“Thou seest, Sigismund,” said Adelheid, nearly breathless in the desire to seek an excuse for her own predilections, and to lessen the mental agony he endured—­“thou seest that one gentle and excellent woman, at least, could trust her happiness to thy family.  No doubt she was the daughter of some worthy and just-viewing burgher of the canton, that had educated his child to distinguish between misfortune and crime?”

“She was an only child and an heiress, like thy self, Adelheid;” he answered, looking about him as if he sought some object on which he might cast part of the bitterness that loaded his heart.  “Thou art not less the Beloved and cherished of thine own parent than was my excellent mother of her’s!”

“Sigismund, thy manner is startling!—­What wouldst thou say?”

“Neufchatel, and other countries besides Berne, have their privileged!  My mother was the only child of the headsman of the first.  Thus thou seest, Adelheid, that I boast my quarterings as well as another.  God be praised! we are not legally compelled, however, to butcher the condemned of any country but our own!”

The wild bitterness with which this was uttered, and the energy of his language, struck thrilling chords on every nerve of his listener.

“So many honors should not be unsupported;” he resumed.  “We are rich, for people of humble wishes, and have ample means of living without the revenues of our charge—­I love to put forth our long-acquired honors!  The means of a respectable livelihood are far from being wanted.  I have told you of the kind intentions of my mother to redeem one of her children, at least, from stigma which weighed upon us all, and the birth of a second son enabled her to effect this charitable purpose, without attracting attention.  I was nursed and educated apart, for many years, in ignorance of my birth.  At a suitable age, notwithstanding the early death of my brother, I was sent to seek advancement in the service of the house of Austria, under the feigned name I bear.  I will not tell thee the anguish I felt, Adelheid, when the truth was at length revealed!  Of all the cruelties inflicted by society, there is none so unrighteous in its nature as the stigma it entails in the succession of crime or misfortune:  of all its favors, none can find so little justification, in right and reason, as the privileges accorded to the accident of descent.”

“And yet we are much accustomed to honor those that come of an ancient line, and to see some part of the glory of the ancestor even in the most remote descendant.”

“The more remote, the greater is the world’s deference.  What better proof can we have of the world’s weakness?  Thus the immediate child of the hero, he whose blood is certain, who bears the image of the father in his face, who has listened to his counsels, and may be supposed to have derived, at least, some portion of his greatness from the nearness of his origin, is less a prince than he who has imbibed the current through a hundred vulgar streams, and, were truth but known, may have no natural claim at all upon the much-prized blood!  This comes of artfully leading the mind to prejudices, and of a vicious longing in man to forget his origin and destiny, by wishing to be more than nature ever intended he should become.”