t is to be done, must be
done, therefore, in the course of to-day."

CHAPTER XII.

THE PRINCESS VON HATZFELD.

Grand-Marshal Duroc was pacing his room in great agitation. Evening was
drawing nigh, and still he had not received any intelligence from the
Princess von Hatzfeld. Yet her husband had been arrested in the course
of the forenoon and taken to the palace, in one of the rooms of which he
was locked up and kept under strict surveillance. The news of his arrest
had spread rapidly through Berlin, and cast a gloom over the whole city.
Everywhere in the streets groups of pale and grave men were to be seen,
who whispered to each other this latest dreadful event, and vented their
anger in secret imprecations.

All were convinced that the Prince von Hatzfeld must die; every one felt
it to be a new humiliation inflicted upon himself personally, that one
of the most respected and distinguished men in Prussia was to be charged
with felony, and tried as a common spy. No one doubted that the
court-martial would pass sentence of death upon him; and that Napoleon
would show no mercy, nor feel any compassion, could be read in his stern
and melancholy air when, followed by his suite, he rode through the
streets to Charlottenburg.

All the reproaches heretofore uttered against the Prince von Hatzfeld
were forgotten; the people forgave his weakness, his cowardice, his
predilection for France. At this hour, when he was menaced by the
universal enemy and oppressor they only remembered that he was a German,
and that the anger of the conqueror ought to make him a martyr of the
German cause. They whispered to each other that Napoleon had selected
the prince merely for the purpose of intimidating the opposition by an
example of severity, and of frightening the royalists. "He is lost!"
they said, mournfully. "The emperor will not pardon him, for he intends
to punish in the prince's person ourselves, who love the king and would
like to send him information concerning the enemy and his armies."

"The Prince von Hatzfeld is lost!" said Duroc, also, as he was uneasily
and sadly pacing his room. "Yes! This time Talleyrand, in spite of all
his sagacity, has been mistaken. The emperor does not intend to pardon
the prince, for he has selected Davoust, Rapp, and Clarke as members of
the court-martial, and they have no mercy on those whom their master has
accused. The princess does not think of coming to me and of invoking my
interces