Then he sank upon the table and sobbed.
How glad I felt that I had been able to move him.
Soon he raised his tear-stained face, stood up, came to me, embraced and kissed me.
"You have conquered!—Now tell me what else you want with me?"
I was incapable of uttering a word, so oppressed was my heart in my delight, my anguish. It was no child's play, this. Fate is not wont to entrust such a struggle to a child's hands.
"Brother, dear!" more I could not say: I felt as he must have when he brought me up from the bottom of the Danube.
"You will not allow anyone," he whispered, "to utter such a calumny against me."
"You may be sure of that."
"You will not let them degrade me before mother?"
"I shall defend you. You see that after all I am capable of defending you.—But time is precious:—they are prosecuting you for another crime too, you know, from which to escape is a duty. There is not a moment to lose. Fly!"