recontré par hasard un corps et qui s'en tirait comme il pouvait_.

And yet--so strange a being is woman!--desirous like the Hindoo wife
to sacrifice herself on whatever altar she raises in her heart,
Marguerite, in order to marry Dumiger, had refused the greatest
offers,--amongst others, no less a person than the son of that house
into which she had been received. But irrespective of the affection
which she felt for Dumiger, she was in her nature proud and haughty,
and she would not have consented, even under other and less favorable
circumstances, to have entered where she was despised by the rest of
the family. It may be imagined how great indignation was excited in
this man by her refusal, the more especially as, like Dumiger, he
thought himself a proficient in science and the mechanical arts, and
was one of those who in his way was laboring for the prize so soon to
be awarded by the city. If merit was to be the test of success, he
had but little chance; but where is that man and where are those minds
with whom rank and power have not their weight? He was, therefore, if
not the most formidable by intellect, at all events by circumstance,
the one of Dumiger's competitors the most to be dreaded, for his
father was the president of that council which presided over the
destinies of Dantzic, and who usurped more than imperial authority. He
belonged to the ancient house of Albrect, Grand Master of the Teutonic
Knights, and oldest freeman of the Hanseatic League. A strange, proud
man, who when he learned indirectly that his son Frederick was in love
with Marguerite, indulged in a storm of fearful indignation, until he
found from her that on no account did she intend to accept the suit;
and then, in spite of his gratification at the certainty that his
son could not make a marriage which he thought so discreditable,
his vanity was wounded at her decision, and even while he praised
Marguerite's disinterested conduct, in his heart he was garnering up