"Who is she?" asked the Princess.
But Ludwig"s eyes had wandered back to the couch, and he answered only:
"My G.o.d, it will kill her."
"I care not," said Osra. But then came another low moan. "I care not,"
said the Princess again. "Ah, she is in great suffering!" And her eyes followed the Prince"s.
There was silence, save for the lady"s low moans and the whispered prayers of the Bishop of Modenstein. But the lady opened her eyes, and in an instant, answering the summons, the Prince was by her side, kneeling and holding her hand very tenderly; and he met a glance from the Bishop across her prostrate body. The Prince bowed his head and one sob burst from him.
"Leave me alone with her for a little, sir," said the Bishop, and the Prince, obeying, rose and withdrew into the bay of the window, while Osra stood alone near the door by which she had entered.
A few minutes pa.s.sed, then Osra saw the Prince return to where the lady was and kneel again beside her; and she saw that the Bishop was preparing to perform his most sacred and sublime office; the lady"s eyes dwelt on him now in peace and restfulness, and she held Prince Ludwig"s hand in her small hand. But Osra would not kneel; she stood upright, still and cold, as though she neither saw nor heard anything of what pa.s.sed; she would not pity nor forgive the woman, even if, as they seemed to think, she lay dying. But she spoke once, asking in a harsh voice:
"Is there no physician in the house or near?"
"None, madame," said the Prince.
The Bishop began the office, and Osra stood, dimly hearing the words of comfort, peace, and hope, dimly seeing the smile on the lady"s face; for gradually her eyes clouded with tears. Now her ears seemed to hear nothing save the sad and piteous sobs that had shaken the girl as she hung about Ludwig"s neck. But she strove to drive away her softer thoughts, fanning her fury when it burnt low, and telling herself again of the insult that she had suffered. Thus she rested till the Bishop had performed the office. But when he had finished it, he rose from his knees and came to where Osra was.
"It was your duty," she said, "but it is none of mine."
"She will not live an hour," said he. "For she had an affection of the heart, and this shock has killed her. Indeed I think she was half dead for grief before we came."
"Who is she?" broke again from Osra"s lips.
"Come and hear," said he, and she followed him obediently, yet unwillingly, to the couch, and looked down at the lady. The lady looked at her with wondering eyes, and then she smiled faintly, pressing the Prince"s hand, and whispering:
"Yet she is so beautiful." And she seemed now wonderfully happy, so that they three all watched her and were envious, although they were to live and she to die.
"Now G.o.d pardon her sin!" said the Princess Osra suddenly, and she fell on her knees beside the couch, crying: "Surely G.o.d has pardoned her!"
"Sin she has none, save what clings even to the purest in this world,"
said the Bishop. "For what she has said to me I know to be true."
Osra answered nothing, but gazed in questioning at the Prince, and he, still holding the lady"s hand, began to speak in a gentle voice:
"Do not ask her name, madame. But from the first hour that we knew the meaning of love we have loved one another. And had the issue rested in my hands, I would have thrown to the winds all that kept me from her. I remember when first I met her--ah, my sweet, do you remember? From that day to this in soul she has been mine, and I hers in all my life. But more could not be. Madame, you have asked what love is. Here is love.
Yet fate is stronger. Thus I came to Strelsau to woo, and she, left alone, resolved to give herself to G.o.d."
"How comes she here, then?" whispered Osra, and she laid one hand timidly on the couch, near to the lady yet not so as to touch even her garments.
"She came here--" he began; but suddenly, to their amazement, the lady, who had seemed dead, with an effort raised herself on her elbow, and spoke in a quick eager whisper, as if she feared time and strength would fail.
"He is a great Prince," she said, "he must be a great King; G.o.d means him for greatness, G.o.d forbid that I should be his ruin. Ah, what a sweet dream he painted! But praise be to the Blessed Saints who kept me strong. Yet at the last I was weak. I could not live without another sight of his face; and so--I came. Next week I am--I was to take the veil; and I came here to see him once again. G.o.d pardon me for it. But I could not help it. Ah, madame, I know you, and I see now your beauty.
Have you known love?"
"No," said Osra; and she moved her hand near to the lady"s hand.
