"He seems to be still asleep, Gabrielle," said the dark beauty; "but uneasily--for I have heard him moan." "Hush--you will wake him--how loud you do talk, Ernestine!" So, one is called Gabrielle, and the elder is Ernestine, thought I. Such pretty names these are--and they speak German, too! I would have sworn Ernestine was a Spaniard, but her black hair has come with her Scottish blood. Having completed their arrangement of the vase, they approached, placed it on a little tripod table near me, and softly drew back one of the rich curtains of the bed. I felt very much inclined to laugh. "Poor young man!" said Ernestine; "he is smiling in his sleep." I endeavoured to assume a look of the most charming candour. "His hair is dark and curly," said Gabrielle. "He reminds me somewhat of poor Lerma, who was slain at Lütter." I heard Gabrielle sigh. "She has lost a lover at that unlucky battle," thought I, and was in some degree correct; for these fair girls had many lovers, but they had never distinguished any, save one, the gallant young Conde de Lerma, son of the Spanish duke of that name, to whom Gabrielle had been betrothed at an age which was too tender to possess any other love than such as a brother might have for a sister; and like a brother the boy count had loved his little wife; but a cannon-ball had decapitated him at Lütter in the moment of victory, and there was an end of it. Gabrielle had wept for the loss of her young friend--Lerma had been nothing more--and she still retained his betrothal ring on the fourth finger of her right hand. "Oh yes!" said she; "he is just like Lerma." "With the same amount of mustache," added Ernestine. "Lerma had less--but he was so young." My hand lay upon the coverlet, and, with her soft warm hand, Ernestine touched it gently by chance. "He is hot and feverish--we must be very kind to him, Gabrielle. Poor boy!" The touch of Ernestine's hand made my heart vibrate; but I remembered Prudentia, and resolved to steel my heart against all soft impressions and nonsense for the future. She is very beautiful and charming, of course, thought I; but let me beware how I fall lightly into that troublesome trap again. Now, reflecting that it was unfair, by a seeming sleep, to impose upon them thus, I made preparations to awake, on which they let the hangings drop, and glided noiselessly to some distance. On my drawing back the curtain, they both approached me again, and Gabrielle, who possessed either less pride or more frankness than Ernestine, asked me, with the most winning kindness, "How I was," and bade me "good-morning." I replied that the pain of my bruise was gone, that a little giddiness remained; but that I suffered greatly from thirst.