The hearts of the parents can not be softened in the way your highness proposed, and that must be the first step in your plan.

Besides, I have little confidence in the agency of a human and selfish love to reach an end that ought to be gained by purer motives.

I have discovered, from observation, what the power you spoke of will dare; I know its greatness and its littleness." "I must tax my ingenuity for a more auspicious scheme," resumed Rodolph of Suabia, "for I begin to be distrustful of my first.

I was a little romantic, I confess; but it is thus we give the rein to some solitary impulse of youth, lingering, like a firebrand, among our more matured resolves." They had ridden slowly, and were now on the brink of the ravine, three miles from the Castle of Stramen.

The waning moon and the bright starlight showed them a white figure standing in the road, a few paces from the mouth of the gorge.
"Who is that before us ?" asked the noble.
"Bertha, the poor crazy woman, who swore to the presence of the Lord of Hers at the spot where Robert de Stramen was found," whispered the priest, and he advanced to where she stood.
"I heard your horse's hoofs, Father," she said, "and I came to get your blessing." "And you shall have it, Bertha," he answered, extending his hands over her head.