CHAPTER VIII.
THE CHILDE OF GODESBERG.
It must be clear to the dullest intellect (if amongst our readers we dare venture to presume that a dull intellect should be found) that the cause of the Margrave's fainting-fit, described in the last chapter, was a groundless apprehension on the part of that too solicitous and credulous nobleman regarding the fate of his beloved child.

No, young Otto was NOT drowned.

Was ever hero of romantic story done to death so early in the tale?
Young Otto was NOT drowned.

Had such been the case, the Lord Margrave would infallibly have died at the close of the last chapter; and a few gloomy sentences at its close would have denoted how the lovely Lady Theodora became insane in the convent, and how Sir Ludwig determined, upon the demise of the old hermit (consequent upon the shock of hearing the news), to retire to the vacant hermitage, and assume the robe, the beard, the mortifications of the late venerable and solitary ecclesiastic.

Otto was NOT drowned, and all those personages of our history are consequently alive and well.
The boat containing the amazed young Count--for he knew not the cause of his father's anger, and hence rebelled against the unjust sentence which the Margrave had uttered--had not rowed many miles, when the gallant boy rallied from his temporary surprise and despondency, and determined not to be a slave in any convent of any order: determined to make a desperate effort for escape.