrevocable decision. 
 
 " Forgive these repetitions, these outpour- 
 ings of my heart, dearest Anton ! The unhappy 
 love to speak of themselves, for grief is garru- 
 lous ; but these egotisms are, perhaps, the last 
 with which your enduring friendship will be 
 taxed, and they have flowed from my heart to 
 my pen in the irrepressible desire to convince 
 you that the man who for years was honoured 
 with your confidence and affection was not a 
 deliberate villain, a vile plotter, a systematic 
 seducer ! No, from the seduction of innocence 
 my soul has ever shrunk with an abhorrence 
 that would doubtless cause many a man of the 
 world to smile in pity at my scruples. The 
 only deception which I can reproach myself 
 with having practised towards her, was during 
 
STURMER. 199 
 
 our last interview — when, to retain her within 
 my power, and maddened by the fear of losing 
 her, 1 was ready to promise anything — every- 
 thing — far more (I will now admit) than it 
 would have been possible for me to abide by: 
 but I had dared to found most guilty hopes 
 upon the presumption that she might be per- 
 suaded to remain near me after the avowal of 
 my love had come to her knowledge ; and to 
 realise those hopes I shrank not from promising 
 impossibilities. She, however, with that in- 
 stinctive delicacy which is her peculiar charac- 
 teristic, and that unerring sense of right which 
 never abandons her, knew that the woman who 
 pauses under these circumstances, ' pauses to be 
 o'ercome;* and by opposing deception to de- 
 ception, where to deceive was to remain true to 
 virtue, she has defeated my scheme, driven me 
 to desperation, and left me no alternative but 
 that of throwing myself upon her mercy, and 
 leaving her to pronounce upon my fate — either 
 life devoted to her and her happiness alone — 
 
200 STURMER. 
 
 or death at her feet in expiation of my guilty 
 passion ! 
 
 " And now, beloved friend, you will under- 
 stand the motives of this long confession, and 
 that it has been made in order to account to 
 you for the solemn farewell of which it is the 
 preliminary — a farewell for years at least — 
 perchance for ever in this world — to prepare 
 you for all that may happen, and to break the 
 shock that would be the inevitable result of 
 your friend Sturmer's name suddenly reaching 
 you coupled with the epithets of seducer or 
 suicide, and his memory blackened by the thou- 
 sand false statements which public rumour 
 never fails to bestow gratuitously upon private 
 calamity. 
 
 " I have arranged all my worldly affairs ; the 
 copy of my will, here subjoined, will shew you 
 in what manner ; — I make you the steward of 
 all my possessions in case of a long absence 
 from my country — my heir, in case of my 
 
STURMER. SOI 
 
 death. There is no injustice in this disposition 
 of my worldly goods, as I have no near relations 
 surviving, and the few distant ones that remain 
 are richer than I am. My poor mother ! thank 
 God she has not lived till now ! 
 
 " Farewell, Anton, my friend, my companion, 
 my more than brother ! While I trace these 
 words the memory of past years, rendered so 
 inexpressibly happy by your friendship, rises up 
 before my mental vision with a clearness which 
 brings to light many a word and deed of de- 
 voted affection, not obliterated (for ingratitude 
 has never been the vice of my heart) but ob- 
 scured in the whirl of succeeding events; and 
 now as they appear before me in bright array, 
 my heart smites me that in return for so much 
 love I should inflict upon you the pang I am 
 now doing. But I was born to bring sorrow 
 upon all who ever loved me ! 
 
 " Still do I linger over these lines as I have 
 often lingered over the last conversations that 
 
 K 5 
 
202 STURMER. 
 
 have preceded our temporary separations, with 
 a weak shrinking from the pang of parting — a 
 fond wish still to delay the last painful moment 
 — the last ! there is something solemn and start- 
 ling in that word as I trace it — something pro- 
 phetic of the eternal separation to which per- 
 chance it now applies — it rings upon my heart 
 like the knell of departed joys ! — Oh, my 
 Anton ! until this moment I never knew how 
 dear you were to me — until this moment I 
 believed that love for her had deadened every 
 other feeling in my bosom — but of that no 
 more ! 
 
 *' The clock is striking five — the stars have 
 disappeared from the cold grey sky — the last 
 feeble flickerings of my expiring lamp warn 
 me to conclude — darkness and indistinctness 
 shroud the earth as with a pall; but in two 
 hours hence the bright sun will rise in glory to 
 chase away the shadows of night. — Will it be 
 so with me? and shall the darkness of the 
 
STURMER. 203 
 
 Grave into which I am about to plunge be suc- 
 ceeded by the brightness of that Day which 
 knows neither morning nor evening, but is 
 Eternal ? 
 
 " Esperons ! Farewell — farewell ! 
 
^04 STURMER. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Gent. Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very 
 guise ; and upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her ; stand 
 close. 
 
 Doctor. You see her eyes are open. 
 
 Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut. 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 The Count and Countess de Kcenneritz left 
 Prague at eight o'clock in the morning. Stur- 
 mer, who had thrown himself on the bed and 
 slept soundly for two hours after the termina- 
 tion of his night's occupation, accompanied them 
 to the door of his dwelling, and amidst the 
 affectionate adieus of Bertha, and the cordial 
 invitations of her husband to visit them at 
 
STURMER. 205 
 
 Dresden, placed them in their carriage, and saw 
 them drive off. No sooner were they out of 
 sight than his own carriage drove up to the 
 door, and Gottfried appeared at the same time 
 to receive his master's last directions. They 
 
 were soon given. 
 
 " Are my pistols and my sac de nuit in the 
 carriage ? " 
 
 « Yes, sir." 
 
 " Very well. Gottfried, I have already told 
 you that I am obliged to make a journey ; it 
 may be a very long one. I shall be absent for 
 an indefinite period; but while I am away I 
 have lent my house to the Baron Von Preinl, 
 who will be here certainly in a few days, and 
 will keep up everything as if I were still at 
 home. You will retain the same confidential 
 situation under him that you have filled under 
 me, my good Gottfried." 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied the old servant ; " but I 
 had hoped, that during such an absence from 
 home as you contemplate, I might have accom- 
 
206 STURMER. 
 
 panied you; for surely you will require my 
 services in a long journey ? " 
 
 " No, Gottfried," replied his master gravely ; 
 " in the journey which I meditate I shall re- 
 quire no attendance, and your services will 
 be much more available to me here, where I 
 intrust everything to your care until my friend 
 arrives." 
 
 " Well, sir, you know best ; but I could 
 have wished to have gone with you." 
 
 " No more of that," said Sturmer. " God 
 bless you, my good Gottfried ! Mein lieher 
 kind;'' and he stretched out his hand affec- 
 tionately to him. 
 
 The faithful creature grasped it eagerly, and 
 carried it to his lips. Sturmer felt a tear drop 
 upon it ; — that tear fell upon his heart. He 
 could not speak, but, with a strong effort con- 
 quering his emotion, he forced a smile upon his 
 countenance — a bright smile of other days ; 
 and the old servant deceived by it, dried his 
 eyes, and let down the steps of the carriage. 
 
STURMER. 207 
 
 " Ah ! sir, that smile tells me that you will 
 soon be back again. God bless you, sir ! God 
 bless you, my dear master ! " 
 
 And in another moment Sturmer was whirled 
 from his home, and on the road, not to Dresden, 
 but (in order to avoid the De Kcenneritzs) by 
 a circuitous route to the foot of the mountains 
 which form the barrier between Bohemia and 
 Saxony. 
 
 His intention was to go to the Ottowalder- 
 grund without appearing at Dresden. 
 
 Bertha and the Count divided their journey 
 from Prague to Dresden into two days, by 
 sleeping at Lobositz. The inn where they 
 alighted contained only one sitting-room; and 
 they were told that the best sleeping-chamber 
 contiguous to it was already occupied by a 
 lady, who was very ill ; so ill that she had 
 been forced to quit the eil-icagen in which 
 she was journeying to Dresden, and remain 
 there. 
 
 " Poor thing ! " said Bertha compassionately ; 
 
208 STURMER. 
 
 " we will make no noise to disturb her. Let 
 supper be served immediately." 
 
 And while it was preparing, she withdrew to 
 the sleeping-room that was destined for her, and 
 disencumbered herself of her fur wrappings. 
 
 They were in the midst of their repast ; and 
 the Count, who had arrived at that time of life 
 — which we will not specify, that we may not 
 offend — when the presence of even a beautiful 
 bride is not sufficient to render a man indif- 
 ferent to the evils of a mauvaise cuisine, was 
 railing in no measured terms against the thin- 
 ness of the Brod suppe,* the toughness of the 
 Rind Jleisch mit Kartqflen, the freshness of the 
 Huhn gehacknes, the staleness of the Gemiise, and 
 the sourness of the compote, which formed the 
 
 * Bread-soup ; bouilli beef served Avitli potatoes ; roast 
 fowl, vegetables, stewed prunes, or cherries. These 
 dishes, occasionally varied by a very sour salad, or a very 
 sweet pudding (melch speisen)^ form the inevitable menu of 
 the mittag and abend speisen (dinner and supper), to be 
 found in the inns throughout Germany, from the Rhenish 
 provinces to the Banat of Hungary. 
 
STURMER. 209 
 
 bourgeois supper, the triumph of the culinary art 
 of Lobositz, that had been placed before them, 
 when a door, exactly opposite to their table, 
 opened suddenly, and a female figure entered, 
 closed it after her, and, without appearing to 
 be conscious that the room was occupied, slowly 
 crossed it to the further end, where a piano- 
 forte was placed. 
 
 " Good God ! '' exclaimed the Count and 
 Countess in the same breath, and rising to 
 receive her : " what a beautiful creature !" 
 
 The Count was advancing to salute the un- 
 expected visitant, but Bertha, hastily laying her 
 hand upon his arm to restrain him, whispered 
 in his ear, " Do you not recognise that face ?'* 
 
 " Yes — no,'' he answered in the same tone. 
 " I certainly have seen it somewhere before, 
 but I cannot now remember where." 
 
 " It is Madame Moller," she replied, " Stur- 
 mer's somnambule, the original of the lovely 
 picture we saw at his house. It must be her ; 
 no one else could be so beautiful." 
 
210 STURIV^ER. 
 
 " Aha ! but what can she mean by coming 
 among us so unceremoniously ? Besides, did not 
 Sturmer tell us that she was already at 
 Dresden?" 
 
 " Yes ; but she may have been detained upon 
 the road, as we were at Czaslau. I am sure it 
 is Madame Moller. I am determined it shall 
 be no other person. Oh ! I am so glad to have 
 come across her ! And see, she is in a state of 
 natural somnambulism ; she does not see us. 
 We must not disturb or thwart her on any 
 account, for to awaken a sleep-walker suddenly 
 is highly dangerous." 
 
 At that moment Lolotte (for it was no other 
 than herself) opened the piano, and seating her- 
 self before it ran her fingers thoughtfully over 
 the keys, as though arranging her ideas or 
 recalling her recollections, previous to com- 
 mencing her performances. But there was such 
 brilliancy and pathos in that light touch that 
 the Count and Countess, both of whom were 
 fine musicians, listened mth delight to the har- 
 
STURMER. 211 
 
 monious combinations which successively sprang 
 up beneath her fingers ; and followed with the 
 keen relish of Dilettanti the various movements 
 of the capricious, yet scientific " voluntary,"" in 
 which her imagination appeared to be revelling. 
 
