Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/680

580 "Go on," Leisenbohg said, and waited.

"One morning Kläre was still asleep," Sigurd began again. "She always used to sleep quite late into the morning. But I was taking a walk in the forest. Suddenly Fanny came running up behind me. "You must get away, Herr Olse, before it is too late. Hurry away from here; you are in great danger!" Strangely enough, at first she would say nothing more to me. But I insisted, and soon learned what sort of danger, according to her, was threatening me. Ah! She thought that I could still be saved, or else she certainly would have said nothing to me about it!"

The green plaid on the banisters was inflated like a sail; the lamp on the table flickered a little.

"What did Fanny tell you?" Leisenbohg asked.

"Do you remember the evening," Sigurd asked, "when we were all guests at Kläre's house? That same morning Kläre had gone to the cemetery with Fanny; and by the Prince's grave she confessed the hideous thing to her friend."

"The hideous thing?" the Baron was trembling.

"Yes.—You know how the Prince died? He fell from his horse and lived for about an hour afterwards."

"I know."

"No one was with him except Kläre."

“I know.”

"He would not see any one but her. And while he was dying he made a curse."

"A curse?"

"A curse.—'Kläre,' the Prince said, 'do not forget me. I would have no rest in the grave if you forgot me.'—'I will never forget you,' Kläre answered.—'Swear to me that you will never forget me,'—'I swear.'—'Kläre, I love you, and I must die!

"I am speaking," Sigurd said, "and I am speaking for Fanny, and Fanny is speaking for Kläre, and Kläre is speaking for the Prince. Don't you understand me?"

Leisenbohg listened with taut nerves. It seemed to him as though he could hear the voice of the dead Prince coming up out of the thrice-sealed coffin and ringing through the night.

Kläre, I love you, and I must die! You are so young, and I must die And someone else will come after me I know it; that's what will happen.—Someone else will hold you in his arms and be happy with you He shall not—he