been swallowing this past year." The Marshal
tipped the ash of his cigar into the waste basket.

"Marshal, will you take the word not of the minister, but of the von
Wallenstein, that whatever my reward shall be for my humble services,
yours shall not be less?"

"Thanks, but I have asked for no reward. If I accepted gain for what I
do, I should not be too old to blush."

"I do not understand."

"Self-interest blinds us. I have nothing but pity for this king whose
only crime is an archbishop; and I can not accept gain at his expense; I
should blush for shame. Had I my way, he should die in peace. He has
not long to live. The archbishop--well, we can not make kings, they are
born. But there is one thing more: Over all your schemes is the shadow
of Austria."

"Austria?"

"Yes. The Colonel speaks of a power behind him. Bismarck looks
hungrily toward Schleswig-Holstein. Austria casts amorous eyes at us.
A protectorate? We did not need it. It was forced on us. When Austria
assumed to dictate to us as to who should be king, she also robbed us of
our true independence. Twenty years ago there was no duchy; it was all
one kingdom. Who created this duchy when Albrecht came on the throne?
Austria. Why? If we live we shall read." He rose, shook his lean legs.
"I have been for the most part neutral. I shall remain neutral. There is
an undercurrent on which you have failed to reckon. Austria, mistress
of the confederation. There are two men whom you must watch. One is the
archbishop."

"The archbishop?" The minister was surprised that the Marshal should
concur with the Colonel. "And the other?"

"Your friend the Colonel," starting for the door.

The minister smiled. "Will you not dine with me?" he asked.

"Thanks. But I have the Servian minister on my hands to-night. A propos,
tell the Colonel that I decline Belgrade. I prefer to die at home." And
he vanished.

Von Wallenstein reviewed the statements of both his visitors.

"I shall watch Monseigneur the archbishop." Then he added, with a
half-smile: "God save us if the Marshal's sword were half so sharp as
his tongue! It was careless of me to forget that I had shut him up in
the cabinet."

Meanwhile Beauvais walked slowly toward his quarters, with his saber
caught up under his arm. Once he turned and gazed at the palace, whose
windows began to flash with light.

"Yes, they are puppets and jackals, and I am the lion. For all there
shall serve my ends. I shall win, a