Previous to Donat’s approaching so near the Castle, I had been offered many opportunities of exchanging my melancholy situation for a secure retreat in the arms of friendship; but I was too strictly bound by my fatal oath to profit by the kind offices of my friends. Count Lodowick of Homburg, the declared admirer of the young Damsel of Mayenfield, had been compelled to leave us for a time, that he might support the claims of the family of his mistress against the usurping Abbot of St. Gall. Fortunately, the sudden death of this tyrant greatly facilitated the completion of his views. He now returned to Sargans, for the purpose of conducting the young Count Ludolf to Mayenfield, and seeing him re-instated in his natural rights. It was thought necessary, that Ludolf should be accompanied by his mother; but she protested, that she could not consent to leave me exposed to such dangers, and insisted on my accompanying her to a place, where I should be in security. Oh! how gladly would my heart have embraced her offer! Nor in truth did Count Ethelbert positively forbid my leaving him: in his calmer moments he acknowledged in a tone of humility, that after his treatment of me he had no right to detain me contrary to my inclination; he left it entirely to myself to decide, whether I would go or stay; and declared, that he would not oppose my abandoning him, if after what I had sworn, I could _reconcile it to my own conscience_. You may be certain, my dear children, that having witnessed in my husband the tortures of an accusing conscience, I had not courage to run the risque of imposing the slightest burthen upon my own. I had sworn, and was compelled to keep my oath: I even renewed it, engaged once more never to forsake my husband, and only entreated my friend, that she would yield to her daughter’s entreaties not to be separated from me at a time, when I was so much in want of consolation. Habit had attached me so tenderly to the charming girl, that to have parted with her would have seemed to me like the stroke of death; and even Ethelbert felt such reverence for the angelic innocence which beamed in her every feature, that in his unhappy moments I had frequently found a safe retreat from his violence in Minna’s arms. Minna too was resolutely determined to share my dangers: nor was it affection for _me_, which alone made her unwilling to depart from Sargans. Count Lodowick was soon to rejoin us for the purpose of defending our boundaries against the still encroaching enemy, and I extorted a confession from Minna, that she was anxious to continue near him.