"Yes, it must be done; but how?—alas!—how: I am indeed wretched!"
"Then Iris is nothing with you?" said the young girl, with great bitterness.
The princess was struck with it, and replied kindly,—
"Yes, my dear child, I can tell all to you, and that is consolation to me."
At this moment a solemn, sonorous, and powerful sound, full of sweetest harmony, but rendered faint by the distance, reached the ears of the two women. It was the notes of an organ, touched with an exquisite finger and saddened expression.
At these tones the princess shuddered, and then cried,—
"Ah, 'tis he! He is still watching. Ah! Now, my head is so weak that the sound of this organ appears to me fearful and supernatural; they are not the sounds of this instrument I hear, but the mysterious voices of an invisible world replying to the prince who questions them. Oh, mercy, mercy! it terrifies me!"
By a singular chance, and as if the entreaty of the princess were heard, the sound of the organ slowly died away in the silence of the night, like a complaint that gradually subsides.
"This conversation overpowers me. I tremble all over," said Paula.
"You must go to bed, godmother."