"No, no, Karl, I wish to know all. I can hear all."
"Ah, I know you, signora. You will blame me. I remember Roswald, where you prevented me from——"
"Karl, your silence would distress me cruelly. Speak, I beseech you. I wish you to do so."
"Well, signora, it is a misfortune; but if it be a sin, it rests on me alone. As I was passing beneath a low arch in the boat with you and as I was going very slowly and had come to the end of it, I was seized by three men, who took me by the throat, and sprang into the boat. I must tell you that the person who travels with us, and is one of us, was imprudent enough to give two-thirds of the sum to Nauteuil, as we passed the postern. Nauteuil, thinking, beyond doubt, that he should be satisfied and could get the rest by betraying us, had posted himself with two good-for-nothing fellows of the sort to seize us. That is the reason beyond doubt, why they sought to murder us. Your friend, however, signora, is a lion in combat, peaceable as he seems I will remember him for many a day. By two twists of his arms he threw the first into the water; the second became afraid and leaped back on the bridge, looking on the result of my contest with the adjutant. I did not manage as well as his lordship, whose name I do not know. It lasted half a minute, and the affair does me no credit, for Nauteuil, who usually is as strong as a bull, appeared stiff and enfeebled, as if the wound of which he spoke annoyed him. At last, feeling him let go, I just dipped his feet in the water. His lordship then said, 'Do not kill him, it is useless.' I had recognised him, however, and was aware how well he could swim. Besides, I had fell his gripe, and had some old accounts to settle with him, and I could not refrain from giving him a blow on the head with my fist. Never again will he give or take another. May God have mercy on his soul and mine! He went down in the water like a flounder, and did not rise again, any more than if he had been marble. The other fellow whom his lordship had sent on a similar excursion, had made a dive, and had already reached the bank, where his companion, the most prudent of the three, helped him out. This was not easy, the bank at that place being so narrow that there was not a good footing, and the two went into the water together. While they were thus contending together, and swearing, as they enjoyed their swimming party, I rowed away, and soon came to a place where a second oarsman, a fisherman by trade, had promised to be in waiting and help me by a stroke or two to cross the pond. It was very well, signora, that I took it into my head to play the sailor on the gentle waters of Roswald. I did not know, when I rehearsed the part before you, that I would one day for your sake participate in a naval battle not so magnificent but much more serious. All this passed over my mind as I was on the water, and I could not help laughing like a fool—disagreeably, too. I did not make any noise, at least I did not hear myself, but my teeth chattered. I had an iron hand on my throat, and the sweat, cold as ice, ran over my brow. I then saw that a man is not killed like a fly. He was not the first one, however, for I have been a soldier, and at war one fights. Instead of that, in a corner there, behind a wall, it looked like a premeditated murder. Yet it was a legitimate case of self-defence. You remember, signora, without you I would have done it, but I do not know if I would not have repented afterwards. One thing is sure, I had an awful laughing fit on the pool; and now I cannot help it, for it was so strange to stick the fellow in the ditch, like a twig planted in a vase, after I had crushed his head with my fist. Mercy! how ugly he was! I see him now!"
Consuelo, fearing the effect of this terrible emotion on Karl, overcame her own feelings, and attempted to soothe and calm him. Karl by nature was calm and mild, as a Bohemian serf naturally is. The tragical life into which fate had thrown him was not made for him. He accomplished acts of energy and revenge, yet suffered the horror of remorse. Consuelo diverted him from his moody thoughts, perhaps to change her own. She also had armed herself on that night to slay. She had struck a blow, and had shed the blood of an impure victim. An upright and pious mind cannot approach the thought or conceive the resolution of homicide, without cursing and deploring the circumstances which place honor and life under the safeguard of the poniard. Consuelo was terror-stricken, and did not dare to say that her liberty was worth the price she had paid for it. It had cost the life of a man—a guilty one, it is true.
"Poor Karl," said she, "we have played the executioner to-night. It is terrible! but console yourself with the idea that we have neither foreseen nor determined on what fate exacted. Tell me about the nobleman who has toiled so generously to rescue me. Do you know him?"
"Not at all, signora. I never saw him before, and do not even know his name."
"Whither does he take us?"
"I do not know, signora. He forbade me to ask; and I was ordered to say that if on the route you made any attempt to ascertain where you are, and whither you are going, he would be forced to leave you. It is certain that he wishes us well, and I have made up my mind to be treated like a child."
"Have you seen his face?"