"Have we much further to go?" she asked Walpurga.
Fear again seized her. If Irma were dead! If it were too late for the meeting that would free them both!--She pressed her hand to her throbbing heart, as if it too must cease to beat when the heart up there had ceased to live. In her mind's eye, she beheld Irma, as if glorified and transfigured, while she herself seemed so pitifully small.
"We'll soon be there," said Walpurga.
A voice above was heard, calling:
"Walpurga!"
The sound was echoed again and again from the mountains.
"That's my husband," said Walpurga to the queen, and, in an equally loud voice, she called out:
"Hansei!"
He answered again from above.
Hansei drew near, and when he saw the grand gentlemen, the ladies on horseback, and the liveried servants, he took off his hat and passed his hand over his eyes, as if to satisfy himself that he saw aright.