OR,

PICTURES OF A COURT.

BY

MRS. ROBERT CARTWRIGHT,

AUTHOR OF

"LAMIA, A CONFESSION," "CHRISTABELLE,"
"AMBROSE THE SCULPTOR," &c., &c.

"Les écrivains comme les instituteurs, améliorent bien plus sûrement par ce
qu'ils inspirent que par ce qu'ils enseignent. Les pensées délicates et pures, dans
la vie comme dans les livres, animent chaque parole, se peignent dans chaque
trait, sans qu'il soit pour cela nécessaire de les déclarer formellement ni de les
rédiger en maximes; et la moralité d'un ouvrage d'imagination consiste bien
plus dans l'impression générale qu'on en reçoit que dans les détalis qu'on en
retient."
MADAME DE STAEL

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL II.

LONDON:

J. F. HOPE, 16, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1857.

2 49, 2, 235.

THE ROYAL SISTERS.

CHAPTER I.

A little boat is dancing, adown a rippling stream,
Deep silence all entrancing, and like some fairy dream;
Her company as strangers to one another seem.

Brown Huntsman straightway rising, draws forth his sounding Horn,
With thrilling tones surprising, soon its golden throat is torn
From shore to shore those echoes are in countless numbers borne.
Then white-hair'd Pilgrim cleaving his walking staff in twain,
A silvery flute's soft weaving mingleth celestial rain,
While o'er the rapt and listening air, sweet melody doth reign.
The Maiden idly musing, that till now had sat apart,
Tongue-tied as self-accusing, to hide such blissful art,

Now pours the love-fraught ditty, drawn from her beating heart.

The oarsmen stirred inly, keep time in stroke and lay,
The Bark beneath them nimbly, speeds on upon its way,
Rock'd by the swelling music as the breezes round it play.
Insensibly on floating, the distant shore we gain-
Our voyage's end denoting,-dies down the charmed strain.
Ah, Brethren, in that fairy boat when shall we meet again?

AUTHOR'S Translation from the German of UHLAND.

THE day of their departure came but too quickly, and Thekla took leave of her sister and me with great and sincere emotion.

You may imagine that she promised to write

regularly to both of us, and not to allow that this, or the still more awful separation from us, which was so speedily to follow, should, in any degree, alienate her affections; or, as is so often the case, diminish her natural and habitual intimacy with her sister. How often have I seen those who, when young, and in the fresh tide of heart and feeling, would have deeply resented the supposition of ever forgetting their early connexions, become gradually enveloped in the selfish network of the world, and insensibly allow themselves to be estranged from ties which no after friendships can replace.

As I was not to accompany the Princess-and Countess von Söhran, as I have already stated, for reasons of her own, had decided (very fortunately, I thought) to remain at X—, it had been a matter of some consideration to the Duke, to select a person of such mature age and undoubted respectability as should be, at once, a companion and adviser to his young daughter and her giddy maid of honour.

The first lady about the court, whose rank and position rather than her qualities-pointed her out for such a trust, was the Chanoinesse; but, unluckily, her matrimonial undertakings, which were brought to a happy conclusion the very day before the departure of the court for Toplitz, by a brilliant wedding in the Hof Kapelle des Herzoglichen Schlosses, put a stop to the idea. The moment was untoward-at another time-next year, perhaps—she and her hnsband would have delighted in forming part of a travelling court; he, of course, acting as a most incomparable Reise Marschall, and ordering the post horses, fixing the relays, the day's journey, &c., with that acquaintance with German roads, horses, inns, and postilions, which such court-functionaries are expected to possess. She, on her part, would have been an equally perfect high mistress of the ceremonies to the little court-ambulatory; knowing everybody's rank, and effectually preserving her sacred young Princess from the sight or knowledge of