ie, also, because you look so horrible! God has marked you, and
given you a monstrous body, because your soul is that of a monster. I
will kill you, therefore, that you may no longer frighten mankind!" She
put the arrow on the string and shot.

A loud shout resounded. The arrow remained in the figure. Maria Louisa
had hit Bonaparte.

"Hurrah, the Archduchess Maria Louisa has killed Bonaparte!" cried the
little ones. "The monster is dead! The robber lives no more! The wretch
and villain!"

"Why, what is going on here? Whom are you abusing so shockingly?" asked
a voice behind them, and the children, turning around, saw their father,
the Emperor Francis, who had entered unnoticed by them.

"We are abusing the malicious robber, papa emperor," exclaimed the
Archduchess Marianne, pointing at the figure.

"Your majesty, dear papa emperor," exclaimed little Francis Charles,
eagerly--"only think of it, Maria Louisa has hit the heart of Bonaparte.
The monster is dead; he is unable now to steal any thing more from us!"

"Sancta Maria!" cried the emperor, "how can you use such language, my
son? How can you utter such disrespectful epithets about the illustrious
Emperor Napoleon?"

The boy looked at his father in dismay. "Your majesty," he said,
timidly, "you yourself told me Napoleon could not be abused enough, and
a genuine Hapsburg ought to execrate the infamous robber. Those were
your majesty's own words, papa!"

"Oh, I was only joking," exclaimed the emperor, angrily, "and a clever
prince, like you, ought to have noticed it at once. But I am talking in
earnest now, and forbid you playing this stupid game any more, or
uttering another word against the Emperor Napoleon. He is a very
illustrious, and moreover an excellent man--a very great emperor--whom
every one loves and praises."

"Papa emperor," cried the Archduke Francis Charles, wonderingly, "but
your majesty told me at Ofen that every one was abhorring Bonaparte,
and--"

"You are a pert little fool!" replied the emperor, vehemently. "What I
said then has no sense now. For at that time we were at war, and
Napoleon was our enemy. But now we have made peace, and he is our
friend, and so dear a friend, that I would willingly intrust to him my
most precious treasure; I am sure he would honor and cherish it! Listen
to my orders, therefore, all of you: do not utter another word against
the Emperor Napoleon. We all love and admire him, and that stupid game
must never b