The Swiss maiden, at the same time, beckoned him into a small room, where he found her alone. "Were you not surprised," she said, "to see my lady queen it so over Ital Schreckenwald, who keeps every other person in awe with his stern looks and cross words? But the air of command seems so natural to her, that, instead of being a baroness, she might have been an empress. It must come of birth, I think, after all, for I tried last night to take state upon me, after the fashion of my mistress, and, would you think it, the brute Schreckenwald threatened to throw me out of the window? But if ever I see Martin Sprenger again, I'll know if there is strength in a Swiss arm, and virtue in a Swiss quarter-staff.--But here I stand prating, and my lady wishes to see you for a minute ere we take to horse." "Your lady?" said Arthur, starting. "Why did you lose an instant? why not tell me before?" "Because I was only to keep you here till she came, and--here she is." Anne of Geierstein entered, fully attired for her journey. Annette, always willing to do as she would wish to be done by, was about to leave the apartment, when her mistress, who had apparently made up her mind concerning what she had to do or say, commanded her positively to remain. "I am sure," she said, "Seignor Philipson will rightly understand the feelings of hospitality--I will say of friendship--which prevented my suffering him to be expelled from my castle last night, and which have determined me this morning to admit of his company on the somewhat dangerous road to Strasburg. At the gate of that town we part, I to join my father, you to place yourself under the direction of yours. From that moment intercourse between us ends, and our remembrance of each other must be as the thoughts which we pay to friends deceased." "Tender recollections," said Arthur, passionately, "more dear to our bosoms than all we have surviving upon earth." "Not a word in that tone," answered the maiden. "With night delusion should end, and reason awaken with dawning. One word more--Do not address me on the road; you may, by doing so, expose me to vexatious and insulting suspicion, and yourself to quarrels and peril.--Farewell, our party is ready to take horse."