she shall perhaps behold no more, but of the influence which such a moment gives to press a suit in furtherance of some design which she had conceived ere she sought the blessing."

He flung her contemptuously into the arms of her husband and turned away, while the poor princess withdrew heart-stricken and ashamed, and her rich bridal veil of ancient lace served to dry the tears, which fell in torrents from her eyes, and which not even the soothing and caresses of her husband, to whom she was gratefully attached, seemed to have power to stay. Prince Frederic did not remain behind, he literally sneaked from the room with head bent low and shoulder raised, keeping to the wall, fearing to be observed. It was not thus that she, the absent

one, had defended him when he had been in trouble and disgrace! Was it not for his sake that she had remained so long in dreary captivity ? Was he not the cause that she would go maimed and a cripple to her grave?

It was some time after this great event at court, and the Princess Ulrica, sought in marriage by the Prince Royal of Sweden, had departed also from the court of Prussia. The king had not been well for many weeks, and the few festivities which should have taken place upon the occasion were deferred. All was sad as usual : the king had requested to be left alone in his study, under pretext of some grave affair, but no sooner was the door closed, than his majesty walked slowly up to the bookcase where I was confined, and took from thence some few of his favourite registers which he loved so to consult, but somehow he seemed at this hour to find no pleasure in them, for one by one he returned them to the shelf with an exclamation of disgust, and he sighed, yes, the tyrant sighed as deeply and as mournfully as any broken-hearted woman, and seizing me, to my great astonishment, in a convulsive grasp, he pressed me to his bosom and bathed me with his tears !

I could scarcely believe my senses. Never had I as yet been the object of the slightest attention before this moment, save at the dead of night when none were near, when the sovereign stood alone with the memory of his injured child and the stings of his uneasy conscience ; but here, in the broad light of day, to be thus subdued when the drum was beating aux changes, and the very rattle of the muskets could be distinctly heard as the soldiers on duty presented arms to the Margrave and Margravine de Bareith as their carriage rattled from beneath the gateway!

“Surely this apathy to military propriety, this indifference to what had till now formed the most important occupation of existence, must augur some great change !" I thought, as I examined more minutely his hard, stern features, which were turned to the full light of the casement. There was a change, indeed! as if ten years had passed over his head since I had last beheld him. His whole countenance seemed to have dropped at least an inch, and his eyes, which had ever been restless and malignant in their expression, now might have been taken for two balls of living fire. Even the little pig-tail—my

ancient
eyesore

and abomination-no longer stood stiff out from his nape, as it was wont to do in former times, but hung limp and flat upon the collar of his coat, loosely tied, and scarcely tightened. The hand which grasped me, too, was for the first time hot and feverish, and trembled as if stricken with palsy. In spite of my hatred to the man, I could not help feeling some slight emotion of pity as I beheld all this, and listened to his words ;

“She, too, is gone,” he exclaimed, as the carriage which bore the

ened step.

princess flashed for the last time in the sun, and then disappeared beneath the archway of the palace-yard. “She, too, is gone, and I shall behold her no more. She is gone, like the rest, and has not discovered my secret. It is better that it should be so. I need none of their false endearments. Thank God, I stand in no want of their hypocritical soothings and caresses.

After all, 'tis better not to be deceived – there is no hypocrisy in their terror. How they all tremble at my footstep!-how they shrink and writhe at my frown! They do not hide what they feel. There is no attempt at deception there!" He stopped short and gasped for breath, while a livid tint spread itself o'er his features, and he laid his hand convulsively upon his heart. “ That pang again!” he exclaimed, “ that racking spasm, 'tis the third to-day-the warning is clear enough -not to be mistaken. Well, well, I have no cause of complaint, my task is well nigh done, and I may sink to rest without regret.”. His voice faltered slightly, and he fell to pacing the room with length“And yet,

,” he again resumed, in a softened tone, “hard and cruel as they find me, methinks I should not all these years have suffered any one of them to have endured thus, unheeded and in secret, the torments which I have so long supported without a murmur.

Had there been a single anxious look-a small change of colour-I should have seen and noticed it: none of them-neither the languid Sophia, nor the pious Ulrica, nor the frivolous Henry, no, not even the cold, pedantic Frederic, could have concealed their sufferings thus long from me, although I am so hard of heart—so 'cruel to my Hesh and blood, but not one of them has noticed my decay, my daily struggles, for the short space of life which yet remains; and I shall

, no doubt, die suddenly' at last ; although I have been fighting valiantly for many years against the enemy, who is on the point of victory even now.”

He placed me on the table, then walked towards the mirror, and gazed at his own reflection for an instant, adding with a bitter laugh:

“ But they could answer this reproach, and say they have not dared to look me in the face, so terrified have they ever been of the expression they might find written there.”

