Page:Storys (sic) of The wild huntsman.pdf/22

22 able to leave his chamber they had exchanged vows of everlasting constancy.

No one could act more honourably than Otto, and as soon as he thought Francis able to bear such a subject, he declared his passion, and demanded Juliana for a wife.

'Are you mad, Count? asked Francis, looking at him intently, 'if you are not, my answer is, that I would rather follow Juliana to her grave, than see her united to you. From this moment, you never see her more.'

The Count remonstrated, but he might as well have hoped to stay the billows of the sea, as move the inexorable Francis. What however, will not mutual love effect? The Count and Juliana met secretly; she had never loved her father, and she was easily persuaded that his refusal was unreasonable: she adored the Count, and she at length consented to become his wife.

lt was a gloomy morning when Juliana left her father's dwelling: he was buried in a profound sleep, and the Count, with all the ardour of a youthful lover, flattered himself that Juliana and he would have plighted their mutual vows before the alter of the church of Soroe long before the drowsy forester would awake. Juliana's heart beat almost audibly, and she entered, for the first time, this magnificent church; now rendered