 At last the performance gradually subsided 
 into a few low chords, and the voice of the fair 
 musician took up the last motif she had been 
 playing, and gushed forth into such a delicious 
 strain of melody that her listeners, as if irre- 
 sistibly impelled towards her, silently and 
 almost breathlessly drew so near to the instru- 
 ment that they could obtain a full view of her 
 countenance. 
 
 And certainly had Lolotte come forth bent 
 upon conquest, instead of wandering helplessly 
 in her sleep into the presence of strangers, she 
 could not have appeared to greater advantage 
 than she did at that moment, unstudied and 
 disordered as her dress was. But it is the 
 proud privilege of real beauty to defy the 
 " foreign aid of ornament," and to shine forth 
 
212 STURMER. 
 
 triumphantly in the simplest array. The close 
 black dress, bordered with dark far, in which 
 she was muffled, rendered more dazzlingly fair 
 by contrast the alabaster hue of her throat, face, 
 and hands, the only portions of her skin which 
 were visible ; her cheeks and brow, even her 
 lips, were at that moment colourless, but so 
 exquisitely chiselled, so touching in their " wan 
 lustre," that no rose-tints could have rendered 
 them more beautiful ; her luxuriant hair, de- 
 ranged during her sleep, had half escaped from 
 the comb that fastened it, and fell in tresses 
 of wavy gold down her shoulders ; carelessly 
 pushed back from her forehead, it left unveiled 
 the whole expanse of brow, and the lovely eyes 
 that shone beneath. Beautiful indeed were 
 those eyes, since, although speculation had gone 
 from them for the time being, they still pos- 
 sessed a power to charm and to subdue which 
 few waking ones had ever exercised ; but in 
 colour, shape, and size they were faultless ; 
 and the long dark lashes that shaded them, the 
 
STURMER. 213 
 
 dark brows that arched above, imparted to her 
 countenance an expression and character that 
 redeemed it from the insipidity which is the 
 general defect of very fair and delicate-looking 
 persons. 
 
 The words which Lolotte was breathing forth 
 in such a flow of harmony quickly arrested the 
 attention of Bertha, and she hung upon them 
 with almost painful anxiety. They were the 
 aspirations of a breaking heart invoking the 
 intercession of those who had been dearest to 
 her on earth, but who were now saints in 
 heaven, to procure her pardon for a weak and 
 guilty love which had led her heart astray. 
 She described with terrible truth its combats, 
 its tortures, its vain efforts to banish the loved 
 image from that sanctuary, as she had banished 
 it from her eyes — in vain ! Her heart, amid 
 despair and death, loved on. 
 
 Then there was a change in the strain ; from 
 the agitato vibrato character it subsided into a 
 low wailing morendo movement. 
 
214 STURMER. 
 
 That heart which had glowed with so sinful 
 a flame had at last grown cold ; its frail chords 
 had failed amidst the struggle, and in the peace- 
 ful grave it had found rest. And now she 
 played the dirge of the departed in such sweet 
 and solemn strains, that the impressionable 
 Bertha, overcome by her emotions, leaned upon 
 her husband's shoulder and wept. 
 
 Again there was a change. The dirge died 
 away, and a song of triumph succeeded, — the 
 song of angels welcoming the rescued spirit to 
 realms of joy; and there were the loved and 
 the lost on earth lifting up their voices with the 
 heavenly choir, rejoicing that she who had been 
 almost lost was saved. But the disembodied 
 spirit, faithful to its earthly love, cast a wistful 
 glance around, and perceiving not him, without 
 whom heaven would not be heaven to her, 
 uttered a cry of despair — " Where is he ? " 
 
 At these words, which broke from her lips in 
 soul-piercing accents, she suddenly ceased her 
 
STURMER. 215 
 
 song, and burying her face in her hands burst 
 into an agony of tears. 
 
 " What shall we do ? " exclaimed the Count, 
 in the greatest trepidation. " Let us ring to 
 inquire whether there is any one belonging to 
 her in the house." 
 
 " No, no," said Bertha ; " call no one ; and 
 let me first try what I can do for her." 
 
 And so saying, she gently approached the 
 unconscious mourner, and placing one hand 
 upon Lolotte's head, with the other described a 
 succession of mesmeric passes from the forehead 
 downwards. The Count smiled incredulously; 
 but when at the end of a few seconds the deep 
 convulsive sighs of Lolotte calmed into silence, 
 he gave his serious attention to what was going 
 on. Very soon her hands dropped helplessly 
 from before her eyes. Those eyes were closed, 
 and their long lashes, wet with tears, lay like 
 black fringes upon her cheeks. Bertha drew 
 a chair behind her, and as Lolotte sank back 
 
216 STURMER. 
 
 overcome by the magnetic slumber, she received 
 her in her arms, laid her head upon her bosom, 
 and tenderly wiping away the tears that still 
 bedewed her pale cheeks, looked triumphantly 
 at her husband. 
 
 " Now open that door," said Bertha, pointing 
 to the one by which Lolotte had entered, " and 
 between us we will carry her into her own 
 room, and place her on the bed." 
 
 " Yes," murmured Lolotte, replying to the 
 last words of Bertha, " lay me on the bed." 
 
 The Countess cast another glance of triumph 
 at the Count. The magnetic ' rapporf so quick- 
 ly established between herself and Lolotte had 
 far exceeded her own expectations. 
 
 " Do you see me ? " she inquired, laying her 
 hand upon the sleeper's eyes. 
 
 " Yes," replied Lolotte, " you are very beau- 
 tiful ! " 
 
 " And do you see me ?" inquired the Count. 
 
 But Lolotte remained silent. She neither 
 saw nor heard him. 
 
STURMER. 211 
 
 Bertha placed her husband's hand in that of 
 Lolotte, held them together in her own, and 
 then asked her if she saw any other person 
 besides herself. 
 
 Lolotte accurately described the Count's ap- 
 pearance. Still a doubt hung upon his mind, 
 that by almost imperceptibly opening her eye- 
 lids she might have obtained a sufficient view of 
 him to bear her out in her description. 
 
 " Pardon me, madam," he said, " if I still 
 remain incredulous upon the subject of your 
 lucidity ; but it will be in your power to make 
 a believer of me by replying to one question 
 which I shall put to you : — Can you tell me 
 what I have got in this pocket ? '"* And he laid 
 his hand upon the side pocket of his coat. 
 
 Lolotte remained silent for a moment. At 
 last she said — " You have got a small pocket- 
 book, covered with crimson." 
 
 "You are quite right," replied the Count, 
 astonishment painted in every feature ; " but 
 what does that pocket-book contain?" 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
218 STURMER. 
 
 Lolotte considered again. " It contains," 
 she said, " two miniatures ; one is the picture 
 of a lady, — stay, it is this lady's likeness ; the 
 other is that of a gentleman whom I have never 
 seen. There is writing upon one of the leaves 
 — a name. It is his writing — his name — 
 Wolfgang Sturmer" 
 
 " Wonderful ! " exclaimed the Count. " I 
 am convinced ! There is no contesting such 
 evidence as this." And putting his hand into 
 his pocket, he drew from it precisely such 
 a porte-feuille as Lolotte had described ; and 
 placing it in Bertha's hand, said : " This, my 
 love, was given to me by Sturmer this morning, 
 with more solemnity in his manner than I could 
 account for. He said it was one of the things 
 he most prized, as it contained yours and An- 
 ton's pictures, given to him by your brother, 
 and for that reason he wished to place it him- 
 self in my hands. I confess, I cannot under- 
 stand his parting -with such a souvenir,''^ 
 
 " He gave it to you as a legacy," said Lo- 
 lotte solemnly. 
 
STURMER. 219 
 
 " A legacy ! " exclaimed the Count and 
 Countess together: "why? — how? — for what 
 reason?" 
 
 But Lolotte remained silent. 
 
 " Can you tell me where Sturmer is at this 
 moment?" said Bertha, after a pause. 
 
 " He is travelling," was the answer. 
 
 " This is very strange," remarked the Count. 
 " He did not even hint at an idea of travelling 
 when we parted this morning. Is he going 
 to make a long journey?" 
 
 " A very long one," replied Lolotte, sighing. 
 
 "And when will he return home?" inquired 
 Bertha. 
 
 " He will never return home again^^ was the 
 answer. 
 
 After this, she persisted in remaining silent ; 
 and, upon a sign of Bertha's, the Count raised 
 her in his arms, and, carrying her into the 
 adjoining room, placed her upon the bed. 
 
 L 2 
 
220 STURMER. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 I have been patient ; let me be so yet. 
 
 Oh ! would it were my lot 
 
 To be forgetful. 
 
 Lord Byron. 
 
 It was not till eight o'clock the next morn- 
 ing that Lolotte awakened; and she arose so 
 much refreshed and invigorated as to feel quite 
 equal to continue her journey homewards in 
 the course of the day. She had slept so pro- 
 foundly, that when, on the preceding evening, 
 her maid (who had been indulging in the de- 
 light of a long gossip, during her supper, with 
 the servants of the newly-arrived travellers,) 
 returned to her mistress's room, and found her 
 
STURMER. 221 
 
 plunged in that deep slumber, she had no diffi- 
 culty in undressing and placing her in her bed 
 without awakening her. 
 
 Since her last interview with Sturmer, Lo- 
 lotte had taken neither rest or nourishment 
 sufficient to sustain her bodily strength; and 
 the agitation of her mind, added to the unusual 
 exertions she was obliged to make in order 
 to hasten her departure from Prague, had been 
 too much for a frame so delicate; but it was 
 not until she was seated in the carriage that 
 was to bear her thence, that she became aware 
 of the utter prostration of her strength. Then, 
 when the excitement of action was over, came 
 reflection with its train of tortures and terrors to 
 subdue her courage ; — then did her sinking heart 
 fail her ;- — then did all that she had yet to en- 
 dure strike dismay into her soul. To the agony 
 of a final separation from the being who, for 
 the last few months, had been all the world to 
 her, was added the terror of meeting her hus- 
 band, with the dreadful secret of her newly- 
 
^22 STURMER. 
 
 discovered love weighing upon her heart. How- 
 should she conceal her misery from him? and 
 how, alas ! could she avow its cause ? " Oh ! 
 that I had been suffered to die eight years 
 ago ! " thought she, with something like a feel- 
 ing of bitter repining at her fate ; " for what 
 accumulated sorrows have I been reserved ! 
 And yet, my God, Thou knowest best ! " — the 
 habitual piety and meekness of her soul sur- 
 mounting that momentary disposition to mur- 
 mur — " forgive me for questioning Thy wis- 
 dom — and if this cup may not pass away from 
 me, Thy will be done ! " 
 
 Silently absorbed in her feelings, she leaned 
 from the carriage window with her eyes fixed 
 upon the regal towers of the Hraschin rising in 
 proud pre-eminence above the innumerable 
 spires and palaces of antique and aristocratical 
 Prague, until a bend in the road shut them 
 from her view. It was there that Sturmer 
 dwelt — there she had first known him; and 
 when she no more beheld them, the last con- 
 
STURMER. 22S 
 
 necting link between him and herself appear- 
 ed to be rudely riven asunder ; she closed 
 her eyes with a feeling of such deep anguish 
 that her heart sickened beneath it, and after 
 an ineffectual struggle to resist the deadly 
 chill that was creeping over her, she became 
 insensible. 
 
