stood strongly entrenched.

"They have robbed him, but you and I were permitted to do
nothing. Where is the prosperity of which we formerly boasted? I,
too, hear crumbling walls. Yet, the son of this Englishman,
whose strange freak is still unaccountable, will come at the
appointed time; I know the race. He will renew the loan for
another ten years. What a fancy! Lord Fitzgerald was an
eccentric man. Given a purpose, he pursued it to the end,
neither love nor friendship, nor fear swerved him. Do you know
that he made a vow that Duke Josef should never sit on this
throne, nor his descendants? What were five millions to him, if
in giving them he realized the end? The king would never explain
the true cause of this Englishman's folly, but I know that it
was based on revenge, the cause of which also is a mystery. If
only the prince were here!"

"He will come; youth will be youth."

"Perhaps."

"You have never been young."

"Not in that particular sense to which you refer," dryly.

* * * * * *

In the chamber of finance Colonel Beauvais leaned over the desk
and perused the writing on a slip of paper which the minister
had given him. Enough daylight remained to permit the letters to