"You are right, Ada. I can never thank you enough for what you have done
to-day, but I will strive to deserve it!"
"I know that. God guard you from danger, and now good-bye."
"No, you cannot wish that for me!" said Hartmut sadly. "This battle of
life and death into which I go can ease my own conscience of a load, but
my father and Egon will never know, if I live, that I have fought for my
country, and the old stain will still be there. But if I fall, then you
can tell them that I fought under a strange name, and am at rest,
perhaps under foreign soil. They will at least have some respect for my
grave."
"You would fall?" asked Ada, with sad reproof in her voice. "Even if I
tell you that your death will be mine too?"
"Yours, Ada?" he cried excitedly, "and do you no longer turn in
abhorrence from my love, from the fate which threw us together? To
possess you would be my highest glory, for you are free. Such joy comes
to me now, only for a single fleeting minute, and then ascends again to
unattainable heights, like the prophetess of my drama who bore your
name. No matter; it is with me now in this moment of parting."
He drew her to him and pressed a kiss on her brow, while she broke into
a passion of tears on his shoulder.
"Hartmut, promise me that you will not seek death.
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