 A succession of fainting fits caused so much 
 alarm to her fellow travellers in the eil-wagen^ 
 (who feared that she was going to die among 
 them,) that when the vehicle stopped at Lobo- 
 sitz, and she was lifted out of it motionless 
 and senseless, they one and all refused to allow 
 her to proceed, and advised her servant to let 
 her remain there until she should be better ; and 
 one of them, an old military officer, who had 
 been deeply interested by the appearance and 
 sufferings of Lolotte, offered to become the 
 bearer of a letter or message to her friends in 
 Dresden to account to them for her protracted 
 absence. But alas ! Lolotte's maid, Gretchen, 
 did not know how to write, and all that she 
 
224f STURMER. 
 
 could do was to inform the kind-hearted stran- 
 ger, that her mistress was the wife of Mr. 
 Franz Moller, who was then lodging in the 
 AU'Markt, at Dresden, No. — , and to beg 
 that he would send there, and inform him of 
 what had happened. This he promised to do, 
 and the eil-wagen proceeded on its way, leav- 
 ing Lolotte and her maid at Lobositz. 
 
 But the nervous irritation of her spirits pre- 
 vented her benefiting by the repose which such 
 an arrangement was intended to procure for her, 
 and it was only on the afternoon of the succeed- 
 ing day, that from mere exhaustion, she fell 
 into a sleep which terminated, as has already 
 been described, by one of those exhibitions of 
 natural somnambulism which always preceded 
 or attended some crisis of suffering in Lo- 
 lotte, and which the timely application of Ani- 
 mal Magnetism invariably prevented. 
 
 That Bertha's experiment upon her had pro- 
 duced the effect of soothing and calming her 
 shattered nerves in that particular instance, has 
 
STURMER. 225 
 
 already been shewn ; and the many hours of 
 undisturbed repose which it had procured for 
 her, recruited her strength to such a degree 
 that she immediately commenced her prepara- 
 tions for departure. 
 
 She had opened the door of her bedroom and 
 was just going to cross the Speisen Saal in order 
 that she might ascertain from the host the hour 
 when the next eil-wagen for Dresden would 
 pass, when she perceived that the room was 
 occupied by a lady and gentleman ; and hastily 
 drawing back, she would have retreated into 
 her chamber had she not been prevented by 
 the lady quickly advancing and taking her 
 hand. 
 
 " Pray, come in," said she ; '' I am so glad 
 to see you ! Are you better this morning ? We 
 have already been inquiring for you, but no one 
 could tell us how you were." 
 
 " Madam," exclaimed Lolotte in the great- 
 est surprise, " you are surely under some mis- 
 take ! I have never had the honour of seeing 
 
 l5 
 
226 STURMER. 
 
 you before, and I dare not flatter myself that 
 the health of an entire stranger can interest 
 you." 
 
 " Indeed, Madame MoUer, I am under no 
 mistake," replied Bertha, smiling ; " it is i/our 
 health which interests me so much at the pre- 
 sent moment, and although I never saw you 
 before last evening, I have heard so much of 
 you that I do not look upon you in the light 
 of a stranger. And now give me leave to 
 present my husband to you, the Count de 
 Koenneritz." 
 
 " Ah, madam," replied Lolotte, after bend- 
 ing gracefully to the salutation of the Count, 
 " I understand now ! I have, indeed, often 
 heard of you before; but I thought that the 
 Count de Koenneritz had been detained by 
 severe illness at — " 
 
 "Yes, madam," interrupted the Count, lead- 
 ing her to a chair, " we were detained at Czas- 
 lau by a slight indisposition of mine ; but our 
 mutual friend, Sturmer, arrived in good time 
 
STURMER. 227 
 
 to save me from dying there of cold and hunger, 
 and he brought us with him to his charming 
 house at Prague, where we hoped to have had 
 the honour of meeting you : but you had flown 
 before we arrived." 
 
 Poor Lolotte felt her heart throb, and the 
 blood rush to her cheek and brow at the men- 
 tion of that beloved name. She would have 
 given the world to have ascertained whether 
 Sturmer was still with them ; but all her self- 
 possession had suddenly abandoned her at that 
 one allusion to him, and, trembling and con- 
 fused, she sank suddenly into a chair. Emotion 
 so painful and irrepressible could not escape 
 the observation of the Count and Countess. 
 They exchanged glances, and Bertha carelessly 
 remarked, " That they had very much wished 
 Sturmer to have accompanied them to Dresden, 
 but that he was unable to do so: she hoped, 
 however, that he would visit them before long. 
 Was Madame Moller aware of any particular 
 business that detained him at Prague, or did 
 
228 STURMER. 
 
 she know of any journey that he intended to 
 make elsewhere?" 
 
 Thus called upon, Lolotte summoned cou- 
 rage to reply, " That she understood it to be 
 Mr. Sturmer's intention to remain at Prague, 
 his usual place of residence, which he had 
 only left to attend the Count de Koenneritz 
 in his illness at Czaslau. She had never heard 
 of any other journey contemplated by him; 
 and she hoped, — that is to say, she believed," 
 — and here she stammered and faltered, — 
 "she meant, she never had heard of his in- 
 tention to visit Dresden." 
 
 Here the Count and Countess glanced at each 
 other again, as if mutually to recall the contrary 
 opinion which Lolotte had so solemnly and decid- 
 edly pronounced on the preceding ^evening. They 
 said nothing, and appeared by that one look 
 tacitly to agree that no further mention should 
 be made of Sturmer for the present; and then, 
 with a warmth and cordiality of manner, which 
 soon restored Lolotte to her natural ease, they 
 
STURMER. 229 
 
 led her to speak upon other subjects, and 
 finally prevailed upon her to breakfast with 
 them. 
 
 It was during that repast that they related to 
 her the occurrences of the past evening, and 
 the success with which Bertha had exerted her 
 magnetical skill in Lolotte's behalf. Her terror 
 and confusion were inexpressible at the recital ; 
 and, had any such evidence been required, 
 would have fully convinced the Count of her 
 total unconsciousness of all that had passed 
 during her somnambulism : but he had already 
 seen enough to convert him, and he was not 
 one of those persons who, when once convinced, 
 retract or qualify their opinions in order to 
 maintain an appearance of consistency with 
 previously pronounced views on the same sub- 
 ject. 
 
 The curiosity of the Count de Kcenneritz 
 was roused, and his interest excited, to inves- 
 tigate more deeply into the causes of pheno- 
 mena so extraordinary; and partly from that 
 
S30 STURMER. 
 
 motive, but still more from a feeling of kind- 
 ness to Lolotte, whose strange introduction 
 of herself to them, added to her beauty and her 
 sufferings, had established a peculiar interest 
 for her with him as well as with Bertha, he was 
 induced to propose that they should give her a 
 seat in their carriage to Dresden, while Gret- 
 chen and the trunks should be left to proceed 
 thither by the eil-wagen. An offer so cordially 
 made was gratefully accepted by Lolotte; and 
 before noon she had taken her seat in the 
 Count's travelling Berline, and was once more 
 rapidly whirled towards home. 
 
 It was night before they reached Dresden, 
 and the postilions had some difficulty in finding 
 the number of Moller's lodging in the dimly- 
 lighted Alt-Markt At last, however, they 
 stopped before a dark-looking house, and the 
 Countess's Heidugue, having ascertained that it 
 was the one inhabited by Mr. Franz Moller, 
 Lolotte took leave of her new friends, and, with 
 a beating heart, entered. " Au revoir, dear 
 
STURMER. 231 
 
 Madame MoUer," were the parting words of 
 Bertha; "I shall not fail to call upon you to- 
 morrow morning." 
 
 Slowly she ascended the staircase, and many 
 times before reaching the third story, she 
 stopped to take breath, and, pressing her hand 
 upon her heart, endeavoured to still its throb- 
 bings. At last she reached a door upon which 
 was nailed one of her husband's cards, and, 
 summoning all her courage to her aid, she rang 
 the bell. "Why should I fear to see him?" 
 thought she ; " surely my conscience absolves 
 me from all sinful wishes." But she knew that 
 her heart was devoted to another, and therefore 
 did she tremble; for it is only in minds pre- 
 disposed to vice that the infidelity of the heart is 
 glossed over as a venial error: but the truly 
 pure in soul start from it as from the shadow of 
 sill, instinctively knowing that to excuse and to 
 foster such wanderings, is to smooth the path 
 to others more fatal, although scarcely more 
 reprehensible; since the woman who has once 
 
232 STURMER. 
 
 accustomed herself to look upon the unlawful 
 affections of her heart with indulgence and com- 
 placency, has not only ceased to be virtuous in 
 thought, but is more than half won over to 
 become criminal in deed. 
 
 Lolotte was not one of those who weakly 
 cherish error until it grows into guilt, and, 
 in the meantime, fondly and falsely persuade 
 themselves that they are innocent, because 
 they have conceded nothing hut their heart. 
 The knowledge of her love for Sturmer weigh- 
 ed upon her soul like a secret sin, from 
 which she had vainly struggled to disburthen 
 it; and she approached her husband with the 
 feelings of a criminal, conscious that she had, 
 for the first time, something to conceal from 
 him, — knowing that she had never loved him, — 
 and feeling that the duties and obligations of a 
 wife had now become hateful to her. 
 
 She rang more than once before any sound 
 or sign of answering the call could be distin- 
 guished ; but at last a step was heard within, 
 
STURMER. 23S 
 
 and the well-known voice of Babet demanded, 
 " Who is there ?'* 
 
 " It is I, Babet," answered Lolotte ; " open 
 quickly." And the door instantly flying back, 
 discovered Babet in her night-clothes, with a 
 light in her hand. 
 
 " Oh, madam ! oh, my dear mistress ! is it 
 you ? " she exclaimed as Lolotte entered. " Kilss 
 die hand mein lieher kind,^ suiting the action 
 to the word. " But you are alone ! Where is 
 my master?" 
 
 " Your master ! " repeated Lolotte, in amaze- 
 ment ; " is he not here ? " 
 
 " No, truly," was the answer ; " he has gone 
 to bring you home. A gentleman called here 
 yesterday to tell of your being ill somewhere 
 between this and Prague, and as he came after 
 master had gone out for the day, he left a note 
 to tell him all about it. When Mr. Franz 
 came home in the evening and read the note, 
 I never saw him so flurried or so angry; and 
 what made him worse was, that it was too late 
 
234f STURMER. 
 
 for him to set off for you last night, so he was 
 obhged to wait till this morning." 
 
 " He has gone to Lobositz, then ! " exclaimed 
 Lolotte, " and I must have passed him on the 
 road. Poor Franz ! how sorry I am that he 
 should have had such vexation and trouble 
 on my account." And yet, notwithstanding 
 her regret, she felt inexpressibly relieved 
 at the certainty of not meeting him for some 
 hours. 
 
