acquainted with his death. God rest his kindly soul."

The king sank deeper into his pillows.

"But we shall hear from his son within a few days," continued
the prelate, taking the king's hand in his own. "My son, cease
to worry. Alexia's future is in good hands. I have confidence
that the public debt will be liquidated on the twentieth."

"Or renewed," said the chancellor. "Your Majesty must not forget
that Prince Frederick sacrifices his own private fortune to
adjust our indebtedness. That is the wedding gift which he
offers to her Highness. One way or the other, we have nothing to
fear."


"O!" cried the king, "I had forgotten that magnanimity. His
disappearance is no longer a mystery. He is dead."

His auditors could not repress the start which this declaration
caused them to make.

"Sire," said the chancellor, quietly, "princes are not
assassinated these days. Our worry is perhaps all needless. The
prince is young, and sometimes youth flings off the bridle and
runs away. But he loves her Highness, and the Carnavians are not
fickle."

The prelate and the statesman had different ideas in regard to
the peasant girl. To the prelate a woman was an unknown quantity,