Page:The German Novelists (Volume 2).djvu/409

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La Motte Fouqé.
399

one of the women of the establishment, and clasping her little hands, Margery addressed her in the most friendly voice:—“Ah, lady Sibyl! ah, lady Sibyl! thou that art wont to bring me always such sweet fruit, and get’st nothing but a pat on the cheek in return. Good morning, a very good morning, lady Sibyl.”

Just at that moment was heard a confused uproar on the opposite side to where they stood, and a group of students made their appearance carrying a bier, apparently with some wounded person, to seek assistance at the hospital. Lady Sibylla, at this sight, breaking loose from the child, hastened to her post; the two friends followed her thoughtfully, while Margery hid herself anxiously behind a rose bush.

The bier was now laid down, the students gathered round in a circle, while the woman began cautiously to examine the person’s wounds. They all made way, however, for the Professor and Master Rhenfried with marks of great respect, and one of them began to whisper them how the strange student, Marcellin, had engaged with and disarmed one of the senior students, and then confessed the injustice of which he had been guilty on the previous evening, upon which a complete reconciliation took place. “So it might have been, likewise, with the second duel,” continued the relater, “or at least nothing fatal would perhaps have happened; when suddenly—no one knew whence—an old strange looking man