 " Yes, madam, he went this morning," said 
 Babet ; " and sadly it put him out of his way to 
 go. But, oh, my dear child, how ill you look ! 
 Indeed, indeed, I could be as angry as my 
 master is with you for not staying quietly at 
 Prague with that great man. Doctor Sturmer, 
 who did you so much good, instead of running 
 back here in spite of master's advice ; — and he 
 so pleased with all the Doctor had done for 
 you; and wanting to be off to Leipzig, and 
 backwards and forwards about his book, and the 
 great sale, and all the rest of it. And yet it 
 
STURMER. 2S5 
 
 does my old heart good to see your sweet face 
 again, pale as it is ; — but what we are to do 
 when master returns I know not, for there is 
 no comfortable place here for you, only this 
 one room, littered from one end to the other 
 with papers, and no corner to stow away a 
 mouse. When Mr. Franz got your letter, say- 
 ing you were coming away from Prague, he 
 was so vexed that he declared he should just 
 remain as he was, to shew you that you could 
 not stay here ; and how much better it would 
 have been for you to have done as he wished. 
 Indeed, he has never been in a good-humour 
 since that letter came. Pardon me, dear mis- 
 tress, for telUng you so, but I think it better 
 that you should know all." 
 
 " Well, Babet," said Lolotte, sighing, " my 
 husband will find that I have not returned to 
 derange him in any way ; and as soon as I have 
 seen him to-morrow I shall go home to the 
 Ottowalder-grund." 
 
 And with the painful impression that no 
 
2S6 STURMER. 
 
 welcome awaited her from him whose protection 
 she had sought as her safeguard in the trials 
 that assailed her heart, she laid down, not to 
 sleep, but to meditate through the long watches 
 of the night, and to endeavour to compose her 
 mind for the meeting which she so much 
 dreaded. 
 
 Morning at length came, and with it arrived 
 Franz Mciller. But, although Lolotte had been 
 in some measure prepared for the dissatisfac- 
 tion which she was to encounter, it far exceeded 
 any exhibition of ill-humour that she had ever 
 before witnessed in her husband. Franz was 
 by no means a bad-tempered man ; and indeed 
 he enjoyed the reputation of being quite the 
 reverse, thanks to a mild and open countenance, 
 and to a total absence of violence or vindic- 
 tiveness in his character; but he had other 
 faults of temper, not less difficult to contend 
 with ; he was obstinate, and sullen under oppo- 
 sition, and naturally of a selfish and exacting 
 disposition. Those faults had been strength- 
 
STURMER. 237 
 
 ened by the yielding sweetness of Lolotte's 
 character, the extreme softness of her temper, 
 and the total absence of selfishness, which had 
 ever led her cheerfully to sacrifice her own 
 tastes and wishes to the slightest whim of her 
 husband. This was the first time since their 
 marriage that she had ventured to decide for 
 herself, or to act in direct opposition to an 
 implied wish of his ; and an infraction of esta- 
 blished rules so unexpected, a decision which 
 involved such a derangement of his darling 
 plans and occupations, stirred up and threw to 
 the surface all the least amiable elements of his 
 character. 
 
 " Well, Lolotte,"' said he, entering and throw- 
 ing aside, in no very gentle mood, his meer- 
 schaum and tobacco-pouch, " you have led me a 
 pretty dance for nothing ! " 
 
 " Dear Franz," she answered, taking his 
 hand, " it was all unknown to me ! I never 
 should have thought of asking you to come for 
 me to Lobositz ; and had I been in a state to 
 
23S STURMER. 
 
 know what was intended, I should have forbid- 
 den it ; but I was so very ill as to be uncon- 
 scious of everything." 
 
 " If you had done as I told you, you would 
 not have been ill," he replied ; " but women 
 are all alike — tell them to do one thing, and 
 they will be sure to do another, just for the 
 sake of contradiction. And now, may I ask 
 what very pressing motive induced you to come 
 off to me in such a hurry ?" 
 
 " Oh, Franz !" said Lolotte, tears, in spite 
 of her efforts to repress them, filling her eyes, 
 " can you ask me such a question ? You wrote 
 to say, that you would be detained here for an 
 indefinite period, and I felt it to be my duty to 
 join you, especially as you left me the option of 
 doing so." 
 
 " Yes, but I also unequivocally expressed to 
 you my opinion in favour of your remaining 
 where you were, and it was therefore your para- 
 mount duty to have acted upon that wish." 
 
 Lolotte remained silent. An hysterical sob 
 
STURMER. 289 
 
 rose in her throat and choked her utterance. 
 Her thoughts involuntarily reverted to Stur- 
 mer ; and as she contrasted the devoted tender- 
 ness of his character and his idolatrous love for 
 her, with the cold harshness of her husband's 
 reception, a deep sigh burst from her heart. 
 
 Franz was irritated, as all unreasonable peo- 
 ple are, at meeting with silence instead of such 
 rejoinders as are at once a provocative to their 
 own ill-humour and an excuse for its continu- 
 ance. " One would think," said he, after a 
 pause, " that you fancied money and health 
 were only obtained to be trifled with and thrown 
 away upon the high roads. See what it cost 
 me to take you to Prague ; the least you could 
 have done in return would have been to have 
 remained there long enough to profit by the 
 excellent care under which I had placed you. 
 I left you improved in health and strength 
 beyond my most sanguine expectations ; my 
 mind was quite at ease, from knowing you to 
 be in such good hands, and I confidently looked 
 
240 STURMER. 
 
 forward to returning to you in the spring, and 
 finding you perfectly recovered. But, instead 
 of continuing a treatment which had done such 
 wonders for you, you have rashly taken upon 
 yourself to act in direct opposition to your 
 physician's advice and your husband's opinion, 
 and the consequence is, that I find you in a 
 worse state than when I took you to Prague. 
 I might just as well have not taken you there 
 at all!" 
 
 " Would to Heaven that you never had ! '* 
 thought Lolotte ; but she said nothing ; the 
 fulness of her heart had overflowed at her eyes, 
 and she wept in silence. 
 
 " Besides," continued Franz, " I had fully 
 explained to you the position of my affairs here 
 with respect to my book ; every moment of my 
 time is occupied in finishing and preparing it 
 for the press ; it is to be published at Leipzig, 
 and I must be there to superintend proceedings. 
 All this of course entails an outlay of money, 
 for which, indeed, I expect to be remunerated 
 
STURMER. 241 
 
 hereafter by the extensive sale of my work ; 
 but in the meantime I am pressed for means, 
 and did not require the additional expense of 
 your journey hither, and losing the rent of the 
 house at Prague, for which I had paid in ad- 
 vance, and the prospect of doctor's fees during 
 the rest of the winter ; for we shall find no 
 physician in Dresden like that noble-minded 
 fellow, Sturmer, who never would take a florin 
 from me. I repeat, I did not require all these 
 additions to render my position embarrassing 
 enough ; and you see, Lolotte, it is quite im- 
 possible that you should remain here ; nor can 
 I, as matters stand, take another lodging for 
 you in Dresden." 
 
 " If that is all that embarrasses you, dear 
 Franz," said Lolotte, in her own mild per- 
 suasive tones, " be assured that I have no wish 
 to remain in Dresden ; indeed my only desire 
 is to return immediately home, and I came here 
 with a view of proposing it to you. Thus you 
 see, no additional expense will be incurred by 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
24:2 STURMER. 
 
 the step I have taken, beyond the trifling one 
 of my journey hither ; for as the house at the 
 Ottowalder-grund is shut up, and that at Prague 
 ah^eady paid for, whether I Uve at the one or 
 the other can make no difference in our house- 
 hold expenses ; besides, you know that I am a 
 good economist, and I shall now redouble my 
 exertions to make up for the costs I have en- 
 tailed upon you by this unfortunate journey to 
 Prague; and in the meantime I shall in no 
 way interfere with your literary business or 
 your journeys to Leipzig. Believe me, Franz, 
 I have done all for the best ; — let me not then 
 have the pain of witnessing your displeasure, 
 when I hoped for, perhaps expected, your ap- 
 probation ! " And endeavouring to smile through 
 her tears, she again held out her hand to him. 
 
 " A soft answer turneth away wrath," and 
 the ungracious husband felt his irritability va- 
 nish before the patient sweetness of Lolotte's 
 manner, and the good sense of her argument. 
 
 " You always were the gentlest and best of 
 
STURMER. 243 
 
 beings, Lolotte," said Franz, drawing her to- 
 wards him and kissing her cheek ; " and that 
 is the reason why I was so vexed at seeing you 
 all of a sudden act in such a headstrong, un- 
 accountable manner — so unlike yourself ! Let 
 it be the last time that you take any step with- 
 out my concurrence, and then you will be sure 
 never to do wrong; and now let us turn our 
 thoughts to what is to be done with you. There 
 is Gretchen below stairs with your baggage, 
 she having come in the same eil-icagen with 
 me from Lobositz, and you see that there is no 
 accommodation for her here." 
 
 Lolotte proposed that she should in the 
 course of the morning proceed home to the 
 Ottowalder-grund with one of the servants, and 
 that Franz should remain at Dresden with the 
 other until his business between that place and 
 Leipzig should be terminated ; and as this 
 plan exactly corresponded with his own wishes, 
 MoUer eagerly embraced it, and gradually re- 
 covered his good-humour. 
 
 M 2 
 
S44 STURMER. 
 
 Breakfast had been despatched, and Franz, 
 full of his book and his journey to Leipzig, 
 was descanting upon both to Lolotte, who, 
 weary, sad, and suffering, had more than once 
 reminded him of the flight of time, and that 
 a carriage must be immediately procured to 
 take her to the Ottowalder-grund, in order that 
 she might arrive there before dusk, when the 
 door-bell rang, and in another moment the 
 Countess de Kcenneritz stood among them. 
 
 Lolotte's eyes were red with weeping — Mol- 
 ler's cheek flushed with talking; Bertha's quick 
 glance noted the disorder of their countenances, 
 and she drew her own inferences from what 
 she saw. " I see it all," thought she; " he is 
 grown suspicious of Sturmer — has obliged her 
 to see him no more — and is now tormenting 
 her with his jealousy by way of rendering his 
 home and himself more agreeable to her ! and 
 such a home for a creature so lovely and so 
 refined to be brought to ! She will die if she 
 stays in it ! " 
 
STURMER. 245 
 
 " Madame Moller," said the Countess, 
 quickly advancing to Lolotte and kissing her ; 
 " I told you yesterday what an encroaching 
 person you would find me, and I have lost no 
 time in verifying my assertion, by coming to 
 see you before you are settled at home. I 
 have, however, had the forbearance to leave 
 Monsieur de Koenneritz out of this unseason- 
 able visit ; he intends to have the honour of 
 making Monsieur Moller's acquaintance in a 
 day or two," graciously turning to Franz ; " but 
 I could not wait so long without again seeing 
 my fair patient, and if I have come mal-a-propos, 
 you must only blame the force of attraction 
 which our magnetic " rapport " has established 
 between us, and which has left me no power 
 to resist the strong sympathy that draws me 
 towards you." 
 
