"I can guess then. From the top of this tower you can look into a certain park and over a certain pavilion."
"No, Trenck; the house you speak of is behind those woods and that hill, and cannot be seen from here."
"But you can go thither from this place in a few moments, and can again take refuge here if troublesome people watch you. Well, now, acknowledge that just as I met you in the room, you were——"
"I can acknowledge nothing, dear Trenck, and you promised not to question me."
"True, I should think of nothing except of rejoicing at having found you in this immense park, or rather forest, where I had lost my way, and but for you must have thrown myself into some picturesque ravine, or been drowned in some limpid stream. Are we far from the castle?"
"More than a quarter of a league."
"The old castle does not please me as well as the new one, I confess, and can see well enough why they yield it up to the bats. I am glad, however, I find myself alone with you at such a mournful time and hour. It reminds me of our first meeting amid the ruins of an abbey in Silesia—my initiation—the oaths I took with my hands in yours, for then you were my judge, my examiner, my master, but now are my brother and my friend. Dear Albert! what strange and miserable vicissitudes have passed over our heads since that day! Both dead to our families, our countries, our loves, perhaps. What will become of us? and what henceforth will be our life among men?"
"Yours may yet be surrounded by éclat and intoxication. The dominions of the tyrant who hates you, thank God, do not cover all the soil of Europe."
"But my mistress, Albert? Will she be always faithful to me—eternally but uselessly faithful?"
"You should not desire it, my friend; but it is certain that her passion will be durable as her sorrow."