posts a truly royal salary. Etiquette and the fears of the powerful
favorite kept the royal pair almost prisoners.

But for to-day etiquette was to be done away with; the crowned heads
were to be gracious, so as to lend a new glory to their favorite's
house. To-day the count was fearless, for there was no danger of a
traitor being among his guests. His wife and himself had drawn up
the list of invitations. But still, as there might possibly be those
among them who hated the count, and would very gladly injure him, he
had ordered some of the best paid of his friends to watch all
suspicious characters, not to leave them alone for a moment, and not
to overlook a single word of theirs. Of course, it was understood
that the count and his wife must remain continually at the side of
the king and queen, that all who wished to speak to them must first
be introduced by the host or hostess.

The count was perfectly secure to-day, and therefore gay and happy.
He had been looking at the different arrangements for this feast,
and he saw with delight that they were such as to do honor to his
house. It was, to be a summer festival: the entire palace had been
turned into a greenhouse, that served only for an entrance to the
actual scene of festivities. This was the immense garden. In the
midst of the rarest and most beautiful groups of flowers, immense
tents were raised; they were of rich, heavy silk, and were festooned
at the sides with golden cords and tassels. Apart from these was a
smaller one, which outshone them all in magnificence. The roof of
this tent rested upon eight pillars of gold; it was composed of a
dark-red velvet, over which a slight gauze, worked with gold and
silver stars, was gracefully arranged. Upon the table below this
canopy, which rested upon a rich Turkish carpet, there was a heavy