 However inopportune such a visit might at 
 that moment have appeared to Lolotte and 
 Moller, the graceful warmth of Bertha's man- 
 ner soon placed them completely at their ease 
 
246 STURMER. 
 
 with her. She related to the husband the cu- 
 rious circumstance which had introduced his 
 wife to those who so ardently desired to know 
 her, precisely at that interesting moment when 
 the moral and physical phenomena exhibited 
 by her in her state of natural somnambulism, 
 had enabled Bertha so successfully to exert 
 her magnetic power over her, and to change 
 the hallucinations and delirium which had cha- 
 racterized her sleep-walking, into the profound 
 calm and lucidity of magnetic clairvoyance. 
 She did not, indeed, particularize the subject 
 of Lolotte's visions, feeling the ground to be 
 too delicate and dangerous for her to venture 
 upon it with either of them ; but she triumphed 
 unrestrainedly in the conviction which the whole 
 occurrence had brought to the Count's mind, 
 hitherto so sceptical upon all that concerned 
 Magnetism, and she congratulated herself upon 
 the power she possessed of relieving Lolotte's 
 sufferings, and offered to replace the efficient 
 friend and physician she had left at Prague. 
 
STURMER. 24^7 
 
 This led to a declaration of Lolotte's pro- 
 ject of returning to the country on that day. 
 Bertha's disappointment was at first unbounded 
 and expressed without restriction; but after a 
 while, looking round the room, she said, " This 
 is indeed no place for you to remain in, and 
 I cannot be so selfish as to regret that you 
 should leave it; but I had counted upon your 
 staying in Dresden and giving me a great deal 
 of your society — I had fixed my heart upon 
 taking your cure into my own hands — and, 
 in short, I have done nothing but form plans 
 about you since we parted last night. Is there 
 no way of tempting you to remain among us 
 a little longer ? " 
 
 But Lolotte, whose unhappy state of mind 
 made her long to be far away and alone, that 
 she might throw off the constraint which her 
 husband's presence imposed upon her, and dare 
 to weep unquestioned and unobserved, firmly 
 but gratefully assured her that there was none ; 
 and Bertha feeling that her recent acquaintance 
 
248 STURMER. 
 
 did not authorize her to argue the point further, 
 and knowing that her husband had not em- 
 powered her to make any offer that might 
 tempt her new friends to alter their plans, 
 gave it up ; and after ascertaining the place 
 of Lolotte's residence, and assuring her that 
 she should very soon hear from or see her 
 there, she took her leave, determined to lose 
 no time in proposing to the Count that an 
 invitation should be made to Lolotte to spend 
 at their house the period of Moller's absence 
 from Dresden. Interest for the lovely invalid 
 in a great measure prompted Bertha to such 
 a determination ; but curiosity also had its 
 share in the project, for Lolotte had said just 
 enough of Sturmer during her trance to arouse 
 the apprehensions of his friend upon his ac- 
 count, and not sufficient to satisfy her inqui- 
 sitiveness; and she longed, while she almost 
 dreaded, to hear more upon that subject, and 
 to compare the previsional declarations of Lo- 
 
STURMER. 249 
 
 lotte with the real state of Sturmer's affairs 
 and movements. 
 
 In an hour after the Countess de Koenneritz 
 had quitted Holler's apartment in the Alt- 
 Markt, Lolotte and her maid Gretchen left it 
 also for the Ottowalder-grund. 
 
 M 5 
 
250 STURMER. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Dunque vien, Morte ; il tuo venir m'e caro : 
 E non tardar, cli'egli a ben tempo omai. 
 
 Petrarca. 
 
 The day was fast closing in when Lolotte 
 reached her soUtary home, and the last beams 
 of a wintry sun shed a cold, sickly ray upon its 
 slanting roof, and the icicles that hung from 
 it ; a thick covering of snow wrapped the earth 
 like a winding-sheet ; the leafless trees stirred 
 not in the still frosty air; the deep waters of 
 the Elbe lay locked in sullen silence beneath 
 their prison of ice ; the birds were mute — all 
 nature appeared hushed into the cold breath- 
 less calm of death ! Lolotte felt the dreary 
 
STURMER. 251 
 
 scene to be in unison with her own desolate 
 feelings, and without an effort to restrain them, 
 she gave way to the anguish that oppressed 
 her soul, and wept until exhaustion succeeded 
 to emotions so intense. Oh, how sad are those 
 tears which fall unheeded and unpitied! — how 
 agonizing those sighs to which no sympathizing 
 bosom responds ! — how overwhelming that sor- 
 row which must be endured alone and un- 
 supported ! Yet even in this extremity of woe 
 and abandonment, Lolotte suffered no queru- 
 lous murmurs to escape her lips, or brood in 
 her heart ; she remembered that many blessings 
 had once been hers, and she questioned not 
 the wisdom or the justice of Him who had 
 one by one withdrawn them from her. But 
 although the spirit still remained strong within 
 her to repel the sinful suggestions of despair, 
 the poor frail flesh failed in the conflict, and 
 a very few hours produced so visible a change 
 in her, that she felt the moment of her release 
 was fast approaching. 
 
252 STURMRR. 
 
 It had been decreed, however, that before she 
 was suffered to depart, her virtuous resolution 
 should be tested by one more trial — a trial 
 which conflicting circumstances rendered more 
 difficult, perhaps, for her to resist than any of 
 those which she had yet encountered. Whether 
 principle triumphed over passion in that last 
 fearful struggle, will be seen hereafter; the 
 narrator's task is not to forestall events nor to 
 encumber them with her own reflections, but to 
 relate them as nearly as possible in the way in 
 which they were repeated to her. 
 
 The day following I.olotte's return home was 
 the Sabbath, and weak and suffering as she felt, 
 she determined to make an effort to attend 
 .church-service that morning; it might be the 
 last time she should be able to do so, and her 
 soul yearned to listen once more to the word 
 of God in the holy edifice where her beloved 
 grandfather had officiated for so many years, 
 and where all the most important events of her 
 life had been solemnized. The dearest affec- 
 
STURMER. 253 
 
 tions and the most sacred sentiments of her 
 heart were identified with its old grey walls — 
 there she had been christened, confirmed, 
 married — the last Christian rites had there 
 been performed over her children, her mother, 
 and her grandfather — and their mortal remains 
 reposed beneath the linden trees that shaded its 
 quiet cemetery. 
 
 The unexpected appearance of Lolotte in the 
 church of Lohraen, occasioned a sensation in its 
 humble congregation which disturbed the devo- 
 tions of many among them ; for she was beloved 
 and respected by the poor inhabitants of that se- 
 questered valley as a being of a superior order, 
 and the sight of her brought hope and gladness 
 to many a bosom that during her absence had 
 languished for those timely kindnesses which 
 she had never been known to refuse to the un- 
 fortunate. Humble as were her fortunes, and 
 circumscribed as her generous propensities were 
 by the parsimonious disposition of her husband, 
 she had nevertheless, by dint of strict self-denial, 
 
254 STURMER. 
 
 always managed to reserve to herself the power 
 of ministering to the wants of many of her 
 fellow-creatures who were unable to work for 
 themselves. From her earliest youth she had 
 been accustomed to abstain from those frivolous 
 and selfish indulgences which the generality of 
 her sex, old as well as young, learn by the force 
 of habit to consider less as luxuries than as 
 necessaries without which their happiness would 
 be incomplete ; and restricting herself to the 
 simplest style of dress — for a few natural flowers 
 in her beautiful hair were the only ornaments 
 she had ever worn — she devoted the sums 
 which so many expend in vanity to clothing the 
 naked and feeding the hungry. The wretched 
 never applied to her in vain. When, as was 
 sometimes the case, she had no money to be- 
 stow, she would divide her own wardrobe with 
 them ; kind words and gentle counsels she had 
 for all — she worked for the old — she taught 
 the young ; — by the former she was adored, by 
 the latter revered and looked up to ; — and 
 
STURMER. 255 
 
 verily she had her reward even upon earth : for 
 amidst those cruel bereavements which had 
 blighted the promise of her youth, and that 
 absence of all sympathy between her husband 
 and herself which had made her hopeless for 
 the future, the conviction that she was of use 
 to so many of her fellow-creatures who, with- 
 out her, would be friendless, — that she, whose 
 individual sorrows had left her heart a desolate 
 waste, still possessed the power to shed a ray 
 of brightness upon the dark shadows of human 
 suffering, — had sustained and consoled her dur- 
 ing many an hour of solitude and despondency. 
 For the first quarter of an hour after she had 
 resumed her old seat in the church, her thoughts 
 wandered in painful confusion to by-gone times, 
 and many a vanished scene, many a fond recol- 
 lection crowded rapidly upon her memory, and 
 filled it with images of the past, to the utter 
 exclusion of the present ; but the Pastor's voice 
 soon recalled her to herself; — it was not, alas ! 
 the beloved voice upon which for so many years 
 
256 STURMER. 
 
 she had hung with love and awe as it uttered 
 " truths divine" from that very same spot. — 
 Where was he? — and where were those who 
 had listened with her ? She raised her eyes, and 
 they rested upon the funeral wreaths that were 
 suspended from the wall over the places once 
 occupied by her family ; those white chaplets 
 were the only visible memorials that remained 
 there of the beings she had so fondly loved and 
 so bitterly deplored. She was alone — alone 
 there for the first time ! At that moment the 
 deep accents of the clergyman fell upon her ear, 
 pronouncing words which appeared to her like 
 the cry of her own heart : " Turn thee unto me 
 and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and 
 in misery. The sorrows of my heart are en- 
 larged : Oh, bring thou me out of my troubles !" 
 From that instant Lolotte's attention became 
 fixed, and she followed with feelings of the 
 deepest devotion every part of the service. 
 
 When it was over, she walked forth into the 
 churchyard, and was quickly surrounded by a 
 
STURMER. 257 
 
 crowd of humble friends, each anxious to be the 
 first to welcome back the gentle benefactress 
 whom they had scarcely dared hope that they 
 should see again, and all pressing forward to 
 kiss her hands with respectful affection. Much 
 they had to tell her, and many inquiries to 
 make about herself; and to all of them she 
 listened and spoke, with that kindness and in- 
 terest which are so soothing and flattering, when 
 they spring from the heart, and are addressed 
 to an indigent inferior. " My old mother can 
 walk no longer," said one ; " and yet when she 
 hears that you have returned, the good news 
 will set her on her legs again." " And my 
 poor blind child whom you taught to knit and 
 to weave baskets, has put by all her best work 
 to give to you, dear kind lady — and Konrad 
 has been every day to feed the robins in your 
 garden while you were away," said another. 
 " Oh, how we have missed you ! " exclaimed 
 several together ; " but thank God you have 
 returned, and this will, indeed, be a happy day 
 
258 STURMER. 
 
 for us all, if we hear that you are to leave us 
 no more !" And as Lolotte listened to these 
 simple expressions of good-will from the poor 
 and infirm beings who had gathered round her, 
 and gazed upon her with looks of unfeigned 
 affection, her heart once more expanded to 
 those gracious emotions which human sympathy 
 elicits, and a holy calm took possession of her 
 mind as she reflected that although joyless 
 herself, she could still bring joy to the hearts 
 of others. " No, my good friends," said she, 
 " I shall not leave you while I live." But 
 she forbore to sadden them by saying that she 
 had only returned among them to die. 
 
