How much more enchanting than the large and voluptuous Clara--she who for a time had so dangerously dazzled me--was the smaller and more delicately-formed Marie Louise--half-woman and half-angel; like a poet's dream, a Raphael's happiest thought! So perfect in her purity of form; so beautiful in face, expression and thought. 'Ah, Marie Louise, there is none other like you in the world!' thought I, with mingled rapture and bitterness. 'Who ever loved me so well? Yet we shall never see, never meet, never hear each other's voice again! I can be reckless enough in battle now, for I have no mistress for whom to spare myself.' The exhaustion of long toil and deprivation of rest, now began to steal over me, and I had fallen into a doze, to dream of Louise as Nicola, when a sound roused me, making me start to full and nervous wakefulness, as the whizz of the first shot in action might do. I started! My horse was neighing in its adjacent stall, to me a signal sufficient that other nags were near. I thought of De Bitche with his ten petardiers, and cocked my pistols. I heard the hoofs of a horse ringing, as it was galloped down the path, across the wooded valley, and drawing nearer as it approached the chapel, till at last the sound become dull and muffled on the sward. I boldly threw open the chapel door to confront this midnight visitor, and by the dim light of the stars without, and the flicker of the altar lamps within, beheld a handsome young man, mounted on a powerful grey horse, with his cloak muffled up to his nose and his hat pulled down to his eyes; but I soon perceived that he wore the long moustache and pointed _royale_, peculiar to the court of-Louis XIII. 'Hark you, M. le Chevalier!' said he. 'Who are you?' I asked. 'I am René, Knight of Malta, one of the Duke's gentlemen in ordinary. I had the pleasure of conducting you, monsieur, to the presence of my foster-sister to-day.' 'You mean Mademoiselle de Lorraine?' 'Marie Louise--yes.' 'And you are her foster-brother?' 'Yes, monsieur; my mother nursed her; I have taught mademoiselle to ride; to throw off a falcon, and to shoot with the arbalest à jallet, as we name a little crossbow for throwing clay pellets. Were not such tasks a happiness?' 'M. René, I envy you; but what seek you here?' I asked, with suspicion. 'I sought you, M. Blane, and I am happy to find that you are not gone. Are you not afraid of being robbed in this solitary place.' 'I am afraid of nothing, M. René; fifty crowns are all I possess in the world.' 'But one's skin is of some value, and that may be perilled in these woods among wolves and outlaws.' 'To the point, M. le Chevalier de Malta,' said I, suspiciously; 'it was not merely to tell me all this you sought me. Perhaps you bring a message from Wolfgang Count Pappenheim? If so----' 'What then?' 'You are doubly welcome.' The eyes of the Lorrainer sparkled.