"Yes," said Meri, "he wears a talisman, but it is not the copper ring that the people speak of—it is his exalted human heart which gives up everything for what is good and noble on earth. When he was still very young, and had not yet acquired fame or renown, he only possessed his blonde hair, his high brow, and his mild blue eyes. Then he wore no amulet, and yet blessing and love and happiness walked by his side. All the angels in Heaven and all human beings on earth loved him."
Regina's eyes glistened with tears.
"Did you see him when he was young?" she asked.
"Did I see him! yes."
"And you have loved him like all the others?"
"More than all the others, lady."
"And you love him still?"
"Yes, I love him much. Like you; but you would kill him and I would die for him."
Regina sprang up, burst out weeping, clasped Meri in her arms and kissed her.
"Do not think that I would kill him. Oh, Holy Virgin, I would a thousand times give my life to save his! But you do not know, Meri. It is an anguish that you cannot understand, it is a fearful conflict when one loves a man, a hero, the personification of the highest and grandest in life, and yet is commanded by a Holy Faith to hate this man, to kill him, to persecute him to the grave. You do not know, happy one, who only needs to love and bless, what it means to be tossed between love and hate, like a ship on the mighty waves; to be obliged to curse one whom you bless in your heart, to sit within the walls of a prison a prey to the battling emotions which incessantly struggle for mastery in your innermost soul. Ah! that was the night, when I tried to reconcile my love with my faith, and bring him, the mighty one, to the way of salvation. If the saints had then allowed my weak voice to convince him of his error ... Then poor Regina would have followed him with joy as his humblest servant through all his life, and received in her own breast all the lances and balls that sought his heart. But the saints did not grant me—unworthy being—so great an honour, and therefore I now sit here a prisoner on account of my faith and my love; and if an angel broke down the walls of my prison and said to me, 'Fly, your country again awaits you,' I would answer: 'It is his will, the beloved; for his sake I suffer, for his sake I remain,' and yet you believe that I wish to kill him."