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 Fate—none of this can alter the passionate feelings of our hearts."

Mashenka still wept, and yet she was able to laugh, too. The eloquence of Lohengrin's plea was full of sweet and tender soothing.

"I am the Princess Elsa," she thought, "and not simply Mashenka. It means that I am indeed what I feel in myself and not what I appear to others. And he, my Lohengrin! How is it possible for him to be a spy or a conspirator or a hangman? How dreadful to think of such things! But whatever he may do I love him all the same—for me he is Lohengrin, and if it is terrible and difficult to live with him, to die with my beloved will be sweet to me."

She got up from her chair, put her arms tenderly round the young man's neck, and still weeping bitterly, exclaimed:

"Lohengrin, my Lohengrin, whoever thou mayest be I love thee. Whithersoever thou wilt lead me I will follow thee. In whatsoever thou doest I will be thy aid—in life and in death. I love thee as thou dost wish, dear Lohengrin. I love thee as maidens loved their knights in the stories of old."