Rebecca did not reply.  She had sunk upon her knees and folded her hands.  Her lips moved as if in silent prayer.

“What think you?” asked Gabriel Nietzel, after a pause.  “Why do you not speak to me?  Do you despise me, because I have confessed my crime to you?  Do you turn away from the poisoner, the murderer?”

“No,” said she, suddenly drawing herself up erect.  “No, I do not despise you, but I love you, and because I love you I will not that you should be a criminal.  Had you poisoned the count, then I should have said, ’You have accomplished a good work.  God has killed him by your hand; you are nothing more than the executioner, who has inflicted merited death upon the wicked, and has rid the world of him.  Lift up your head and be joyful, for you were a tool in God’s hand!’ But you have poisoned a noble, good man, the son of your benefactress, and his death would cry out against you, and our child would be punished for the crime of his father.  ’For I am a God of vengeance,’ says the Lord, ’and I will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.’  I love you, Gabriel, and no sin or crime could separate me from you; for have you not taken to your heart the daughter of a criminal, and sinned for her sake?  But our child shall not suffer for what his parents have done.  The God of our fathers shall not take vengeance on our child, the sun and happiness shall shine upon him; for we, Gabriel, we have known night and misfortune, and tasted all the bitterness of life.  Gabriel, our child must be free from stain of guilt or crime, and therefore must the Electoral Prince be saved.”

“Say how can it be done, show me a way to save him!”

“I know the way, and I will take it.  I would save you and the child from bloodguiltiness and sin.  Swear to me, Gabriel, that you will do what I shall require of you.  Think of that hour upon the Lido when I gave myself to you.  Think of the hour when this child was born, and I laid it in your arms and said:  ’Take it.  It is a gift of my love.  Take the child with whom God has blessed us, and pronounced us pure!’ And you swore to me with tears that you would be a faithful father to our child all his life, and shield him as far as in you lay from all the pains of earth.  By the memory of that oath I now require you, Gabriel Nietzel, to lay your hand upon my child’s head, and solemnly swear to me, by God, by our child, and by your love for me, to do exactly what I shall now demand of you.”

With reverential, timid admiration Gabriel Nietzel looked into Rebecca’s countenance, which was beaming with energy and beauty.  He could not turn away his glance from her, for it seemed as if his inmost soul was held spellbound by her large, flaming eyes, resting fixedly upon him.  Ever looking at Rebecca, he laid his hand upon the head of the child that lay slumbering in the cradle, and said in a distinct, solemn voice:  “I swear by God, by our child, and by my love for you, Rebecca, that I shall do exactly what you will require of me.”