"I am going, Eliza," he exclaimed. "Farewell!"
He seized her hand impetuously, imprinted on it a burning kiss before she was able to prevent him, dropped it, and turned to descend the slope with a slow step.
Eliza stood motionless, and as if fascinated; she gazed after him, and followed with an absorbed look his tall, noble form, descending the mountain, surrounded by a halo of sunshine.
All at once Ulrich stood still and turned to her. "Eliza," he shouted, "did you call me? Shall I return to you?"
She shook her head and made a violent gesture indicating that he should not return, but said nothing; the words choked in her breast.
He waved his hand to her, turned again, and continued descending the slope.
Eliza looked after him; her face turned paler and paler, and her lips quivered more painfully. Once they opened as if to call him back with a cry of anguish and love; but Eliza, pressing her hand violently upon her mouth, forced the cry back into her heart, and gazed down on Ulrich's receding form.
Already he had descended half the slope; now he reached the edge of the forest, and alas! disappeared in the thicket.
Eliza, uttering a loud cry, knelt down, and tears, her long- restrained, scalding tears, streamed like rivers down her cheeks. She lifted her arms, her clasped bands, to heaven, and murmured with quivering lips: "Protect him, my God, for Thou knowest how intensely I love him!"
She remained a long time on her knees, weeping, praying, struggling with her grief and her love. But then all at once she sprang to her feet, brushed the tears from her eyes, and drew a deep breath.