“So soon! so soon! so suddenly—­oh! it is he!” Adelheid, alarmed at the violence of Christine’s feelings, was quite at a loss to account for them, when the relapsed grasp and the dying voice showed that her friend had fainted.  Sigismund was one of the first to come to the assistance of his sister, who was soon restored to consciousness by the ordinary applications.  In order to effect the cure she was borne to a rock at some little distance from the rest of the party, where none of the other sex presumed to come, with the exception of her brother.  The latter staid but a moment, for a stir in the little party at the bone-house induced him to go thither.  His return was slow, thoughtful, and sad.

“The feelings of our poor Christine have been unhinged, and she is too easily excited to undergo the vicissitudes of a journey” observed Adelheid, after having announced the restoration of the sufferer to her senses; “have you seen her thus before?”

“No angel could be more tranquil and happy than my cruelly treated sister was until this last disgrace;—­you appear ignorant yourself of the melancholy truth?”

Adelheid looked her surprise.

“The dead man is he who was so lately intended to be the master of my sister’s happiness, and the wounds on his body leave little doubt that he has been murdered.”

The emotion of Christine needed no further explanation.

“Murdered!” repeated Adelheid, in a whisper.

“Of that frightful truth there can be no question.  Your father and our friends are now employed in making the examinations which may hereafter be useful in discovering the authors of the deed.”

“Sigismund?”

“What wouldst thou, Adelheid?”

“Thou hast felt resentment against this unfortunate man?”

“I deny it not:  could a brother feel otherwise?”

“But now—­now that God hath so fearfully visited him?”

“From my soul I forgive him.  Had we met in Italy, whither I knew he was going—­but this is foolish.”

“Worse than that, Sigismund.”

“From my inmost soul I pardon him.  I never thought him worthy of her whose simple affection, were won by the first signs of his pretended into rest; but I could not wish him so cruel and sudden an end.  May God have mercy on him, as he is pardoned by me!”

Adelheid received the silent pressure of the hand which followed with pious satisfaction.  They then separated, he to join the group that was collected around the body, and she to take her station again near Christine.  The former, however, was met by the Signor Grimaldi, who urged his immediate departure with the females for the convent, promising that the rest of the travellers should follow as soon as the present melancholy duty was ended.  As Sigismund had no wish to be a party in what was going on, and there was reason to think his sister would be spared much pain by quitting the spot, he gladly acquiesced in the proposal.  Immediate steps were taken for its accomplishment.