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thing on which it had caught. Common politeness required that he should offer his aid, and as he stooped in the performance of this little service, she whis pered, "Nine to-night:-in the mean time, do not condemn, but pity."

Then, turning to him with a gracious curtsy of thanks for his assistance, she quitted the saloon attended by all the ladies, and soon after his Majesty dismissed the nobles not attached to his personal suite.

CHAPTER VIII.

"Ah, Madam! ask the life-blood from my heart! Ask all, but what a soldier may not give.”

Joanna Baillie.

As young Vallenstein was ascending the step of his carriage, he was somewhat surprised to find himself delayed by the formal Baron Erdenheïm.

"Do not take it amiss, Count," said he, “if, although, in my official capacity, as things stand at present, I cannot with propriety show you the respect I could wish in public, I venture to express a hope that you will sometimes honour the hotel Erdenheim with your presence, as the friend of my late nephew, Wilhelm of Marchfeldt. I am, it is true, an old courtier, but I have not divested myself of certain home-born feelings."

Vallenstein was half pleased, half in

dignant, at this most unexpected solicitation.

"But, my Lord," said he, hesitating, "the Emperor,-he may not approve." "Oh," replied the Baron, frankly, "I have his gracious permission. After God, I owe my duty to my Imperial Master, and had he not sanctioned my invitation, whatever regret it might have caused me, I should have stifled my inclination to acknowledge your kindness to my nephew as an inferior consideration."

There was something in the naïve confession of the old courtier that won the esteem of Vallenstein-still he paused.

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"Come," said the Baron, sup with me to-morrow, for the sake of him who is gone, and whom we both loved. You shall meet his sister, the lovely heiress of Marchfeldt. When I was as young as you are, I could not have turned from such a bait."

Vallenstein hesitated no longer, but bowed compliance; and, his heart oppressed by many feelings, most of them bitter, he drove home, attended by his pompous retinue.

Happily Desmond was absent, and he had time to compose his spirits, and to consider what might be related and what must be concealed. Willingly would he have reposed every thought in the breast of his affectionate and sensible friend, for he felt the whole burthen somewhat overweighed his own; but he was dif fident of his right to make the transfer. Having now leisure to think without interruption, and an opportunity for the calm examination of his own position, he was not long in arriving at the conclusion, that it was one he could not maintain, and whose peculiar and appropriate mortifications and penances he could not, would not endure.

"I love, said he, striking his aching forehead, "love passionately, without a hope of exciting a mutual feeling. I am

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denied the means of aspiring even to the esteem of the woman, who unjustly and ungratefully refuses me her affection. I am placed before her an object of humilia- ́ tion and neglect. For my Imperial Master, above all, for the fascinating partner of his cares, what task of honour could they propose to me, however arduous, which I would not execute, or die in the failure! But to be made the victim of a cruel policy, to stand amid their fawning treacherous courtiers as a scarce tolerated being; one whom it required more than courtly courage to notice-by Heaven, it is too much! No, never will I a second time be subject to such insult. I will stand in my own place; L will speak my own language, and assert the inherent nobleness of my own nature in the face of these masqueraders.. This night I will take leave of my sovereigns; I will show them the inside of a manly heart, and then,―adieu, for ever, to courts!"

When Desmond returned, he found

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