 While she yet spoke, she directed her steps 
 towards that part of the churchyard which con- 
 tained the graves of her family ; and the crowd, 
 guessing her intention, fell back in silence, and 
 remained at a sufficient distance from her not 
 to disturb her meditations. She knelt by the 
 snow-covered mounds, and, raising her eyes to 
 heaven, prayed long and fervently: but she 
 
STURMER. 259 
 
 wept not, for she knew that she should soon be 
 with those who slept beneath; and although 
 a thought of Sturmer intruded even there, it 
 was one so holy that angels might have par- 
 ticipated in it. Her aspirations were for his 
 eternal welfare, her hope, that " the peace which 
 passeth all understanding," and which the world 
 cannot give, might be vouchsafed to him from 
 above. 
 
 When she rose from her knees the good 
 Pastor Hartmann's successor, Mr. Becker, was 
 standing by her. He drew her arm under his 
 own, and tenderly supporting her feeble steps 
 conducted her in silence from the melancholy 
 spot beyond the precincts of the churchyard, 
 where some of her humble friends still lingered 
 that they might speak to her again. He would 
 have uttered words of consolation to her, but 
 something in her countenance forbade it. It 
 was not grief, — it was not resignation, — but a 
 solemn abstraction, which shewed that her 
 thoughts were not with the mouldering relics 
 
260 STURMER. 
 
 of mortality over which she had just been 
 kneehng, but with their immortal spirits which 
 dwelt beyond the skies ; and he felt that all he 
 could express would then fall unheeded on her 
 ears; and so, without breaking in upon her 
 contemplations, he continued to support her 
 steps homewards, and it was not until they 
 were within sight of the house, that Lolotte 
 became aware of whither she was going or 
 by whom she was conducted. 
 
 The intelligence of her return home had 
 quickly spread fi'om mouth to mouth among the 
 poor inhabitants of that wild district, and by 
 the time she reached the garden gate a large 
 number had assembled there, just to kiss her 
 hand, they said, and bid her welcome back. 
 
 " Behold, how much you have still to interest 
 you," said Mr. Becker to Lolotte. " Much has, 
 indeed, been taken away from you, my dear 
 young friend; but the Godlike power of dis- 
 pensing happiness to the poor and lowly still 
 remains; and if ever pride was justifiable in 
 
STURMER. 261 
 
 poor frail humanity, — if ever it could find a 
 resting-place in a heart so meek as yours, — it 
 might be at a moment like this, when the joy 
 which your return has occasioned among these 
 poor people attests so eloquently to your virtues, 
 and their grateful voices call down blessings 
 upon your head for the benefits you have so 
 unsparingly bestowed upon them. Monarchs 
 might envy you the tribute of love and grati- 
 tude that has been spontaneously offered at the 
 shrine of unpretending goodness this day, by 
 hearts which know neither flattery nor guile." 
 
 These were gratifying words for Lolotte to 
 hear, and they produced the salutary effect 
 which Mr. Becker had desired. They recalled 
 her to the interests of humanity, dispelled the 
 feeling of isolation which had oppressed her, 
 and falling like balm upon her bruised heart 
 soothed her into serenity. Tears, indeed, swam 
 in her eyes as she replied to them; but they 
 were the first tears in which, for many a day, 
 anguish had had no share, and she hailed them 
 
262 • STURMER. 
 
 as the harbingers of a calmer, happier state of 
 mind. She then addressed a few kind words 
 to each of her poor pensioners, and, thanking 
 them for the demonstrations of affection which 
 they had shewn her that day, desired that they 
 would resume their old habits of applying to 
 her for assistance and advice whenever their 
 necessities required either. " And bear in 
 mind," said she, " that if I do not go to see 
 you as formerly, it will be because my bodily 
 strength has failed me, and not because I have 
 grown unmindful of you." 
 
 " My dear young friend," observed Mr. 
 Becker, " you have exhausted yourself by the 
 exertions of this morning. You must talk no 
 more at present, but go and repose yourself; 
 and, above all, I enjoin you not to think of 
 attending church this evening. As soon as the 
 service is over I will come and read prayers to 
 you." And so saying, he left her at the garden 
 gate, and she traversed the little enclosure 
 alone. 
 
STURMER. 26 
 
 o 
 
 As she approached the house the figure of a 
 man was dimly distinguished by her through 
 the parlour casement, seated with his back to- 
 wards it, and apparently bending in busy occu- 
 pation over her husband's writing-table. " It 
 is Franz," thought she ; and a momentary chill 
 crept over her heart and forced upon her the 
 unpleasant conviction that his presence there 
 was not only unlooked-for, but unwished-for by 
 hen " And yet," she reflected, " his coming to 
 me so soon is a proof of his kindness. He 
 wishes to shew me that he is sorry for the cold 
 reception he gave me yesterday; and I ought 
 to be grateful for this return to good feeling, 
 and reward him with an affectionate welcome." 
 These thoughts passed with the rapidity of 
 lightning through her mind as she gained the 
 entrance of the house; and imposing a strong 
 effort upon her feelings, that she might meet 
 Moller with unembarrassed cordiality, she 
 hastily crossed the little vestibule, and throwing 
 open the door of the sitting-room entered. 
 
264 STURMER. 
 
 The noise of the opening door aroused from 
 his occupation the person who there awaited 
 her coming. He started to his feet, and rush- 
 ing towards her, Lolotte beheld not her 
 
 husband, but Sturmer ! 
 
STURMER. 265 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Nought 's had, all 's spent, 
 Where our desire is got without content : 
 'Tis safer to be that Avhich we destroy. 
 Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy. 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 If in the overwhelming surprise which then 
 assailed Lolotte, her first distinct sensation was 
 one of joy at thus suddenly finding herself in 
 the presence of the being dearest to her soul, 
 and whom she believed she should see no more, 
 instead of the one from whom it recoiled, and 
 whom alone she expected to find there, that 
 glad impulse was so short-lived, that no eye 
 save the piercing one of love could have de- 
 tected its fugitive traces upon her countenance, 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
266 STURMER. 
 
 SO rapidly were they succeeded by the most 
 unequivocal signs of terror and distress ; but 
 they had not been lost upon Sturmer, and they 
 infused hope and courage into his soul. He 
 had impetuously advanced to meet her, and 
 possessing himself of her passive hand had car- 
 ried it to his heart in speechless emotion ; but 
 the conflict of her feelings had so bewildered 
 her that she appeared suddenly to have become 
 unconscious of his presence, and remained trans- 
 fixed to the spot where she had first recognised 
 him, motionless as a statue, and betraying no 
 signs of life save in the changing hues of her 
 complexion. The blood which had rushed 
 tumultuously to her cheeks but a moment be- 
 fore, lending them a bloom so brilliant as to 
 cheat the gazer into a belief that health was 
 there, suddenly receded to her heart and left 
 them white as alabaster, — her lips grew colour- 
 less — her eyes closed — her limbs suddenly re- 
 fused to sustain her ; Sturmer threw his arms 
 round her, and supported her sinking frame 
 
STURMER. 267 
 
 upon his bosom ; he bore her to the window, 
 and throwing it open bared her temples to the 
 keen air, and chafed her hands in his ; and 
 as her head drooped helplessly upon his shoul- 
 der, and his eyes wandered fondly over that 
 exquisite countenance, he for the first time 
 became aware of the fearful changes that had 
 passed over it since he last beheld it, and tears 
 of agony burst from his eyes. 
 
 He thought of the first time he had ^seen 
 her; — even thus had she then appeared to him, 
 wan, breathless, and inanimate ; Death was the 
 ghastly rival from whose grasp he had then suc- 
 cessfully struggled to rescue her, — not for him- 
 self, indeed, but to resign her to another. Was 
 the dreadful conflict ever to be renewed under 
 that roof ? — and had the inexorable tyrant 
 again appeared to dispute her possession, and 
 to triumph over him, when, after long years of 
 despair, hope had once more dawned upon his 
 heart .'' 
 
 Happy, ah, happy, had it indeed been so ! 
 
 n2 
 
268 STURMER. 
 
 happy, had she then died, the last feeble pulses 
 of her heart fluttering only with joy ill re- 
 pressed and love irrepressible ! happy, could 
 she have escaped that knowledge, which was 
 to bring with it worse than death ! But it was 
 not to be ; the chalice was not to pass away 
 from her lips until she had drained its contents 
 even to the last bitter dregs ! 
 
 A gasping sigh soon announced that Lolotte 
 was reviving from her swoon ; she opened her 
 eyes and gazed wildly around her for a mo- 
 ment, then closed them again, and a gush of 
 tears relieved her oppressed heart ; — but it was 
 not until Sturmer spoke that memory and con- 
 sciousness returned to her. At the sound of 
 that beloved voice, calling upon her name in 
 tones of tenderest affection, her whole frame 
 thrilled, and a smile flitted over her counte- 
 nance ; she raised her head from his bosom, 
 and looking wistfully in his face for the space of 
 a minute, passed her hand over his forehead. 
 
STURMER. 269 
 
 " It is no dream," she muttered to herself ; 
 " it is Sturmer. God help me !" 
 
 Then disengaging herself from his support 
 she tottered to the nearest chair, and sinking 
 into it covered her eyes with her hands, and 
 remained silent. 
 
 Sturmer knelt at her feet. 
 
 " Rouse yourself, beloved Lolotte," he said, 
 " and listen to me. I have much to say, — 
 much that you must hear !" and he gently 
 removed her hands from her face. 
 
 Lolotte did rouse herself, and cast upon him 
 a look full of reproach ; " You can have no- 
 thing to say to me to which I ought to listen," 
 she replied. '' Why are you here, Mr. Stur- 
 mer ? Oh, why have you thus cruelly disre- 
 garded my entreaties — my prohibitions ?" 
 
 " You ask me why I am here, Lolotte, and 
 I answer you by another question. Did you 
 not promise faithfully to remain at Prague until 
 I returned thither, and have you not broken 
 
210 STURMER. 
 
 faith with me ? I am here, Lolotte, because 
 you are not there ! " 
 
 " Oh !"" said she, wringing her hands, " this 
 persecution is too unjust, — it is cruel, it is 
 unmanly ! you well knew that a promise ex- 
 torted from me under the influence of terror 
 could not be binding,-^you well knew that.'"' 
 
 " It matters not what I knew or thought," 
 interrupted Sturmer, " since you would not put 
 my self-control to the test. Perhaps you were 
 right not to trust me, — perhaps ? nay, you ivere 
 right ; for your flight has convinced me that 
 I could not have fulfilled the promises which 
 I then made to youj — that I could not volun- 
 tarily have relinquished you on my return, — 
 that I sought but a respite from the misery 
 that menaced me, — that nothing but force 
 should have separated you from me ! It point- 
 ed out to me the necessity of having no further 
 concealments from you; — all this I felt when 
 you had removed yourself far from me. Oh, 
 Lolotte, I was deceiving you, — perhaps myself, 
 
STURMER. 271 
 
 — when I last saw you ; now I have cast deceit 
 away from me for ever. I have come to speak 
 the truth to you, — the truth only ! Will you 
 consent to listen to me without interruption ?'"* 
 
 " No !" said Lolotte firmly, "for I can guess 
 what you would say. Spare me the pain and 
 mortification of hearing- arguments which your 
 own judgment must condemn, and — " 
 
 But Sturmer interrupted her impetuously. 
 " I will spare you nothing," he exclaimed. 
 '* You jnust listen to me, Lolotte. I will be 
 heard ! and," he continued, speaking through 
 his closed teeth, and starting to his feet, " try 
 not my patience beyond its bearing; I have 
 need of all my coolness, all my reason, at this 
 moment ; for that which I have to say is, God 
 knows, as dreadful for me to utter as it will be 
 painful for you to hear ! " 
 
 He paced the room rapidly for a few mo- 
 ments in silence and in the greatest perturba- 
 tion ; then, approaching the place where Lolotte 
 sat pale and motionless, and perceiving the dis- 
 
57^ STURMER. 
 
 may which his words and his manner had oc- 
 casioned her, he, with a powerful effort, sur- 
 mounted his own emotion that he might the 
 more effectually tranquillise hers, and stood be- 
 fore her with folded arms, calm and self-possessed. 
 
