Count Paulo sadly smiled. “Love me always as your father,” said he; “while I live you shall never be an orphan, that I swear to you!”
“And must you go,” cried she, clinging to him; “well, then let me go with you! You will be my father--well, I demand my right as your daughter; to accompany her father is a daughter’s right.”
“No,” he firmly said, “you must remain while I go; but I go for you, to assure your future power and splendor. Remember this, Princess Natalie, forget it not; and when one day they brand me as a traitor, then say: ‘No, he was no traitor, for he loved me!’ And now hear what I have yet to say,” continued the count, after a pause, while the still weeping Natalie looked up to him through her tears. “But look at me, Natalie--no, not that sad glance, I cannot bear it! Leave me my self-possession and my courage, for I need them! Weep not!”
And Natalie, drying her eyes with her long locks, sought to smile.
“I no longer weep,” said she, “I listen to you.”
Paulo placed two sealed letters in her hand.
“Swear to me,” said he, “to hold these letters sacred as your most precious possession.”
“Swear to me to discover them to no human eye, to betray their possession to no human ear! Swear it to me by the memory of your mother, who now looks down from heaven upon you and receives your oath!”
“Then she is dead?” said the young maiden, sadly drooping her head upon her breast.
The young maiden raised her head, and, turning her eyes toward heaven as if in the hope of encountering the tender maternal glance, she solemnly said: “By the sacred memory of my mother I swear to discover these papers to no human eye, to betray their existence to no human ear, but to hold them sacred as my most precious and mysterious treasure!”
“Swear, further,” said Count Paulo, “that whenever a danger may threaten you, you will sooner forget all other things than these papers, that they should be the first which you will endeavor to save. Yes, swear to me that you will ever bear them upon your heart and never permit them to be separated from you!”
“I swear it!” said Natalie. “I will defend the possession of these papers, if necessary, with my life!”
“And thereby will you defend your honor,” said Paulo, “for your honor rests in these papers. Yet ask me not what they contain. You must not yet know; there is danger in knowing their contents! But when a whole year has passed without my return or your hearing from me, and if in this whole year no messenger comes to you from me, then, Natalie, then open these letters; you will then possess my testament, and you will consider it a sacred duty to execute it!”