"When he found me here, he prayed me again to do what he asked; and I was half killed in denying it. But I prevailed, and we were even then parting when you came. Why, why did I come?" For a moment her voice died away in a low soft moan. But she made one more effort; clasping Osra"s hand in her delicate fingers, she whispered: "I am going. Be his wife."
"No, no, no," whispered Osra, her face now close to the lady"s. "You must live; you must live and be happy."
And then she kissed the lady"s lips. The lady put out her arms and clasped them round Osra"s neck, and again she whispered softly in Osra"s ear. Neither Ludwig nor the Bishop heard what she said, but they heard only that Osra sobbed. Presently the lady"s arms relaxed a little in their hold, and Osra, having kissed her again, rose and signed to Ludwig to come nearer; while she, turning, gave her hand to the Bishop, and he led her from the room, and, finding another room near, took her in there, where she sat, silent and pale.
Thus half an hour pa.s.sed; then the Bishop stole out softly, and presently returned, saying:
"G.o.d has spared her the long painful path, and has taken her straight to His rest."
Osra heard him, half in a trance and as if she did not hear; she did not know where he went nor what he did, nor anything that pa.s.sed, until, as it seemed after a long while, she looked up and saw Prince Ludwig standing before her. He was composed and calm; but it seemed as if half the life had gone out of his face. Osra rose slowly to her feet, supporting herself on an arm of the chair on which she had sat; and, when she had seen his face, she suddenly threw herself on the floor at his feet, crying:
"Forgive me, forgive me!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""FORGIVE ME, FORGIVE ME!""--_Page 252._]
"The guilt is mine," said he, "I did not trust you and did by stealth what your n.o.bility would have allowed me to do openly. The guilt is mine." And he offered to raise her. But she rose, unaided, asking with choking voice:
"Is she dead?"
"She is dead," said the Prince, and Osra, hearing it, covered her face with her hands and blindly groped her way back to the chair, where she sat, panting and exhausted.
"To her I have said farewell, and now, madame, to you. Yet do not think that I am a man without eyes for your beauty, or a heart to know your worth. I seemed to you a fool and a churl. I grieved most bitterly, and I wronged you bitterly. My excuse for all is now known. For though you are more beautiful than she, yet true love is no wanderer; it gives a beauty that it does not find, and forges a chain no charms can break.
Madame, farewell."
She looked at him and saw the sad joy in his eyes, an exultation over what had been, that what was could not destroy; and she knew that the vision was still with him though his love was dead. Suddenly he seemed to her a man she also might love and for whom she also, if need be, might gladly die; yet not because she loved him, for she was asking still in wonder: "What is this love?"
"Madame, farewell," said he again, and, kneeling before her, he kissed her hand.
"I carry the body of my love," he went on, "back with me to my home, there to mourn for her; and I shall come no more to Strelsau."
Osra bent her eyes on his face as he knelt, and presently she said to him in a whisper that was low for awe, not shame:
"You heard what she bade me do?"
"Yes, madame. I know her wish."
"And you would do it?" she asked.
"Madame, my struggle was fought before she died. But now you know that my love was not yours."
"That also I knew before, sir," and a slight bitter smile came on her face. But she grew grave again and sat there, seeming to be pondering, while Prince Ludwig waited. Then she suddenly leant forward and said:
"If I loved I would wait for you to love. Now what is this love that I cannot feel?"
And then she sat again silent, but at last raised her eyes again to his, saying in a voice that even in the stillness of the room he hardly heard:
"Now I nearly love you, for I have seen your love and know that you can love; and I think that love must breed love, so that she who loves must in G.o.d"s time be beloved. Yet I----" She paused here, and for a moment hid her face with her hand. "Yet I cannot," she went on. "Is it our Lord Christ who bids us take the lower place? I cannot take it. He does not so reign in my heart. For to my proud heart--ah, my heart so proud!--she would be ever between us. I could not bear it. Yet I believe now that with you I might one day find happiness."
The Prince, though in that hour he could not think of love, was yet very much moved by her new tenderness and felt that what had pa.s.sed rather drew them together than made any separation between them. And it seemed to him that the dead lady"s blessing was on his suit; so he said: