and soul been fully
absorbed by the flood of pure and noble tones which so unexpectedly
streamed toward him, his eyes would have been at least briefly attracted
by the dish which Count Krockow more than once presented, for it
contained an oyster ragout which a mounted messenger had brought that
noon from the Baltic Sea to the city on the Danube.

Yet many long minutes elapsed ere he noticed the dish, though it was one
of his favourite viands. Barbara's song stirred the imperial lover
of music at the nocturnal banquet just as it had thrilled the great
musicians a few hours before. He thought that he had never heard
anything more exquisite, and when the Benedictio Mensa: died away he
clasped his sister's hand, raised it two or three times to his lips,
and thanked her with such affectionate warmth that she blessed the
accomplishment of her happy idea, and willingly forgot the unpleasant
moments she had just undergone.

Now, as if completely transformed, he wished to be told who had had the
lucky thought of summoning his orchestra and her boy choir, and how the
plan had been executed; and when he had heard the story, he fervently
praised the delicacy of feeling and true sportsmanlike energy of her
strong and loving woman's heart.

The court orchestra gave its best work, and so did the new head cook.
The pheasant stuffed with snails and the truffle sauce with it seemed
delicious to the sovereign, who called the dish a triumph of the
culinary art of the Netherlands. The burden of anxieties and the pangs
inflicted by the gout seemed to be forgotten, and when the orchestra
ceased he asked to hear the boy choir again.

This time it gave the most beautiful portion of Joscluin de Pres's hymn
to the Virgin, "Ecce tu pulchra es"; and when Barbara's "Quia amore
langueo" reached his ear and heart with its love-yearning melody, he
nodded to his sister with wondering delight, and then listened, as if
rapt from the world, until the last notes of the motet died away.

Where had Appenzelder discovered the marvellous boy who sang this "Quia
amore langueo"? He sent Don Luis Quijada to assure the leader and the
young singer of his warmest approbation, and then permitted the Queen
also to seek the choir and its leader to ask whom the latter had
succeeded in obtaining in the place of the lad from Cologne, whom he had
often heard sing the "tu pulchra es," but with incomparably less depth
of feeling.

When she returned she informed the Emp