“Theobald is living!” said Arnold, lifting towards heaven his eyes filled with tears.  “O, who will make it known to his wife and children?”

Ethbert.  Your father, my lord, commissioned the captain who brought you here, to inform them of his safety; but she is still ignorant of the asylum of her husband.

“And where is he?” asked Arnold.

Ethbert turns, and pointing to one side of the chamber, says, “Behind that wall, my lord—­Theobald is in your father’s bed.”

Arnold clasped his hands, praying, and blessing God.  Erard, who had just entered softly, approached him, and said to him, with tenderness, “Good papa, have you slept well?  It is I, papa!—­It is your little Erard!  Will you not embrace me?”

“O, my son,” said Arnold, placing one hand upon the shoulder of his child, “if you knew how good the Lord is!”

“O, yes, dear papa,” said Erard; “God is good—­since he has preserved you.”

“And he has also preserved Theobald,” added the father.

“Theobald, papa!—­the cavalier who was dead! and whom grandpapa, by the goodness of God restored!  Do you know him?”

Erard looked at Ethbert, as if to know whether he might continue; and his father, who saw this look, said to him, “Yes, dear child—­I know him; and I know that God has confided him to our care.  O, Erard, remember that even an enemy has a claim on our love.”

“Yes, dear papa,” continued the child, “and, like the good Samaritan, we should love him and bind up his wounds.  Papa, that is what grandpapa did the other night, in the wood.  O, if you knew how afraid I was at first!  Think, papa—­a dead man!—­blood!

“But now this chevalier is so good to me!  I have just been to see him with Matthew; and he wept as he embraced me.”

“Theobald wept, and embraced you, my son!” asked the father.

Erard.  Yes, dear papa; and even said to me, placing his hand on my head, “May the God of thy father bless thee, and make thee resemble him!”

Arnold, (much affected.) Erard, did he say that to you?

Erard.  Yes, dear papa; and when I was coming away, he called me back, and giving me this flower, said to me, “Erard, go to your father and tell him that Theobald sent this:”  and he wept much.  Here it is, dear papa.  I did not dare to give it to you at first, because I did not know whether Ethbert——­

“Embrace me, my child,” said Arnold; “and go, and tell my good father, that I entreat him to come to me.”

Erard.  O, dear papa, grandpapa would have come before—­but he went away in the night, with two servants, in a carriage.

Arnold.  My father went away in the night, Erard!  And do you know, and can you tell me where he is gone?

Erard.  No, papa.  Only he said, when he set out—­for I was awake and heard him—­“Go by way of the heath.”

“He is then gone to Waldhaus,” said Ethbert; “since the heath is on the direct road to the chateau.”