Edith! Ludolf! dear partners in affliction, ye were restored with me to liberty!—Walter! Henric! our benevolent deliverers, what thanks could suffice to reward your services!—But the generous men expected neither rewards nor thanks. What they had done appeared to them an act so simple, that they rather supposed, we should complain that our rescue had been delayed so long; and they thought it necessary to assure us a thousand times, that ignorance of our situation and want of power to assist us had unavoidably prevented their coming sooner to break our chains; excuses, which we (only awake to sentiments of gratitude and joy) thought perfectly unsuited to the occasion. These excellent men, who had bravely hazarded their lives in a manner so perfectly disinterested, belonged to the inferior class of people; they were the sons of labour, and strangers to the refinements of wealth and grandeur. Yet does there really exist an _inferior_ class among a people, who inhale with every breath of air the spirit of generosity and the love of freedom? Oh! rocks of Helvetia, ’tis only among _you_, that we find that mixture of magnanimity of soul and unaffected simplicity, which attracts to your children so large a portion of our admiration and our love at once! Prevented by distance and by the increasing infirmities of age, Count Venosta had not yet completed his preparations for attempting our rescue, when we threw ourselves at his feet. Arnold Melthal (Henric’s son, whom his father had dispatched with the account of our situation) had assured him, that it was unnecessary for him to collect his forces, since we should certainly be delivered without their assistance; but when those we love are concerned, who ever believes, that too many precautions can be taken? The news, that Edith still lived, and that his niece was innocent, had agitated the venerable warrior’s mind so violently, that had he been master of it, he would have summoned the whole world to our assistance. The small estate, which Count Leopold had alone reserved for himself out of all the wide-extended possessions, which his generosity had bestowed on my ungrateful husband, was in a perfect uproar, and his few vassals were already in arms. As our arrival made these preparations unnecessary for our rescue, it was determined that they should be employed for our revenge. As for Edith and myself, we entreated that peace might be preserved; we implored my uncle to recollect the great superiority of strength and riches, which our foes possest: but how difficult is it to prevail on an antient warrior to lay aside the sword long accustomed to victory!