Beside you!

I know the assassin.

Sie.

Gab. (pointing to ULRIC.)

[ULRIC rushes forward to attack GABOR;

SIEGENDORF intcrposes.

Sie. Liar and fiend! but you shall not be slain; These walls are mine, and you are safe within them.

Ulric, repel this calumny, as I

[He turns to ULRIC.

Will do. I avow it is a growth so monstrous,
I could not deem it earth-born: but, be calm;
It will refute itself. But touch him not.

[ULRIC endeavors to compose himself.

Gab. Look at him, Count, and then hear me. (first to GABOR, and then looking et ULRIC.) I hear thee.

Sie.

My God! you look

Ulr.

Sie.

How?

As on that dread night

When we met in the garden.

Ulr. (composes himself.) It is nothing.

Gab. Count, you are bound to hear me. I came hither.

Not seeking you, but sought. When I knelt down

Amidst the people in the church, I dreamed not

To find the beggared Werner in the seat

Of senators and princes; but you have called me,
And we have met.

Allow me to inquire who profited

By Stralenheim's death? Was't I-as poor as ever?--
And poorer by suspicion on my name.

The baron lost in that last outrage neither
Jewels nor gold; his life alone was sought-
A life which stood between the claims of others
To honours and estates scarce less than princely.
Sie. These hints, as vague as vain, attach no less
To me than to my son.

Gab.

I can't help that.

But let the consequence alight on him
Who feels himself the guilty one amongst us.
I speak to you, Count Siegendorf, because
I know you innocent, and deem you just.
But ere I can proceed-Dare you protect me?—
Dare you command me?

[Siegendorf first looks at the Hungarian, and then
at Ulric, who has unbuckled his sabre, and is
drawing lines with it on the floor-still in its
sheath.

Ulr. (looks at his father and says) Let the man go on
Gab. I am unarmed, Count-bid your son lay down
His sabre.

Ulr. (offers it to him contemptuously.) Take it.
Gab.
No, Sir, 'tis enough
That we are both unarmed-I would not choose ́
To wear a steel which may be stained with more

Blood than came there in battle.

Ulr. (casts the sabre from him in contempt) It-or

some

Such other weapon, in my hands-spared yours

Once when disarmed and at my mercy.

Sie. (takes his son by the hand.) My son! I know my

own innocence--and doubt not

Of yours-but I have promised this man patience;
Let him continue.

Gab. I will not detain you

By speaking of myself much; I began

Life early-and am what the world has made me.

At Frankfort on the Oder, where I passed

A winter in obscurity, it was

My chance at several places of resort

(Which I frequented sometimes, but not often)
To hear related a strange circumstance
In February last. A martial force,

Sent by the state, had, after strong resistance,
Secured a band of desperate men, supposed
Marauders from the hostile camp. -They proved,
However, not to be so-but banditti,
Whom either accident or enterprise

Had carried from their usual haunt-the forests
Which skirt Bohemia-even into Lusatia.
Many amongst them were reported of

High rank-and martial law slept for a time.
At last they were escorted o'er the frontiers,
And placed beneath the civil jurisdiction
Of the free town of Frankfort. Of their fate
I know no more.

Sie.

And what is this to Ulric?

Gab. Amongst them there was said to be one man
Of wonderful endowments :-birth and fortune,
Youth, strength, and beauty, almost superhuman,
And courage as unrivalled, were proclaimed
His by the public rumour; and his sway,
Not only over his associates, but
His judges, was attributed to witchcraft.
Such was his influence :-I have no great faith
In any magic, save that of the mine—

I therefore deemed him wealthy; but my soul
Was roused with various feelings to seek out
This prodigy, if only to behold him.

Sie. And did you so?

Gab.

You'll hear. Chance favored me:

A popular affray in the public square

Drew crowds together: it was one of those
Occasions where men's souls look out of them,

And show them as they are-even in their faces:

The moment my eye met his I exclaimed

This is the man! though he was then, as since,

With the nobles of the city. I felt sure

I had not erred, and watched him long and nearly:
I noted down his ferm-his gesture-features,

Stature and bearing-and, amidst them all,
Midst every natural and acquired distinction,
I could discern, methought, the assassin's eye
And gladiator's heart.

Ulr. (smiling.)

The tale sounds well.

Gab. And may sound better. He appeared to me

One of those beings to whom Fortune bends

As she doth to the daring-and on whom

The fates of others oft depend; besides,
An indescribable sensation drew me

Near to this man, as if my point of fortune
Was to be fixed by him.-There I was wrong.
Sie. And may not be right now.

Gab.

I followed him,

Solicited his notice-and obtained it

Though not his friendship :—it was his intention

To leave the city privately ;-we left it

Together-and together we arrived

In the poor town where Werner was concealed,

And Stralenheim was succoured-Now we are on

The verge-dare you hear further?

Sie.

Or I have heard too much.

Gab.

I must do so

I saw in you

A man above his station-and if not

So high, as now I find you, in my then
Conceptions 'twas that I had rarely seen
Men such as you appeared in height of mind,
In the most high of worldly rank; you were
Poor—even to all, save rags.—I would have shared
My purse, though slender, with you-you refused it.
Sie. Doth my refusal make a debt to you,

That thus you urge it?

Gab.

Still you owe me something, Though not for that-and I owed you my safety, At least my seeming safely--when the slaves Of Stralenheim pursued me on the grounds That I had robbed him.

Sie.

I concealed you-I,

Whom, and whose house, you arraign, reviving viper!

Gab. I accuse no man-save in my defence.
You, Count! have made yourself accuser-judge-
Your hall's my court, your heart is my tribunal.
Be just, and I'll be merciful.

Sie.

You merciful!

'Twill rest

You concealed me

yourself,

At dead of night

In secret passages known to
You said, and to none else.
Weary with watching in the dark, and dubious
Of tracing back my way-I saw a glimmer,
Through distant crannies, of a twinkling light.
I followed it, and reached a door-a' secret
Portal which opened to the chamber, where,
With cautious hand and slow, having first undone
As much as made a crevice of the fastening,
I looked through, and beheld a purple bed,
And on it Stralenheim !-

Sie.

You slew him-Wretch !

Gab.

Asleep! And yet

He was already slain,

And bleeding like a sacrifice. My own

Blood becaine ice.

Sie. (to Ulric.) Then, my boy! thou art guiltless still

-Oh! now

Thou bad'st me say I was so once

Do thou as much!

Gab.

Be patient! I can not

Recede now, though it shake the very walls

Which frown above us. You remember-or,

If not, your son does-that the locks were changed,
Beneath his chief inspection, on the morn

Which led to this same night: how he had entered