Baroness, eager to learn the events which had led to her present happiness, thought them tedious delays to the communi cation of that important intelligence, which might convince her reason that what she saw and heard was not a dream. CHAP 41 CHAP. VI. Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd As home his footsteps he hath turn'd, From wand'ring on a foreign strand? If such there breathe, go mark him well, SCOTT. WHEN the Baroness was alone with the Baron, she gently reproached him for having so long concealed from her that he was still living. "Oh! why," said she, "did not you discover yourself to me me on your first arrival here? why, disguised as a minstrel, artfully eluding my strictest search, did you so often draw me to my window, to weep and mourn anew your loss, the memorials of which, every note that vibrated from the strings of your instrument, I know not how, nor why, seemed to recall, and bring more affectingly to my mind? Oh! why, when it was in your power to have restored me to the happiness I had, I believed, for ever lost, did you suffer me thus to pine in hopeless sorrow for your death?". "You shall know, my love," cried the Baron, all my reasons for a conduct, which, I am fully aware, must appear extraordinary, perhaps not wholly justi fiable; for, oh my Gertrude, how, knowing thee, could I ever suspect thy fidelity, how ever cease to rely, as I ought to to have done, on thy angel-like, thy unexampled constancy! Oh, such, never sure before was there in woman, most beloved-most amiable of human beings!" "And did you indeed suspect my fidelity?" cried the Baroness; "could you be so unjust to yourself and me, as to doubt it even for a moment ?" "I blush to say I did," resumed the Baron: "like you, I was deceived with appearances; and not by appearances only, but by representations, calculated to make me wretched, even when my dearest happiness was in view. To explain this, it will be necessary that I first give you some account of myself since we last parted. You now know my motive for visiting Flanders.. Deceived by the specious arts of an impostor, for such the pretended Duke of York has confessed himself, himself, I took arms against my sovereign, and was obliged, by his success, to fly my country, leaving thee behind; for I could not wish thee to bear the miseries of exile; and my title, estate, and honours, were now at the mercy of a king, whom I had offended. "I shall not pause to relate the parti-. culars of the various fortunes I experienced. I shall at present only say that I entered into the service of Burgundy, and fought in its wars. In one rencontre, I fell wounded, and fainting with the loss of blood, and was left for dead in the field, amongst the slain. I was found by one of those hardy adventurers, who are wont to traverse the field of battle in search of plunder; I won his attention, and by him was conveyed to the house of a Flemish mechanic, who tended me with great |