"Now," said Sarah, in a feeble voice, "I am no more astonished at the aversion with which I have inspired you, since you have read this letter. I feel it, I shall not survive this last blow. Ah, well! yes; pride and ambition have ruined me! Under the appearance of passion, I concealed a frozen heart. Not knowing what good reason you had to despise and hate me, my foolish hopes were renewed. Since we were both free again, I again believed in this prediction which promised me a crown; and when chance discovered my daughter, I seemed to see in this unhoped-for fortune a providential design! Yes; I went so far as to think that your aversion for me would yield to your love for your child; and that you would give me your hand in order to restore her to the rank which was her due." "Well! let your execrable ambition be then satisfied and punished! Yes, notwithstanding the horror you inspired me with; yes, from attachment--what do I say! from respect for the frightful misfortunes of my child, I should have, although decided to live afterward separated from you--I should have, by a marriage which would legitimatize my child, rendered her position as dazzling, as lofty as it had been miserable!" "I was not deceived, then! Woe! it is too late!" "Oh! I know it; it is not for the death of your child you weep; it is the loss of that rank which you have pursued with untiring pertinacity! Well! may these infamous regrets be your last punishment!" "The last; for I shall not survive!" "But, before you die, you shall know what has been the existence of your child since you abandoned her." "Poor child! very miserable, perhaps!" "Do you recollect," said Rudolph, with terrible calmness, "that night when you and your brother followed me to the city?" "I do recollect; but why this question? your look freezes me." "On coming from this den, you saw, did you not, at the corner of the wretched streets, some unhappy creatures, who--but, no, no--I dare not," said Rudolph, concealing his face in his hands, "I dare not; my words alarm me." "Me also--they alarm me; what is it now?" "You have seen them?" resumed Rudolph, with an effort. "You have seen those women, the shame of their sex? Well! among them did you remark a young girl of sixteen? beautiful, oh! beautiful as an angel; a poor child, who, in the midst of the degradation in which she had been plunged, preserved an expression so pure, so virginal, that the robbers and assassins among whom she lived, madame, had given her the name of Fleur-de-Marie; did you remark this young girl? speak, speak, tender mother." "No, I did not notice her," said Sarah, almost mechanically.