ched him from
quarters wherein once lay all his pride and glory; and a young archduke
came himself to offer his new litter to convey Frank to Verona, where
the Imperial headquarters were stationed. These were the very flatteries
which once Von Auersberg would have prized above all that wealth could
give; these were the kind of recognitions by which he measured his own
career in life, making him to feel where he stood; but now one grief had
so absorbed him he scarcely noticed them. He could not divest his mind,
either, of the thought that the boy's fate was intended as a judgment
on himself for his own cold and ungenerous treatment of him. "I forgot,"
would he say to himself,----"I forgot that he was not a castaway like
myself. I forgot that the youth had been trained up amidst the flow
of affectionate intercourse, loving and beloved, and I compared his
position with my own."

And such was in reality the very error he committed. He believed that by
subjecting Frank to all the hard rubs which once had been his own fate
he was securing the boy's future success; forgetting the while how
widely different were their two natures, and that the affections
which are moulded by habits of family association are very unlike the
temperament of one unfriended and unaided, seeking his fortune with no
other guidance than a bold heart and strong will. The old Count was not
the only one, nor will he be the last, to fall into this mistake; and
it may be as well to take a warning from his error, and learn that for
success in the remote and less trodden paths of life the warm affections
that attach to home and family are sad obstacles.

It was ten days before Frank could be removed, and then he was carried
in a litter, arriving in Verona on the fourth day. From his watchful
cares beside the sick-bed, the old General was now summoned to take part
in the eventful councils of the period. A great and momentous crisis
had arrived, and the whole fate, not only of Austria, but of Europe,
depended on the issue. The successes of the Italian arms had been, up to
this point, if not decisive, at least sufficiently important to make the
result a question of doubt. If the levies contributed by the States of
the Church and Tuscany were insignificant in a warlike point of view,
they were most expressive signs of popular feeling at least. Austria,
besides, was assailed on every flank, with open treason in her capital;
and the troops which might have conquer