 *' In this room, eight years ago,"' he said, in 
 accents so sad and so impressive that they vi- 
 brated to the soul of Lolotte, " the first dawn- 
 ings of love warmed my heart ; here the ro- 
 mance of my life commenced ; and here, on the 
 very same spot, fate has ordained that the crisis 
 that is to terminate it should take place ! 
 Upon that crisis hangs life or death ; — my salva- 
 tion or my perdition; — eternal, I should have 
 said, could I believe, as you do, that God will 
 punish his imperfect creatures hereafter for 
 failing to overcome the passions with which he 
 has endued them, — for not vanquishing the des- 
 tinv which he has allotted to them in this 
 wretched world ! Mine was to love you — " 
 
 " This I must not hear," interposed Lolotte, 
 tremulously. 
 
STURMER. 273 
 
 "Yes, Lolotte, this i/ou must hear !'''' he an- 
 swered. " Let me, once for all, appeal to your 
 heart in my behalf; or, if you have obdurately 
 closed it against me, let me entreat you to con- 
 sult your reason. Ask yourself whether I have 
 not, by my long, long silence, deserved that you 
 should for once hear me to an end without inter- 
 ruption ? " 
 
 Lolotte remained silent, and he proceeded: — 
 " My destiny was to love you ! and could I 
 put faith in sorcery, I should believe that 
 through the agency of that lifeless image,'' 
 pointing to Lolotte's picture, *' a spell had been 
 cast over me to lead to my undoing ; since, in 
 looking upon it, my heart acknowledged by 
 anticipation the mysterious, fatal influence which 
 you alone were to exercise over it, and devoted 
 itself, with the constancy of a martyr, to a wor- 
 ship which was to bring upon me tortures and 
 sacrifices. Could that picture speak, it would 
 tell of the vow breathed before it, when, as I 
 then believed, I looked upon it for the last time. 
 
 N 5 
 
274f STURMER. 
 
 It was the vow of a madman ; but I have kept 
 it, Lolotte ! All this you already know, and 
 I will not repeat what my letter has revealed to 
 you ; but that which you do not know, and which 
 you can never understand, — because you are the 
 creature of sentiment, not of passion, of reflec- 
 tion, not of impulse, — is the suddenness and 
 intensity of the host of feelings which then 
 assailed me, and crowded the sensations of a 
 long life into the space of twenty-four hours ; — 
 admiration, pity, love, expectation, hope, jea- 
 lousy, and despair alternately asserted their 
 sway over me ; but, of those conflicting senti- 
 ments, two only were doomed to survive, and, 
 like evil spirits, to haunt the tenement from 
 which they had driven away every other inmate ! 
 Love and despair took possession of my heart ! 
 Lolotte, in the name of those enduring feelings, 
 and all they have cost me, I now supplicate you !" 
 And again he knelt at her feet, and clasp- 
 ing his hands together fixed his eyes in im- 
 passioned entreaty upon Lolotte's half-averted 
 
STURMER. 275 
 
 face, where the confusion and resentment which 
 had rendered her speechless shewed themselves 
 in burning blushes. 
 
 " If," he continued, " such were the feelings 
 to which the extraordinary circumstances of 
 our first meeting gave birth, judge of what they 
 must have become when, after a lapse of years, 
 we were suddenly thro^^Ti into such intimate 
 contact that every sentiment of your soul be- 
 came as distinctly revealed to me as the linea- 
 ments of your lovely face. It was a glorious 
 and exciting contemplation, but one too peri- 
 lous to be indulged in with impunity ! the beau- 
 ties I there discovered made me almost forget- 
 fiil of the beauties of your matchless person, — 
 passion became exalted into adoration ; — but 
 this, too, I have already told you ; and if I dwell 
 upon it again, it is to shew you that the devo- 
 tion you inspired was no vulgar sentiment, — 
 that it was worthy, as far as human feelings 
 could be, of its incomparable object ! " 
 
 *' Cease, in pity cease !" said Lolotte, faintly 
 
276 STURMER. 
 
 " and in the name of that respect which once 
 taught you to be silent, let me be gone." And 
 she struggled to rise from her chair, but in vain ; 
 her trembling limbs refused to support her ; and 
 unable to fly the peril of listening to words 
 which but too eloquently described the exalted 
 nature of her own sentiments for him who utter- 
 ed them — softened and gratified, despite her 
 efforts to be otherwise, by the intensity of the 
 love she had inspired, yet angry and confounded 
 at the weakness which was creeping over her 
 heart, and leading her to contemplate with 
 complacent tenderness the avowal of that un- 
 hallowed passion, — the irritation of her spirits 
 overcame her efforts to appear coldly and re- 
 provingly calm, and she burst into a passion 
 of tears. 
 
 Long and unrestrainedly she wept ; and as 
 Sturmer gazed upon her flushed cheeks and 
 throbbing temples, which were but half conceal- 
 ed by the small white hands that were spread 
 
STURMER. 277 
 
 before them, tears of tender compassion for 
 the struggHng victim rushed to his own eyes. 
 
 " Oh, my beloved ! " he exclaimed, " how 
 
 often have I thought of the different lot that 
 
 would have awaited us both, here and hereafter, 
 
 had God bestowed upon me the blessing of 
 
 yom* hand ! How would your gentle influence 
 
 have corrected the faults of my character, and 
 
 repaired the errors of my education ! How 
 
 would my devoted love have filled up the 
 
 aching void which the death of those dear 
 
 to you had left in your heart ! My pride and 
 
 my happiness would have been to have given 
 
 up my soul to your guidance. Your God 
 
 should have been my God ; your faith my 
 
 faith ! Such would have been the past ; and 
 
 for the future^ — think you that age could 
 
 have the power to quench the fires of a love 
 
 so pure and holy ? Oh, no ! immortal as our 
 
 souls would be that sacred flame ! and when 
 
 the moment should arrive that summoned 
 
278 STURMER. 
 
 one of us to precede the other into the un- 
 known world beyond the grave, the bitter- 
 ness of death would be softened by the blessed 
 conviction that the same hereafter awaited us 
 both ! " 
 
 Poor Lolotte ! The picture Sturmer had 
 drawn of his devoted tenderness, and of the 
 happiness that might have been theirs had 
 Heaven destined them for each other, con- 
 trasted but too painfully with the apathetic 
 neglect of her husband and the hopeless deso- 
 lation of heart which had been the conse- 
 quence of it ; but more especially the avowal 
 he had made of what her influence might 
 have effected for his immortal interests, could 
 she have been his guide and companion during 
 their earthly pilgrimage, impressed itself upon 
 her heart with painful intensity, and every 
 word he uttered sank deeply there, and called 
 forth regrets which virtue would not have 
 blushed to avow, so unstainedly free were they 
 from the alloy of selfish passions. 
 
STURMER. 279 
 
 " It was not to be," she thought ; '*• it may 
 not, — must not, — never can be ! Then why 
 do my thoughts dwell thus vainly upon a 
 dream ? "^ And raising her eyes with an appeal- 
 ing look to Heaven, she clasped her hands 
 wildly together, and murmured to herself, " O 
 my God ! give me strength to resist the plead- 
 ings of my heart in his favour ! Save me from 
 myself ! '^ 
 
 Sturm er read the emotions of Lolotte''s soul 
 in her eloquent countenance, and remorselessly 
 pursued his advantage over her. 
 
 " It is not too late," he said ; " we may still 
 be happy ; still may we realise that life of 
 love which has been my day-dream for so 
 many years ! and the future, the future pass- 
 ed together (oh, blessed thought ! ) shall indem- 
 nify us for the joyless past. Oh, my Lolotte, 
 does not your heart plead for me — does it 
 not plead for yourself at this moment ? Con- 
 sult but its dictates, and they will forbid you 
 to reject the elements of happiness that are 
 
280 STURMER. 
 
 within our grasp — they will forbid you to 
 inflict despair and death where you might be- 
 stow light and life. Give yourself to me, 
 dearest, best beloved ! mine you have long been 
 in heart and soul, — mine I supplicate you to 
 become voluntarily and unreservedly — mine 
 alone, now and to all eternity ! " 
 
 " I wonder at my patience in suffering you 
 thus to address me ! " said Lolotte, indignation 
 struggling with, and surmounting, the tender- 
 ness which but a moment before had assailed 
 her, and lending fire to her eye and bloom 
 to her cheek. " You presume too far upon 
 the indulgence with which I have treated your 
 request to be heard, and bitterly do you make 
 me repent of having for a moment weakly 
 listened to you. Let me go, sir ! I will hear 
 no more ; your presumption has recalled me 
 to myself I " 
 
 But Sturmer, grasping her dress as she 
 attempted to rise, forcibly detained her ; and 
 while his lips quivered and his eyes flashed 
 
STURMER. 281 
 
 with ill-repressed passion, the efforts he made 
 to master his strong emotion caused his voice 
 to sink almost to a whisper. 
 
 " Lolotte," he said, with that forced calm 
 which is sometimes more terrible to witness 
 than a burst of passion, "upon my knees, and 
 with the desperate energy of one who feels 
 that more than life depends upon your answer, 
 I ask for the only boon that can render exist- 
 ence desirable to me — I supplicate for life 
 at your hands ! for, mark me, dearest, I have 
 sworn it, and again I swear it in your presence, 
 without you I will not live I One word from 
 those dear lips will seal my doom ; to live with 
 you^ or to die for j/om, such is the alternative 
 that hangs upon your breath — speak then, 
 Lolotte ! '' 
 
 She pressed her hands upon her throbbing 
 heart, and sighed convulsively. 
 
 "Retract those dreadful words!" she ex- 
 claimed wildly. " Have mercy upon me ! — 
 oh, have mercy upon yourself, Sturmer !" Then 
 
282 STURMER. 
 
 sinking upon her knees, and raising her clasped 
 hands towards him, she continued in broken 
 accents, " I adjure you by all that is sacred ! — 
 by all that you once respected ! — in the name 
 of God who hears us ! — in the name of honour 
 and virtue, which once spoke to your heart ! — 
 by your hopes of eternal salvation, I adjure 
 you, Sturm er, not to tax my courage beyond its 
 bearing ! Think of what you require of me, — 
 think of what you threaten me with, rash, un- 
 generous man ! and recall the barbarous vow 
 that would force me to choose between ^our 
 death or mi/ own dishonour 1'''^ 
 
 " No, Lolotte ! " he replied, raising her from 
 her knees, and speaking in the same calm de- 
 termined tone, which made her blood freeze 
 with horror, for it sounded like the knell of 
 hope ; "I will not deceive you by revoking 
 what I have said. I am weary of a struggle 
 which has embittered my existence : life, with 
 you for my companion, would have been to me 
 heaven upon earth — a foretaste of the joys of 
 
STURMER. 283 
 
 Paradise ! without you, it becomes a loath- 
 some burthen, under which I have not the 
 courage to toil ; and, therefore, after mature re- 
 flection, I have determined to cast it from me. 
 I did not impart this resolution to you as a 
 threat, but as a warning, to save you from the 
 remorse which I know will overtake you when 
 I am no more, and that you vainly remember 
 how you might have snatched me from death, 
 but would not !" 
 
