'Run away!' cried the girl passionately. 'I beseech you by our love, run away. Nobody watches you just now, take the best horse, and in a couple of hours you will be in Bohemia.'
'Yes, and to-morrow the Austrians would catch me.'
'Then flee to Prussia, to Holland, to France,' said the girl wildly.
'I have no means,' answered Watzdorf, 'and what is worse the charm of life is lost to me. There is no happiness for me. Frances--do not forget me--and avenge me. You will become that man's wife, be his executioner--'
Watzdorf looked into her eyes; they shone with love.
'Should you not see me to-morrow at the court, it will mean that I am lost,' he continued. 'I have a presentiment of which I cannot get rid.'
'But what reasons have you to suspect this?'
'An hour ago I found everything upside down in my room; the lackey has disappeared. Farewell,' he said with a voice full of emotion. 'You will live, I shall die between four gloomy walls. Frances, I beseech you, drop a handkerchief for a souvenir. I shall carry it on my heart; looking at it my grief will be less painful.'
The girl dropped the handkerchief: Watzdorf stooped, picked it up, and hid it in his bosom.
'Thank you,' said he. 'One moment more, and I shall not see your eyes again. Farewell, Frances, addio, my sweetest!'