He paused again and resumed his pacing to and fro of the apartment. I could almost tell what was passing in his mind, that all the while he was thinking of the exile, and with bitterness regretting his injustice, for I had observed that he had avoided mentioning her name, when enumerating his children.

I was right in my conjecture, for presently he spoke again in a subdued and stifled voice :

yet there was one amongst them who would have soothed me at this hour, whose anxious eye would long ago have detected my secret, as I, although content to bear the reproach of cruelty and hatred to ali around me, have long ago detected hers. Foolish girl! as if I did not know all that was passing round me, ay, even to their very thoughts. I could forgive the others, but she I dare not forgive, lest I betray my melting soul beneath her gaze. Foolish girl, why not confide in me? Why seek for help and consolation in the cold-hearted Frederic? I should have reasoned, and perchance have helped, hard and unkind as I appear. The fool in whom she puts her trust will beguile her with fair promises which he will not keep, and while my child is cursing me, she little dreams

that I have sent her lover into danger, only to see if he be worthy of his high fortune. The reports are good as yet, and in a little time who knows? Ha, ha, 'twill be a glorious joke to witness the anger and astonishment of the old sovereigns of Europe,' my blockhead cousin George of England, and the grey mare of Austria. The King of France too the Château roux, she will think the step immoral, no doubt ; that petticoated swindler, Maria Theresa, how she will stamp and swear. Yes, by Heaven, were it only for this, Trenck shall have the girl. I do not hate Trenck, he is come of manly blood. Commend me to his cousin Franz, the wild Pandour. There is a Man. Such a one I love to see. Would that he were the loved one of Amelia! There had been no need of proofs and trials then. But I am pleased with young Trenck, he has shown both firmness and a kind of courage. How the boy's eyes flashed fire when I taxed him with his love. He did not yawn or lie, but gloried in his guilt, and when I reproached him with his base ingratitude,' how bravely did he stamp his foot, defying me to tell him what it was he owed me! He knew that by his rash imprudence he was incurring a speedy and an ignominious death, but such consideration did not check him from speaking God's holy truth. He little thought while he stood before me panting and breathless with rage, awaiting his sentence, and ready to endure it, that I was glad in my heart to have found man at last about me, and that when I sentenced him to be degraded to the ranks, and to the hardest

duty in the army, 'twas not as punishment but as trial of his strength of soul. My eye is on him, and I am well pleased. 'Tis of such stuff as this that king's sons should be made. How different to my miserable Fritz! What have I not done to rouse that sleepy soul into something like honest indignation, but no, he has no heart. He is incapable alike of friendship or of love. I have watched him narrowly since his return from Custrin ; he drowns amid his fluting and fiddling every remembrance which could bring either remorse or grief, although each note of his accursed flute should bring to mind the flutist's daughter, who was whipped at the cart's tail for his sake. He has forgotten poor Kalt, whom he saw beheaded from his window. Yes, he bows and curvets, and assents to all I say, as though I had not commanded all this. Why Trenck would have torn the sabres from the gendarmes condemned to hold him at the window. He would have murdered them and perished with his friend rather than have beheld him die alone. If he had lived to be enlarged, he would have grappled with me breast to breast ; he would have scorned my favour and defied my power ; he would have died in the struggle ere he would have suffered dishonour thus to sit upon the fame of his lady love, and upon

the
memory

of his devoted friend—Faugh! Do what I will, it still remains the same base and coward soul. Am I not even now keeping such bitter rigour with the only one of them all who ever loved me, hoping day by day that the hypocrite will take courage and speak out for her ? She who courted me for his sake, but did I not see the very last time her name was mentioned, how he flinched from the task, and put it off upon

soft fool Sophia, so that she might bear the brunt of my wrath ? Verily, I was so incensed that I wonder that I did not pin him to the wall, 'twas so like the sneaking hound.”

Another spasm must have passed through his heart at that moment,

the poor

for he stooped suddenly, and bounded like a wounded beast almost the whole length of the apartment. He then staggered to a chair and seated himself, leaning backwards with his eyes closed and his lips quivering with an expression of anguish, I shall never forget. The pain must have been intense for a moment, for he appeared as if already gone. He slowly recovered, however, but the shock seemed to have given him cause of grave and deep reflection, for he remained for some time silent and motionless after the pain had passed away. His first movement was to reach the pen and ink which stood on the table by his side.

“ I must delay no longer," he murmured, faintly, “each racking spasm may be the last, and 'twould be the worst cruelty of all to leave her to the mercy of yonder paltry fiddler. I will send immediately for Trenck, and then—then (his speech was evidently thickening, and the words came slower as from the lips of a drunken man) and then—why all will be right at last. She shall return, and my child will curse me no more. We shall be happy yet together.”

