"Oh, my Lady, I am glad."
"Are you, Hilda?" cried the girl, embracing her. "So am I. Now let us forget our mutual grief in our mutual joy. Walk with me along this promenade, here in the moonlight, and tell me about it. Where did you meet, and what did he say to you? Do lovers talk the same language all the world over? I believe they do; a language understood only by themselves, and untranslatable to others. What did he tell you, Hilda?"
"I do not remember, my Lady," said Hilda, as they walked together up and down; Hilda with drooping head. "We met, and were with each other, and seemed to want nothing more, and the words did not matter. Sometimes he said the moon shone brightly, or, in the darkness, that the stars twinkled, and yet I knew he was speaking of me and not of the moon or the stars, and that I was thinking of him!"
"Yes," said Tekla, with a sigh, "the moon shines and the stars twinkle and we think how beautiful they are, but that is because he is here, for now the moon shines as brightly for others, perhaps, but not for us, because he is absent, and we see none of the former beauty in the shining, but only the brilliant loneliness; the empty night."
Hilda glanced timorously about her when her lady spoke of the night, for the events of the evening had so unnerved her that even the thought of her rescued lover could not turn her mind from the dangers which surrounded them. Everything seemed peaceful, but everything had seemed peaceful when Conrad was suddenly pounced upon, and all but hanged. She shuddered and said tremblingly:
"Is it safe for us to walk thus conspicuously on the battlements? Is it not dangerous?"
"Dangerous?" cried the Countess, clasping her hands, and gazing with rapture along the promenade. "It is the most dangerous spot on earth, Hilda, and the most delicious."
"Then let us leave it, my Lady. An archer might mark us out, for the enemy are doubtless lingering near, although unseen by us."
"It is too late, Hilda. An archer has already marked me out and has shot me through the heart, all on these battlements, yet I cared little, for I had been mortally wounded before."