happy, thou hast taught me to love thee.

"Go, then--let me not forget my destiny--Count Peter belongs not to
me, but to the whole world; and oh! what pride for thy Minna to hear
thy deeds proclaimed, and blessings invoked on thy idolised head!
Ah! when I think of this, I could chide thee that thou shouldst for
one instant forget thy high destiny for the sake of a simple maiden!
Go, then; otherwise the reflection will pierce me. How blest I have
been rendered by thy love! Perhaps, also, I have planted some
flowers in the path of thy life, as I twined them in the wreath
which I presented to thee.

"Go, then--fear not to leave me--you are too deeply seated in my
heart--I shall die inexpressibly happy in thy love."

Conceive how these words pierced my soul, Chamisso!

I declared to her that I was not what I seemed--that, although a
rich, I was an unspeakably miserable man--that a curse was on me,
which must remain a secret, although the only one between us--yet
that I was not without a hope of its being removed--that this
poisoned every hour of my life--that I should plunge her with me
into the abyss--she, the light and joy, the very soul of my
existence. Then she wept because I was unhappy. Oh! Minna was all
love and tenderness. To save me one tear she would gladly have
sacrificed her life.

Yet she was far from comprehending the full meaning of my words.
She still looked upon me as some proscribed prince or illustrious
exile; and her vivid imagination had invested her lover with every