“Perhaps you forget that Count Ammiani is a perfect swordsman, Anna.”

“Weisspriess remembers it for me, perhaps;—­is that your idea, Lena?”

“He might do so profitably.  You have thrown him on two swords.”

“Merely to provoke the third.  He is invincible.  If he were not, where would his use be?”

“Oh, how I loathe revenge!” cried Lena.

“You cannot love!” her sister retorted.  “That woman calling herself Vittoria Campa shall suffer.  She has injured and defied me.  How was it that she behaved to us at Meran?  She is mixed up with assassins; she is insolent—­a dark-minded slut; and she catches stupid men.  My brother, my country, and this weak Weisspriess, as I saw him lying in the Ultenthal, cry out against her.  I have no sleep.  I am not revengeful.  Say it, say it, all of you! but I am not.  I am not unforgiving.  I worship justice, and a black deed haunts me.  Let the wicked be contrite and washed in tears, and I think I can pardon them.  But I will have them on their knees.  I hate that woman Vittoria more than I hate Angelo Guidascarpi.  Look, Lena.  If both were begging for life to me, I would send him to the gallows and her to her bedchamber; and all because I worship justice, and believe it to be the weapon of the good and pious.  You have a baby’s heart; so has Karl.  He declines to second Weisspriess; he will have nothing to do with duelling; he would behold his sisters mocked in the streets and pass on.  He talks of Paul’s death like a priest.  Priests are worthy men; a great resource!  Give me a priests lap when I need it.  Shall I be condemned to go to the priest and leave that woman singing?  If I did, I might well say the world’s a snare, a sham, a pitfall, a horror!  It’s what I don’t think in any degree.  It’s what you think, though.  Yes, whenever you are vexed you think it.  So do the priests, and so do all who will not exert themselves to chastise.  I, on the contrary, know that the world is not made up of nonsense.  Write to Weisspriess immediately; I must have him here in an hour.”

Weisspriess, on visiting the ladies to receive their congratulations, was unprepared for the sight of his letter to Carlo Ammiani, which Anna thrust before him after he had saluted her, bidding him read it aloud.  He perused it in silence.  He was beginning to be afraid of his mistress.

“I called you Austria once, for you were always ready,” Anna said, and withdrew from him, that the sung of her words might take effect.

“God knows, I have endeavoured to earn the title in my humble way,” Weisspriess appealed to Lena.

“Yes, Major Weisspriess, you have,” she said.  “Be Austria still, and forbear toward these people as much as you can.  To beat them is enough, in my mind.  I am rejoiced that you have not met Count Ammiani, for if you had, two friends of mine, equally dear and equally skilful, would have held their lives at one another’s mercy.”