"Leo," said Waldemar, earnestly, "if you had not exasperated me so terribly, I should not have told you the news in that abrupt way. You drove me beyond bounds with that fatal word."
"Be satisfied; my mother has given it me back. It is I who am the traitor--the coward. I had to listen and be silent."
There was something most unnatural in this rigid, dull calm, contrasting so strongly with the young man's usual fiery impetuosity. That one half-hour seemed to have altered his whole nature.
"Follow me," urged Waldemar. "For the present you must remain at the Castle."
"No, I shall go over to W---- at once. I must know what has become of my uncle and the rest."
"For God's sake, do nothing so rash," exclaimed the elder brother, in great alarm. "What, you would be mad enough to cross the frontier now, in broad daylight? It would be neither more nor less than suicide."
"I must," persisted Leo. "I know the place where I can cross. I found the way this morning, and I can find it a second time."
"And I tell you, you cannot get across. The sentinels on our side have been doubled since the morning, and over the border there is a treble line to pass. Orders are out to shoot down any one who does not give the watchword--and, in any case, you would arrive too late. At W---- the fate of the day has been decided long ere this."
"No matter," broke out Leo, suddenly passing from his torpor to a state of wildest desperation. "There will still be some fighting--one other encounter, and I want no more. If you knew how my mother has maddened me with her fearful words! She must feel that if my men have been lost through fault of mine, I shall have to bear all the curse, the hell of knowing it. She should have been merciful, instead of ... Oh, God! Yet she is my mother, and for so long I have been all in all to her!"
Waldemar stood by, deeply moved at this outbreak of grief. "I will call Wanda," he said at last. "She will ..."