Fritz and Jack had again fallen on their knees, this time at the feet of their mother.
"Ah! I begin to understand," she screamed, as she glanced around on the scared group that surrounded her, like a wounded lioness whose cubs were being carried off; "now the bandage begins to drop from my eyes.

A thousand inexplicable things dart into my mind.

You are sending the boys on an impracticable voyage to secure the safety of their mother; but you did not think that in order to prolong my existence for a few years, you would kill me instantly with grief! What right have you to impose a remedy upon me that is a thousand times worse than the malady?
Have I ever complained?
May my sufferings not be agreeable to me?
May I not like them?
Is pain and suffering not our lot from the cradle to the tomb?
But I am not ill, I was never better in my life than I am at this moment." Here she was seized with a paroxysm of nervous tremors that convulsed her frame most fearfully, and completely belied her words.

Becker rushed forward and held her firmly in his arms.
"God give me strength!" he murmured.

"Go, my children, where your duty calls you; go, my friend, do not prolong this terrible scene an instant longer." Not another word was spoken, the pinnace was unmoored; Fritz, Jack, and Willis embarked.