Note 179 — Scene II.—The Apartment of Werner, in the Palace.

{383}["'You do not know this man,' continued he; 'I do!—I believe him to be mean—sordid—deceitful! You will conceive yourself safe, because you are young and brave! Learn, however, ... none are so secure but desperation or subtilty may reach them! Stralenheim, in the palace of a prince, was in my power! My knife was held over him—a single moment would have swept him from the face of the earth, and with him all my future fears:—I forbore—and I am now in his.—Are you certain that you are not so too? Who assures you he does not know you?—who tells you that he has not lured you into his society, either to rid himself of you for ever, or to plunge you with your family into a dungeon?'"—Canterbury Tales, by Sophia and Harriet Lee, 1838, ii. 205. It should be noted that this and other passages from Miss Lee's story, which have been selected for comparison with the text, are to be regarded as representative parallels—samples of a far more extended adaptation. Vide ante, "The Introduction to Werner," p. 326.]