With calm indifference she now began to speak of trifling things, and listened kindly to all Ernestine related.  There was, however, a certain solemnity in her movements, in her smile, in every word she uttered; her eyes turned from time to time with an indescribable expression to heaven, and anxious, alarmed sighs fell trembling from her lips.

At last the long and dreary hours of the evening were over.  It was night.  Amelia could dismiss her maids and be once more alone.  They brought the spirit-lamp, upon which stood the vessel containing the steaming mixture for her eyes; she directed them to place it near, and go quietly to sleep.  She would undress herself and read a while before she went to bed.  She embraced Fraulein von Haak, and charged her to sleep peacefully.

“You have promised,” whispered Ernestine, lightly, “you will live!”

“I will live, for Trenck will one day need me.  Goodnight!”

She kissed Ernestine upon the brow and smiled upon her till the door closed—­then pressed the bolt forward hastily, and rushed forward to the large mirror, which reflected her image clearly and distinctly.  With a curious expression she contemplated her still lovely, youthful, and charming image, and her lips lightly whispered, “Farewell, thou whom Trenck loved!  Farewell, farewell!” she greeted her image with a weary smile, then stepped firmly to the table, where the mixture hissed and bubbled, and the dangerous steam ascended.

The next morning loud shrieks and groans were heard in the bedroom of the princess.  Amelia’s maids had come to arrange her toilet, and found her stretched upon her couch, with disfigured face, with bloody eyes, which, swollen and rigid, appeared almost torn from their sockets!  They ran for the physician, for the queen, for the king; all was confusion, excitement, anguish.

Ernestine knelt weeping by the bed of the princess, and implored her to say what frightful accident had so disfigured her.  Princess Amelia was incapable of reply!  Her lips were convulsively pressed together; she could only stammer out a few inarticulate sounds.

At last Heckel arrived, and when he saw the inflamed, swollen face, the eyeballs starting from their sockets, and then the vessel containing the powerful mixture upon the table, he was filled with horror.

“Ah, the unhappy!” murmured he; “she did not regard my warning.  She drew too near the noxious vapor, and it has entered not only her eyes but her windpipe; she will suffer much, and never be wholly restored!”

Amelia understood these words, which were addressed to Fraulein von Haak, and a horrible wild laugh burst from her bloody, skinless lips.

“Will she recover?” asked Fraulein von Haak.

“She will recover, but her eyes will be always deformed and her voice is destroyed.  I will hasten to the apothecary’s and prepare soothing ointments.”

He withdrew, and now another door opened, and the king entered.  With hasty steps, and greatly excited, he drew near the bed of the princess.  As he looked upon her deformed countenance, her bleeding, rigid eyes, he uttered a cry of horror, and bowed down over his sister.