She lay motionless, and appeared as if sleeping.

The mother uttered a faint cry of terror, and would have thrown herself upon her, had not the Candidate withheld her.
"For heaven's sake," said he, fervently, and pale as death, "be still; nothing perhaps is amiss; but it is the poisonous snake of our woods--the aspic! An incautious movement, and both you and Petrea may be lost! No, you must not; your life is too precious--but I--promise me to be still, and----" Elise was scarcely conscious of what she did.

"Away! away!" she said, and strove to put Jacobi aside with her weak hands; she herself would have gone, but her knees supported her no longer--she staggered, and fell to the ground.
In that same moment the Candidate was beside Petrea, and seizing the snake by the neck with as much boldness as dexterity, he slung it to a distance.

By this motion awakened, Petrea shuddered, opened her sleep-drunken eyes, and looking around her, exclaimed, "Ah, ah, father! I have seen the Wood-god!" "God bless thee and thy Wood-god!" cried the delighted Candidate, rejoicing over this indisputable token of life and health; and then clasping her to his breast he bore her to her mother.

But the mother neither heard nor saw anything; she lay in a deep swoon, and was first recalled to consciousness by Henrik's kisses and tears.