Then her strength failed her.

A pitiful scene had occurred in which the king peevishly upbraided her in regard to some trivial matter--the occasion escapes my memory--speaking to her before others words that even alone she could not have listened to with dignity.

I was there, and Sapt; the colonel's small eyes had gleamed in anger.

"I should like to shut his mouth for him," I heard him mutter, for the king's waywardness had well-nigh worn out even his devotion.

The thing, of which I will say no more, happened a day or two before I was to set out to meet Mr.Rassendyll.I was to seek him this time at Wintenberg, for I had been recognized the year before at Dresden; and Wintenberg, being a smaller place and less in the way of chance visitors, was deemed safer.