With hasty steps they crossed over to the great linden tree which stood at the side of the road.  The birds sang and hopped about amid its dense foliage, and the hot sunbeams drew forth the most delicious fragrance from the blossoms with which each branch was laden.  But the pair who walked up and down under the tree heeded neither the singing of the birds nor the perfume of the flowers.  They were alone with one another and the sad, gloomy thoughts with which both their souls were filled.

“Gabriel,” said Rebecca, recovering breath, “I will go to free you from the stain of blood, for if it remain it would not merely poison the Electoral Prince but your whole life.  My father gave you only the half of my dowry, as he called it.  The other half he retained and gave me.  After he had presented you with the poison, and I was alone with him in his chamber, he held out to me the sacred volume, and required me to take three oaths, by the memory of my murdered mother and by the hatred and revenge which we had sworn to the whole world upon her beloved body.  First, I must swear that I would never abjure the faith of my fathers and become a Christian.  Secondly, I must swear that I would rear the child that God would give me in our own religion, and never while I lived consent to its being made a Christian.  Thirdly, I must swear to preserve the sealed packet he intrusted to me as my greatest treasure, my most precious possession, and only to tell you of it in case of the most extreme danger and necessity; that I was only to make use of the contents to purchase wealth or happiness.  ’I have given death into your dear Gabriel’s hand,’ he said, ’into your hand, my daughter, I give life, and surely that is something much more rare and precious.  He has the poisons; I give you the antidotes.  They are worth tons of gold; they are my most precious treasure, and twenty years have I labored ere I discovered them.  When I succeeded, I thanked God for this glorious discovery, and then thrice I swore upon the sacred volume, with my face turned to the East and with loud voice, that never should a Christian obtain these priceless antidotes through me, that never would I impart knowledge of them to a Christian.  I will keep my oath, and divulge the holy secret only to you, my Rebecca.  Guard it in your bosom under three sacred seals, and only in the most perilous hour of your life break the seal, which I herewith lay upon your lips.  But never may you transfer this precious treasure to other hands; no Christian may ever touch it.  Would you save life, then you must do it yourself, and only from your own hands may the one smitten with death receive life.’

“Those were the words spoken by my father, when he handed me the sealed packet.  Then he instructed me how to apply the contents, and what I would have to do in order to render ineffective the three poisons given you.  ‘Only,’ said he to me,’ the antidote must be administered before four-and-twenty hours have elapsed since the poison was swallowed, and then, still twenty-four hours later, the antidote must be used for the second time.’  Gabriel, my best-beloved, now is the most perilous hour of my life, and I have loosened the seal which my father pressed upon my lips.  I have the antidote for the inflammatory powder.”