Prince Henry was so happy in her presence, and so dazzled by her
beauty, that he did not remark the melancholy of the count, and
spoke with him gayly and jestingly, while the count mastered
himself, and replied in the same spirit.

The princess bowed down to the swans, whom she enticed once more
with caresses to the borders of the lake. Suddenly she uttered a
loud cry, and called to the two gentlemen for help. The great white
swan had torn the camelias from the bosom of the princess, and
sailed off proudly upon the clear waters of the lake.




CHAPTER V.

INTRIGUES.


While Prince Henry celebrated Arcadian fetes at Rheinsberg, and gave
himself up to love and joy, King Frederick lived in philosophic
retirement at Sans-Souci. He came to Berlin only to visit the queen-
mother, now dangerously ill, or to attend the meetings of his
cabinet ministers. Never had the king lived so quietly, never had he
received so few guests at Sans-Souci, and, above all, never had the
world so little cause to speak of the King of Prussia. He appeared
content with the laurels which the two Silesian wars had placed upon
his heroic brow, and he only indulged the wish that Europe,
exhausted by her long and varied wars, would allow him that rest and