Eliza interrupted him by singing with a smiling air, and in a merry, ringing voice:
"Und a Bisserle Lieb' und a Bisserle Treu'
Und a Bisserle Falschheit ist all'zeit dabei!"
[Footnote:
"And a bit of love, and a bit of truth,
And a bit of falsehood, make life, forsooth!">[
"No, no falsehood," cried Ulrich, "only the irksome, terrible necessity, the—"
The loud crash of a rifle, finding an oft-repeated echo in the mountains, interrupted him. Eliza uttered a cry of dismay and jumped up.
"Jesus Maria!" she murmured in a low voice, "it is the signal. It has commenced!"
"What! What has commenced?" asked the young man, in surprise.
Eliza looked at him with confused and anxious eyes. "Nothing, oh, nothing at all," she said, in a tremulous voice. "Only—I mean"—she paused and looked with fixed attention down on the large place. She distinctly saw the groups moving rapidly to and fro, and then pouring with furious haste through the streets.
"They are coming up here," she murmured; and her eyes turned toward the wing of the castle on the side of the balcony, where the Bavarian soldiers had their quarters. The latter, however, apparently did not suspect the imminent danger. They were sitting at the windows and smoking or cleaning their muskets and uniforms. Eliza could hear them chatting and laughing in perfect tranquillity.
"Well, Eliza, beautiful, cruel girl," asked Ulrich von Hohenberg, "will you tell me what has suddenly excited you so strangely?"