"It is I. I have come to seek you."
"Who is it?" he demanded sternly, recognizing the voice; "Katharina or Themire?"
"Katharina—Katharina; it is Katharina," stammered the trembling woman, looking pleadingly up into his forbidding face.
"And why have you come here?"
"I came to bring you this," she replied, holding toward him the steel casket.
"Where is Marie?"
"She is safe—with the Marquis d'Avoncourt."
"What?" exclaimed Vavel, in amazement, flinging his carbine on the ground. "Cambray—d'Avoncourt—here?"
"Yes; he is at the Nameless Castle, and Marie is with him."
"After all, there is a God in heaven!" with deep-toned thankfulness ejaculated Ludwig. Then he added: "Oh, Katharina, how I have suffered because of—Themire!"