rs, payable in two weeks.
But I repeat to your majesty that I have appraised the stones at a very
low rate, and that I shall make large profits, and realize at least four
thousand dollars. Your majesty ought to permit me to add the value of
the setting."

"I told you already that we ought not to add any thing to the first
appraisement. Well, the bargain is made," said the queen, gently. "Bring
me the money and the bills of exchange, and you may then take the
jewelry. Let us say I have intrusted it to you to make some alterations
in it."

An hour afterward, the caskets disappeared from the queen's table; in
their place stood a box filled with rolls of gold-pieces, and the bills
of exchange lay at its side. The queen, placing a few of the rolls in
her desk and the bills in the box, hastened to write the following
letter to Baron von Stein:

"I request you to grant me the same favor which the prince obtained from
you. I desire likewise to pay some savings into the state treasury, and
send you, therefore, twenty-five thousand dollars with this letter. Pray
do not forget to pay, in accordance with our agreement, the arrears of
salaries due the men of science and art, and the faithful old servants
of the king. LOUISA."

"Oh," said the queen, laying aside the pen, and looking up with a
grateful expression, "how many worthy men will be delivered from
distress by this unexpected payment! What fervent prayers for their king
will ascend to heaven! Merciful God, hear them, and let my husband and
children be again happy; then I shall have nothing more to desire on
earth!"

In the evening of the same day Prince William, accompanied only by an
adjutant and a footman, set out for Paris in order to deliver to the
Emperor Napoleon the financial plan drawn up by Minister von Stein, and
the letter of Queen Louisa, and to try to induce Napoleon by verbal
remonstrances to withdraw his demands, and accept less ruinous
conditions. Before entering his travelling-coach, the prince, in his
cabinet, bade farewell to her whom he loved so passionately. They
remained long without uttering a word or even a sigh. The beautiful face
of the Princess Marianne was pale, but her tearless eyes beamed with
hope. "Go, my beloved husband," she said, disengaging herself at last
from the arms of the prince, "go and perform your noble sacrifice! My
love will accompany you. Your life is my life, and your death my death!
Go! I fear nothing."

"But at this s