CHAPTER VII. The door was opened and in rushed Martella, who threw herself on her knees at the Prince's feet and exclaimed: "Your Highness, Prince by the grace of God, be gracious and merciful! Give me my betrothed, my Ernst! I shall not rise from this spot until you have restored him to me again!" The Prince gazed at me in surprise, and I told him that this was Ernst's betrothed. The Prince extended his hand to Martella. She kissed it and covered it with tears, when he said to her: "I shall do all that I can." "Oh, God is gracious to you! you are all-powerful. O how happy you are that you can do all these things! I knew it!" The Prince said that he was occupied at the moment; that she might go, and he would attend to all that was necessary afterwards. "No, no!" cried Martella; "not so. I shall not leave in that way. Now is the right time. Let the whole world wait until this is done." "I have already informed his father that the deserter will receive but a mild punishment, if he now returns and helps us to fight for our Fatherland." "Yes, yes; I believe all that; but I must have it in writing, with a great seal under it, or else it is of no avail, and your subordinates will not respect it. "O Prince! the winter before the fearful war you were hunting in the district to which my Ernst belonged, and he had much to tell me about you; and he said that, if one considered how you had been spoiled, it was wonderful to find our Prince so well behaved, so just and upright a man. "And Rothfuss said, 'In such a war as that of 1866, the Prince would have been just as willing to desert as Ernst was, if he only could have done so; but he could not get away.'" The Prince gave me a look full of meaning, while a sad smile played on his lips. Suddenly he turned to Martella and asked, "And do you know where your lover is?" "Yes; he is with the savages in Algiers. He, too, was a savage, but, by this time, he must have become tamed. O Prince! give me the writing, and what you write will be set down to your credit in heaven!" The Prince seated himself, and then looked up from his desk and asked, "But what will you do with this letter of pardon?" "Let your gracious Highness leave that to me. Just you write--and blessed be the pen and the ink and your hand--" I implored her to remain quiet, so that the Prince could write, and she grasped my hand with one of hers, and with her other pointed towards the Prince's pen and moved her finger as if following its every stroke. When the Prince bad finished writing, he lit a lamp, and Martella exclaimed: "Oh, if Ernst were only here, that he might thank you! But mother, who is above, knows of this already, and joins me in thanking you." Her vigor and beauty, her touching voice, the powerful and dazzling brilliancy of her eyes, all seemed as if increased by an irresistible charm.