The unhappy roan stood motionless for a moment, engaged in a most violent struggle with his emotions. At last his whole frame trembled, his hands fell as if weighed down by fetters of double weight, and he sank at _Heinrich's_ feet, unable to utter a word. The latter gazed at him a moment in silence, and then knocked on the door. The turnkeys came in anxiously and raised Albert, but his knees still trembled so violently that he was obliged to sit down on his bed. The Prison Fairy, with a sublime expression of sympathy, stroked his burning brow, and gazed at _Heinrich_ with imploring expectation. The latter quietly approached the group. "Albert, I have convinced myself that you can subdue your passions. You are worthy of the freedom I shall now help you secure. You shall no longer suffer for my frivolity, and both you and this lady shall be convinced that I am no scoundrel. Farewell for to-day." Albert suddenly clasped his hands over his brow, and a flood of tears relieved his oppressed heart. _Heinrich_ looked for a long time at the young girl, who, with pallid face, was gazing silently at the floor, then begged her to follow him, and left the cell. When they were outside, he asked, "What do you think of me now?" "If you go on and give yourself up to the law, as the best proof of Albert's deposition, I shall think well of you." "I have determined to do something of the kind," said _Heinrich_, "and I hope you will then be convinced that I am not so entirely destitute of all enthusiasm." "I shall be very glad, for the sake of my prisoners." "Only for your prisoners? Why not for your own sake too?" "Because it will principally concern the welfare of the unfortunate men who are now apparently dependent upon your compassion. I, thank God, have nothing to hope from you." "Indeed!" said _Heinrich_, in an irritated tone. "But if, after those words, I refuse you permission to go to your _protégés_ again?" "You will not do that," replied the young girl, firmly. "If you really feel compassion, you will not, merely from an irritable whim, deprive the prisoners of the only comfort that can be afforded them in their cheerless situation." "Fräulein," said _Heinrich_, with his usual winning courtesy, "you certainly do very little to bribe the government official; yet this very course wins me still more, and I do not merely permit, I entreat you to return and accept me as your assistant." "So long as you are with the prisoners, sir, they will not need me. Permit me to come here at a time when you are absent." "You have become suspicious of me; we are farther apart now than at the first moment of meeting. My candor in your presence was over-hasty. Forgive me, and mingle a little of your kindness of heart with the austerity of your youthful ideas of virtue, that you may not utterly condemn. Will you? You forgive, and try to reform even criminals: reform me too. Why are you so intolerant to me alone?"