The words were scarcely uttered when he sank forward upon the table, not in a reclining posture, as if overtaken by sleep, but in a position most painful to behold, then his head fell heavily to one side, and so drawn downwards by the weight, his whole frame obeyed the impulse, and gliding from the chair, dropped upon the floor!

Oh, it was an awful sight to behold that livid face turned upwards to the light--the open eye, the hanging jaw-the foam which hung in loose flakes

upon his swollen, discoloured lips, and the attitude in which he had fallen, too, at once grotesque and horrible, one leg bent beneath the other, and the arms outstretched, as if appealing to Heaven against the precipitate decree, as if suing for time to repair the consequences of his unjust tyranny. So sudden had been the shock that I could not at first believe that he would not rise again immediately, but when the sentinel relieved guard, and that single stroke of the drum was beat beneath his window, that signal at which it was his wont to start, and with a fearful oath all ready on his tongue, draw forth his watch to note if that first stroke coincided exactly with the minute hand—he did not even stir a finger. I knew that he would rise no more, and that he must be really DEAD.

Yes, he was dead at last! Rejoice ye who tremble at the tyrant's anger; he shall frown no more. Be happy ye who moved around him in abject terror, in domestic slavery, ye are free at last. The poor beaten soldier, the despised heart-broken man of science may alike rejoice, the tyrant is no more. He lies there silent, and the basest hind throughout his kingdom has more power than he !

It was almost night before any one dared enter, though loud and frequent had been the applications at the door. It appeared that many had been the consultations without, but such was the terror in which every individual moved about the palace, that none ventured to disturb the privacy of the sovereign.

It was Frederic, the prince royal, who entered first, while many remained gazing through the open door. He entered that dull and solemn chamber, the cowed and bullied prince royal, whose proud like subjection

had made him the talk of all Prussia. He left it, Frederic the Second, head of the house of Brandenburg, sovereign of that kingdom, which his father, by dint of boldness and perseverance, had acquired

for him and his heirs for ever!

It cannot be wondered then if the grief he was compelled to manifest while in presence of those dreaded remains did find itself a little subdued when the ugly sight was removed, and he really could begin to believe that he was free, that he was his own lord, and the kingdom's ruler.

I verily believe that I myself, the poor unnoticed puppy-dog, was the only thing living or inanimate, by whom that most dreaded, most orderly, prudent, saving, economical sovereign was regretted, and while others were wailing and weeping around his corse as it laid in state, bedecked with velvet and with tinsel in the great hall of the palace, I am sure that I must have been the only thing that ever once wished the dead man to come to life again. Oh that he could have lived and breathed once more even for one single instant, so that his last intention might have been made known, that Trenck might have returned, and my sweet Amelia have been made happy after all her sufferings ! My regrets for the old king's sudden death, grew more and more bitter as the time wore on, for I had, from the very first hour, a sad conviction that his anticipations of the prince's weakness were too true, and that Frederic's philosophy was of the same kind as that of royal philosophers in general; liberal and philanthropic to a high degree, so long as they are standing on the steps of the throne, but becoming suddenly of the more reasonable and prudent kind when they have once reached the top and are fairly seated there.

It is not to be wondered at if in the confusion of that night I was for a time completely cast aside and forgotten. The room was needed to complete some portion of the pageant relating to the ceremony of lying in state, and therefore on the very morrow of the event I have been recounting, I was huddled away behind a lot of old musty volumes in the book-case, and there left to my meditations for many a long and weary day. My misery at being thus excluded from all that was going on around me, was more severe, from the curiosity which had ever been my bane, and which now tormented me ten-fold, mingled as it was with my hopes and fears. But alas, years passed on once more.

It seemed my destiny to be forgotten, laid upon the shelf; and I, who certainly was formed to play a conspicuous part in society, was condemned to oblivion, buried for years between two ponderous volumes, whose author I often sent in my despair, to a place where his readers had sent him long before. At length, however, a happy event occurred, which emancipated me from my confinement, gave me the enjoyment of society, and held out the happy prospect of something to think of and to tell.

It was one sultry day in the midst of summer, I could tell this even in my retreat, for it was only when the weather was at the

hottest that the window opposite the book-case was opened, and the current of air which entered by this means, would cause the moths to dance in the sunbeams joyously, and the dust which had never been removed from the parchment, to fly in light clouds every time the door was opened, or any footsteps chanced to cross the room. During the whole of the morning I had been struck by the hurry and bustle around me, so unusual that I was sure some great change was about to take place in my destiny. This im