"
"What reason did he give, and what instructions did he lay upon you?"
"He thought you should have by your side some one akin to you. His
instructions were that in no circumstances was I to offer any remark
upon the proceedings. Indeed, I am not allowed to speak unless in answer
to a question directly put to me, and then in the fewest possible
words."
Hildegunde ceased her cross-examination, and seated herself by a window
which gave a view of the steep mountain-side behind the Castle, where,
sheltered by the thick, dark forest, she knew that her guardian's men
lay in ambush. She shuddered slightly, wondering what was the meaning of
these preparations, and in the deep silence became aware of the
accelerated beating of her heart. She felt but little reassured by the
presence of her kinsman, whose lips moved without a murmur, and whose
grave eyes seemed fixed on futurity, meditating the mystery of the next
world, and completely oblivious to the realities of the earth he
inhabited.
She turned her troubled gaze once more to the green forest, and after a
long lapse of time the dual reveries were broken by the entrance of an
official gorgeously appareled.
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