it must have been,) I even bashfully placed my arm around her slender waist, and thus kept her in my embrace. She slept as quietly as innocence could sleep. Strange that she was not awakened by the beatings of my restless heart, that trembled and fluttered as though its owner were committing some heinous deed.
It was the first time that my arm had ever encircled a feminine form during a whole hour! But thou wilt forgive me the deed, my own Frederica, when I tell thee that my soul remained faithful throughout, and that the thought of thee alone occupied me in that agitating season. How often did I imagine that thou wast at my side! The gentle pressure with which I drew the sleeper nearer was for thee alone. The deep sighs that stole from my excited bosom were all thine; and, ah, Frederica, dearest, thine too, thou wilt not doubt it, was the hurried, half-uttered, stolen kiss which, with daring yet nervous audacity, I perpetrated on her bonnet!
CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.
BREAK OF DAY.
Our chaise now rolled gently along through the light sand, and giving my horses a loose rein, I planted myself firmly by the youthful sleeper, and closing my weary eyelids, gave myself up to a delicious dream of Frederica, the curacy and Heaven. Soon the sandy soil became changed to a pebbly one, and a sudden jerk awoke both the maiden and myself from a refreshing nap.
The shadows had passed away; the road was perfectly clear, and the distant landscape, as seen through a vista among the trees, seemed bathed in rosy light. My first glance was towards my faithful steeds, my next to the half-awakened maiden, who, like me, was rubbing her heavy eyelids at the needless arousal. We both looked shyly at one another; then she rubbed her eyes again, and I must needs do the same, for methought I was quite blinded by the morning’s glare. Once more I met her gaze and she mine, and yet I seemed to sleep, for how else could I metamorphose the stranger maiden into her whom I best loved on earth.
“For Heaven’s sake, doctor, is it you?” exclaimed a clear, merry, silvery-toned voice, in my vicinity. I would have known it among a thousand as that of my betrothed.
“Frederica, is it thou?” was my astonished answer, as I fully returned the bewildered stare with which she gazed upon my large beard and moustache, (the only remains of my military costume,) my dirty felt hat and my tattered frock.
Not another word was spoken; our eyes swam in tears of ecstacy; our tongues were speechless; and letting the reins fall from my hands, I clasped her passionately to my breast; cheek touched cheek, lip sought lip, and in one long, lingering, ever-renewed kiss, we exchanged our very beings.
Oh, to meet again, so strangely and unexpectedly, after such hopeless separation! The sorrows and privations of the past were all forgotten. My carking cares, her bitter tears, the future with its mists of uncertainty, our want of resources, our certain poverty—all became as nothing in that blissful present, where, breathing a new atmosphere of joy, our pulses tingling with delight, our hearts throbbing almost to faintness, the earthly passed away, and the heavenly, steeped in colouring of the rainbow, beamed full around us.
At length we found speech, and questions and answers flowed out in rapid succession, as, clasping each other’s hands, we pressed nearer together, as though we feared that some dark power might yet separate us. Again I took up the reins, and again I let them fall, so overpowered was I by Frederica’s loveliness, as the morning light wrapt her like a glory.
The warlike exploits which won from my betrothed her most breathless and absorbed attention, are already known to my readers; but Frederica’s adventures, although simple, must be briefly narrated. Having received a discharge from her mistress, who left Berlin at the first rumour of the approach of the French, she remained in that city, agitated with cruel misgivings at my long silence, until, at length, she received a letter from her anxious mother, bidding her leave her present unprotected home and hasten to her. Like a dutiful daughter, she set off immediately on her journey, giving all necessary information to a mutual acquaintance in case that I should arrive during her absence, and reached Frankfort very undisturbedly, when, finding that the French had taken possession of every possible equipage, she was forced to continue her lonely way on foot. Weary and thoroughly dejected, she reached the village only an hour before my arrival, and there, thanks to an overruling Providence, found her happy lover in her willing coachman.
CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.
FULL DAY.
Even the most devoted lovers cannot subsist without eating, and as the residence of Frederica’s mother was yet some miles distant, we stopped at a near inn by the road-side, where, while I was happily engaged in freeing my face from its unbecoming excrescences with the aid of a good razor, my betrothed contrived to purchase for me, where I know not, a neat overcoat and hat, such as made me appear as a more seemly escort to a lovely and well-dressed maiden. After a hasty meal we continued our journey in the morning light, and to our excited feelings all looked bright as mid-day, so happily occupied were we in talking over our
