"And you don't think of me at all?"

Annele pretended not to hear this speech, and exclaimed again, "Gracious powers! why must I die thus? what have I done?"

"What have you done? Soon, very soon, G.o.d will tell you. My words are of no avail in awakening your conscience."

Lenz was silent, and Annele also, though she felt she must say something, and yet she could not utter.

"Good heavens!" began Lenz at last; "here are we two doomed to die, and yet what are our mutual feelings? Misery and despair! and, even if by any unforeseen good fortune we are rescued, all the former tortures and discord will be renewed. My parents were, as I told you, three times snowed up. My mother took every possible precaution every winter in case of such an event, and laid in a great provision of salt and oil. I know nothing of the first two times, but I perfectly well remember the last. I never saw my father and mother kiss each other in my life, and yet they loved each other truly and faithfully in their hearts. And on that occasion, when my father said, 'Marie, now we are once more in the world, and separated from all other living creatures,' then, for the first time, I saw my mother kiss my father; and the three days that it lasted, the harmony in which they lived was like paradise. In the morning, at midday, and at night, my father and mother sung together from their hymnbook, and every word they spoke was calm and holy. My mother said, 'Oh, that we may one day die thus together, and be translated from peace here, to peace everlasting hereafter! I hope I shall die at the same moment with you, that one may not be left to grieve for the other.' It was then my father spoke of my uncle, and said, 'If I must die now, I have not a single enemy in the world. I owe no man anything. My brother Peter alone dislikes me, and that distresses me deeply.'"

Lenz suddenly stopped in the midst of his narration.

"Something is scratching at the front door, and now I hear whining and barking. What is it? I must see what it is," said Lenz.

"Don't, for G.o.d's sake!" screamed Annele, laying her hand on his shoulder.

Her touch was like an electric shock to him.

"Don't go, Lenz. It is a fox, or perhaps a wolf; they bark just like that I heard one once."

Encouraged by voices in the house, the voice outside became more clamorous, and the scratching and barking more vigorous.

"That is no wolf!" cried Lenz; "it is a dog. Hark! it is Buble! Good G.o.d! it is my uncle's dog, and my uncle is not far off; he is also buried under the snow."

"Let him lie where he is; the old villain deserves no better fate."

"Woman! are you mad? Even at such a moment you are poisonous still."

"I drunk nothing but poison during all the long days up here. It was my only refreshment."

Lenz went to the kitchen, and came back with a hatchet in his hand.

"What do you intend to do?" said Annele, clasping her child closely.

"Stand out of the way! stand out of the way!" cried Lenz, in a stern voice, and, exerting all his strength, he hacked the door, which opened outwards, to pieces.

It was indeed Buble, who darted in with a howl, but quickly rushed out again, and began to poke his nose eagerly into the snow, barking louder than ever.

Lenz set to to shovel away the snow, and very soon a piece of fur came to light. Lenz now worked more cautiously, and, laying aside his hatchet and shovel, he grubbed in the snow with his hands. He was obliged to take the snow inside the house, to gain s.p.a.ce, at last.

He found his uncle. He was insensible, and so heavy that Lenz had scarcely strength to drag him in. He managed, however, to get him into his room, and, after undressing him, he laid him on the bed. Then he continued to rub him with all his strength till he revived. "Where am I?" groaned he, "Where am I?"

"With me, uncle."

"Who brought me here? Who took off my clothes? Where are the clothes?

Where is my fur cloak, and my waistcoat? my keys are there. So you have got me at last."

"Uncle, do be quiet. I will bring you everything. Here is your waistcoat, and your fur cloak too."

"Give them to me. Are the keys safe? Yes, here they are. Ah, Buble! are you there too?"

"Yes, uncle, it was he who saved you."

"Ah, now I remember! we were buried in the snow. How long ago is it?

Was it not yesterday?"

"Scarcely an hour since," replied Lenz.

"Do you hear help coming?"

"I hear nothing at all. Try to rest quietly where you are, while I go into the next room to fetch you some restorative."

"Leave the light here, and bring me something hot."

When he was alone, Petrowitsch thought to himself, "I deserve it, right well do I deserve it. Why did I go out of my way to meddle with their affairs?"

Lenz quickly returned with some brandy, which seemed considerably to revive Petrowitsch, who, fondling the dog that had crept close to him, said, "Now let me go to sleep for a time. What is that? Is it not the cry of a raven?

"Yes, one was dashed down the chimney by the snow, into the kitchen."

"Well, let me sleep."

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

A HEART TOUCHED.

Lenz went and sat down beside Annele in the sitting room. For some time neither said a word; the child alone laughed, and tried alternately to grasp the light, and then her father's eyes, that were fixed sadly on her.

"Thank G.o.d! that if we must perish," said Lenz, at last, "our boy at least is safe." Annele was silent; the clocks continued to tick quietly in unison, and now the musical clock began to play a hymn. The eyes of the husband and wife then met for the first time. Annele changed the position of the child on her lap, and clasped her hands reverently.

"If you can pray," said Lenz, after the sacred melody was finished, "I advise you to search your heart, and try to repent."

"I have nothing to repent of, so far as you are concerned, and what I really do require to repent of, I shall confide to G.o.d alone. I never wished to be unkind to you, I tried to be good and upright always."

"And I?"

"And you, too, did the same, so far as you could; I am more just towards you, than you are to me; you would not let me even try to earn a living."

"And all your harsh and dreadful words----"

"Pooh! words break no bones."

Lenz conjured and entreated her at least to be gentle and quiet before his uncle.

Annele replied as if in a dream:--"Your uncle croaking, and the raven screeching, tell me too plainly that die we must."