"Juliane, have you lost your tongue?" said I. "Speak, girl—Ernestine is ill—ill, my God! and I am to sail in an hour!"
Regardless of all etiquette in the excitement of the moment, I rushed up-stairs to her chamber, and knocked. There was no reply. My heart beat violently as I entered; there was no one within, and every thing bore marked evidence of confusion, and a hurried departure. A wardrobe with its drawers stood open—ransacked and in disorder; a letter, addressed to me, lay upon the table.
My brain became giddy; Prudentia had left me just in the same manner; but I thought not of her then, as I snatched up the letter and tore it open.
"Forgive me, dearest Philip," it ran; "forgive me the step I have taken—to leave this island; it is a course I have long contemplated, but lacked the spirit to put in execution, until this day at noon, when a faithful messenger in a small vessel arrived from our father to say, that he is dying in Holstein, and cannot depart from this world in peace unless he beholds us once again. You know how he loves Gabrielle and me. Could we remain after a request so touching and so terrible? Beg the good queen to pardon us. Moreover, Gabrielle is ill; and I know that a change of scene alone can cure her. The vessel we sail with is a Dantzic dogger, with two large sails. Should you see her in the Sound, do say one prayer for us; and, until we meet again, farewell, dearest Philip, and believe me your own
"ERNESTINE."
"Nyekiöbing, March 28th."
I remembered the little craft I had seen tacking out of the Sound, and my heart sank as, with a feeling of bitterness and desolation, I descended to the castle-yard, where old Torquil Gorm, our pipe-major, was playing the gathering, strutting to and fro with his helmet on, and the long ribands streaming from his drones.
"Dioul! my kinsman—accoutre! accoutre!" exclaimed Ian, rushing after me with his cuirass half buckled; "hark to the gallant war-pipe! Mars and Bellona require new victims. And what do you think Heinrich Vug (the warder whose wife was carried off by the fairies) has just told me?"
"Oh, Ian, do not talk to me," said I; "my mind is a chaos! I am a fit companion only for madmen. But what did Heinrich tell you?"
"That our old friend Bandolo has been seen in the Sound by Fynböe the pilot, on board of a dogger with two large sails—the same we passed near Skeilbye."