Morning was dawning when the friends separated. Count Philipp undertook
to tell Ruth that Ulrich had found his mother again. She was to persuade
the smith to forgive his wife, with whose praises her son's lips were
overflowing.

At his departure Philipp tried to induce the Eletto to change his course
betimes, for he was following a dangerous path; but Ulrich laughed in his
face, exclaiming: "You know I have found the right word, and shall use it
to the end. You were born to power in a small way; I have won mine
myself, and shall not rest until I am permitted to exercise it on a great
scale, nay, the grandest. If aught on earth affords a taste of heavenly
joy, it is power!"

In the camp the Eletto found the troops from Aalst prepared for
departure, and as he rode along the road saw in imagination, sometimes
his parents, his parents in a new and happy union, sometimes Ruth in the
full splendor of her majestic beauty. He remembered how proudly he had
watched his father and mother, when they went to church together on
Sunday, how he had carried Ruth in his arms on their flight; and now he
was to see and experience all this again.

He gave his men only a short rest, for he longed to reach his mother.
It was a glorious return home, to bring such tidings! How beautiful and
charming he found life; how greatly he praised his destiny!

The sun was setting behind pleasant Aalst as he approached, and the sky
looked as if it was strewn with roses.

"Beautiful, beautiful!" he murmured, pointing out to his lieutenant the
brilliant hues in the western horizon.