band and Miss Julia. The counsellor Reutlinger then arose from his chair, with the assurance that he felt perfectly restored. As the company were about quitting the saloon to take a walk, the door opened, and Rixendorf appeared, accompanied by young Max in military costume. Reutlinger, at the sight of him, was seized with a nervous shuddering.—"There is thy trouble and thy resemblance, my old friend," said Rixendorf, pushing Max into the counsellor's arm. "It is Max whom thou hast met in the bower, clothed in a costume from thy wardrobe, under which I wished him to rëenter this castle, where his early childhood was passed. Oh, obdurate and pitiless uncle, who has chased from thy fireside, under the influence of an accursed superstition, thy brother's son, I now give back to thee in the place of the child whom thou hatest, an accomplished young man, ready to love thee like a son. Come, let this heart yield for once to the sweet sentiments of life; banish the phantoms which possess thy brain, in order to see life under consoling aspects. Nothing but love can render us happy here below!"
Reutlinger was under the influence of a nervous crisis; his features changed, and his lips seemed to breathe away what life remained in him; his wandering eyes were fixed by turns on Max and Rixendorf with an indefinable expression of anger. At a sign from the general, Max spoke:—"Dear uncle," said he, "have you not repulsed me long enough from your bosom? Will you condemn me to bear until death the weight of the aversion that you had conceived for my unfortunate father? If he was ungrateful to you, his sufferings have well avenged you. I saw him expire on a bed of misery; with his last breath he spoke to me of you, and supplicated me be reconcile you to his memory by becoming your son, the most tender and devoted prop of your age. Do not reject his last desire; have not a heart of stone, for God would curse you for it!"
Max fell at the counsellor's feet, and Julia Foerd knelt at the same time and covered his hands with tears and kisses,