 " Talk not thus dreadfully of death,'' said 
 Lolotte, shuddering ; " or, if a life must be 
 sacrificed to end this struggle, let it be mine ! 
 Kill my body, Sturmer ; it will be a less cruel 
 deed than to kill my soul." 
 
 '^ You offer me your life, Lolotte ; and yet 
 you refuse me your /oi/e," replied Sturmer bit- 
 terly ; " but it is your love alone that I covet, 
 and that alone will I accept ! On those terms 
 only will I live."" 
 
 " My love ?" said the unhappy Lolotte, 
 speaking to herself, and in the overwrought 
 
284 STURMER. 
 
 state of her feelings, unconscious that she was 
 doing so audibly. " Does he not know that I 
 would not withhold it, could I bestow it upon 
 him without a crime ? but I must not open my 
 heart to him — no, not even to save it from 
 breakinof ! And what does he ask of me ? To 
 forget my mother's precepts ; — to forfeit my 
 hopes of heaven, — to change innocence into 
 guilt, — to become the thing he himself would 
 despise, — to abandon my husband ! — " 
 
 " Your husband is incapable of appreciating 
 the treasure he possesses ; he does not love 
 you, Lolotte !" 
 
 " Sir !" exclaimed Lolotte, starting, and sud- 
 denly restored to a sense of her situation, and 
 to all her self-possession by this remark : " you 
 calumniate my husband ; he loves me, — at all 
 events, I am satisfied with his affection, and I 
 both love and honour him ! '" 
 
 " Now God give me patience ! '*'* cried Stur- 
 mer, stung to the quick by this unexpected 
 declaration, which (although by no means con- 
 
STURMER. 285 
 
 vinced of its truth,) he could not hear from the 
 hps of Lolotte without a jealous pang, which 
 rendered more intolerable the reproof it was 
 intended to convey, and doubled the disap- 
 pointment her last words had inflicted ; for he 
 had watched her previous agonies, her irreso- 
 lution, and her temporary wandering with a 
 fast increasing hope that they were the dying 
 struggles of Principle, and that Passion would 
 triumph, and lead her to surrender herself to 
 him a willing victim at last. But this sudden, 
 proud assertion of her duty confounded his ex- 
 pectations, and transported him almost to frenzy. 
 " Now God give me patience ! for you 
 drive me to desperation ; you force me to dis- 
 closures which, indeed, I came here determined 
 to make, but which I would thankfully, oh, how 
 thankfully ! have receded from, had you al- 
 lowed me. I wished to owe every concession 
 to your love alone, Lolotte, and nothing to the 
 force of circumstances; but now know all P'^ 
 and drawing close to her, and grasping her 
 
286 STURMER. 
 
 hands, to prevent her escaping from him, he, in 
 a voice almost inarticulate from emotion, breath- 
 ed a few low words into her ear. 
 
 Transfixed with horror, no exclamation es- 
 caped the blanched lips of Lolotte, — that dread- 
 ful whisper appeared to have changed her to 
 stone ! 
 
 All his anger vanished, all his good feeling 
 returned during the agonising disclosure ; but 
 that sudden transition from overbearing passion 
 to deepest humility, was lost upon the unhappy 
 Lolotte. A start of dismay had marked her 
 consciousness of his guilt ; but after that, no 
 visible sign shewed that she still heard him, 
 or still saw him near her, until, exhausted by 
 the tumultuous emotions of his desperate avowal, 
 Sturmer cast himself at her feet, and with pas- 
 sionate tears and broken supplications for mercy 
 sought to embrace her knees. That touch ap- 
 peared to restore Lolotte to herself; she shud- 
 dered, and recoiled from it as she would have 
 done from the contact of some noisome reptile, 
 
STURMER. 287 
 
 and rising from her chair removed herself be- 
 yond his reach to the further end of the room, 
 where a door opened into a small cabinet. 
 
 " Approach not ! " she said, in unfaltering 
 accents, and bending upon him a look beneath 
 which his soul quailed ; for although pity was 
 mingled with the indignant sorrow it conveyed, 
 it was pity such as the Accusing Angel may 
 be supposed to exhibit when laying before the 
 Judgment Seat of God the black catalogue of 
 human offences, which its celestial nature can 
 neither comprehend nor stoop to excuse. " ""Tis 
 not that I fear you," she continued, with a 
 gesture of incomparable dignity; "all danger 
 from you is vow at an end. You have indeed, 
 by an act of unequalled treachery, triumphed 
 over this poor perishing clay, which a very 
 few days, at the utmost, must restore to 
 the dust from which it sprang ; but think not 
 that you shall triumph over my immortal spirit, 
 too, and send it stained with guilt into the 
 presence of its Maker ! No ; the avowal of 
 
288 STURMER. 
 
 that dark deed has placed an eternal barrier 
 between us ; it has cured my heart of all its 
 weak delusions ! Do not interrupt me,'*' she 
 continued, seeing that Sturmer was about to 
 speak ; " these are the last words you will 
 ever hear me utter, and I enjoin you to listen 
 to them." 
 
 Subjugated by the solemnity and the collect- 
 edness of her manner, Sturmer mechanically 
 obeyed her, and without pausing she conti- 
 nued. 
 
 " Yes, Sturmer, those weak delusions shall 
 now be acknowledged — / loved you ! how in- 
 tensely, how exclusively I loved you, God who 
 read the struggles of my heart alone knows ! 
 You were to me the best, the noblest, the 
 purest of created beings, the man who wrestled 
 victoriously with a guilty passion and would 
 have preferred death to dishonour ! — the man 
 who sought to vanquish himself, not to vanquish 
 the woman he loved ! That conviction enno- 
 
STURMER. 289 
 
 bled you in my eyes ! — then^ indeed^ you were 
 dangerous to me, and I fled your presence for 
 ever — not to forget you, but to cheat my 
 breaking heart into the belief that its unhal- 
 lowed devotion might be pardoned, for, that 
 in loving you, I worshipped Virtue's self. 
 This was a wicked self-delusion, but it was 
 my last, my only consolation ; I am punished 
 for it — punished through you. You have torn 
 the veil from my eyes, and shewn me the 
 worthlessness of my idol. Sturmer, you have 
 forced me to despise you I may God forgive 
 you the agony with which I pronounce these 
 words ! " She looked upwards for a moment, 
 with clasped hands raised, as if appealing to 
 Heaven for strength to support her through 
 that dreadful trial ; then turning upon him a 
 look of mingled scorn and anguish, " Farewell, 
 Sturmer,'"* she said, " farewell for ever ! — 
 we are separated to all eternity !" and 
 pushing open the door of the cabinet as she 
 
 VOL. I. o 
 
290 STURMER. 
 
 uttered the last words, she disappeared through 
 it. 
 
 Sturmer, who had sprung to his feet when 
 he perceived her intention, rushed forward to 
 arrest her, but only reached the door in time 
 to hear the key turn twice in the lock. 
 He called in frantic accents upon the name 
 of Lolotte, and repeatedly supplicated for ad- 
 mission — no answer was returned ; he knelt 
 and listened at the key-hole — not a sound 
 was heard within ! with one blow he might 
 have burst open the slight door, but he for- 
 bore to commit that outrage ; and finding all 
 his entreaties to be heard ineffectual, he re- 
 turned to the writing-table from which Lo- 
 lotte's entrance had disturbed him, took up 
 the letter he had been writing, and read it 
 over. 
 
 It was the full confession of all that he had 
 just personally communicated to her, — the more 
 coherent, because uninterrupted history of his 
 
STURMER. 291 
 
 love and his guilt, — the passionate exhibition 
 of his wishes and his expectations ! There 
 was not one expression there that could be 
 construed into triumph over her ; he dwelt 
 upon her purity with veneration — her spiri- 
 tualised tenderness for him with adoration — 
 his own madness with remorse and execration ! 
 He did justice to his own purity of intention 
 up to the moment when, in her sleep, Lolotte 
 had surprised him writing her an eternal fare- 
 well, and he joined to his letter the written 
 evidence of her deep devoted affection for him 
 in the paper she had then made the depository 
 of her bosom's secret. But there his self- 
 justification ended ; and he sought only to 
 cover himself with shame, that her spotless 
 virtue might show more bright by the con- 
 trast — to humble himself in the dust before 
 her, that he might raise her upon a pinnacle, 
 alone in her excellence — an object to be knelt 
 to and worshipped — a being endued with all 
 
292 STURMER. 
 
 the tenderness, and none of the frailty of 
 humanity — she, the innocent, the virtuous, 
 the betrayed! — the victim of a treachery as 
 fatal as it had been unpremeditated ! To these 
 he added a few lines, alluding to the agonizing 
 interview he had just had with her, and the 
 severity with which she had thrown him from 
 her for ever ; and, as a last appeal to her 
 mercy, he besought her to reflect for two 
 hours only, before she irrevocably pronounced 
 upon his doom. He would await her answer at 
 a particular part of the Ottowaldergrund, which 
 he designated about half a mile from Lolotte's 
 abode ; and if at the end of that period no 
 mitigating reflections offered themselves to her 
 mind, and induced her to change her stern 
 resolve, he would no longer persecute her with 
 his supplications; but he warned her that she 
 should find upon the threshold of her door 
 the lifeless body of him upon whose heart 
 she had coldly trampled, whose repentance she 
 
STURMER. 293 
 
 had rejected, and whose devotion she had 
 spurned ! If he might not devote his Hfe to 
 atoning for an unpremeditated crime, he would 
 die to expiate it. 
 
 When Sturmer had folded his letter, he left 
 the parlour to seek for Gretchen, that she 
 might carry it to her mistress ; but Gretchen 
 had obtained permission to go and visit her 
 mother at Lohmen, whom she had not seen 
 for several months, and thither she had re- 
 paired as soon as Lolotte had returned from 
 church ; so that finding no person in the house 
 that might do his bidding, Sturmer returned to 
 the locked door ; and, after another vain effort 
 to obtain an answer from within, he slipped his 
 letter underneath it, and with a heavy heart 
 left the house, and walked slowly towards that 
 part of the Ottowaldergrund which he had 
 particularised to Lolotte as the spot where he 
 should await her last decision. In less than 
 half an hour afterwards Franz Moller arrived 
 
294 STURMER. 
 
 in great haste at the garden gate, and without 
 alighting there drove round to the back of 
 the premises, put up his sledge and horse in 
 the coach-house, and walked into the house 
 by the offices. The motive for his unexpected 
 appearance will be exj^lained in the succeeding 
 chapter. 
 
 ExVD OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLET, 
 
 Bangor House, Shoe Lane. 
 
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