rful
villages and stately castles, Wuertemberg lay spread before the eye of
the beholder, in all the glory of the opening day. The unhappy Prince
surveyed the scene with dejected looks. Nature had blessed him with a
constancy of courage, and a heart which even grief and misery were
unable to subdue; he possessed such control over his feelings that few
were able to discern his inward suffering; and when calamity overtook
him, then it was that the energies of his vigorous mind were most
fertile in resources, and prompted him to immediate action.

In this truly heart-rending moment, when his last hope fell with the
loss of his sole remaining castle, he concealed from his friends around
him the painful conflict with which he was struggling. His feeling
might be compared to the repentant son standing by the death-bed of a
beloved mother, whose solicitude and anxiety for his welfare through
life he had slighted, whose tender care of him in infancy he had
forgotten, and the sacrifices she had imposed on herself to satisfy all
his selfish wishes, even to the straitening of her own circumstances
to meet the demands of his riotous living, he had treated with
ingratitude, deeming them nothing more than his due. But now that her
endearing eye no longer beholds him,--now that the ear is closed which
was wont to listen to his wishes and complaints,--now that those hands
no longer feel his last pressure,--then it is that repentance assails
his heart,--then it is that his guilty conscience upbraids him with the
bitter reproach of ingratitude and neglect of God's commandment,--to
love, honour, and cherish father and mother.

Such was the anguish of self-condemnation which at this moment
oppressed the breast of Ulerich of Wuertemberg as he viewed his country,
now to all appearance lost to him for ever. His noble nature, which he
had too often abused in the blandishments of a brilliant court, and
whose finer feelings had been deadened by the poisonous flattery of
false friends, now upbraided him; not so much for being the author of
his own personal misfortunes as for entailing on his country the
distress attendant upon the occupation of it by his enemies.

Having stood for some time at the window, his mind harassed with these
thoughts, he turned to his friends, who noticed in pleasing
astonishment the calm expression of his countenance. They had dreaded
his first burst of rage and violence, which they expected he would vent
upon the tr