That faculty of the soul which we call presentiment was demonstrated in this case with astonishing clearness. Mimili knew for certain, according to the old man’s letter, that William was dead. “From the moment that hostilities commenced,” he proceeded, “she ordered all the German and French newspapers that are to be procured at Berne. The best maps of France, Germany, and the Netherlands, were hung in her chamber. She followed the movements of the armies with increasing anxiety, for she perceived that they were daily approaching nearer to each other. Whenever the weather permitted, she ascended her Alp as high as she could for the snow, and turning towards the quarter where her lover then was, she poured forth the prayers of her agonized heart to that God who dwelleth high above the mountains. Here I once saw her unobserved: she loudly pronounced the name of her William, but no friendly echo returned the silver tones of her voice. ‘He hears me not!’ said she sorrowfully; and suppressing the tears that started into her eyes, returned to her father’s lonely habitation; saluting, by the way, those spots which had witnessed the happy hours she had spent with her beloved.
“My wife, deeply grieved to see the sorrowing maiden thus pining away, found fault with William for sacrificing the angelic creature.
