she at once pictured him
with a cold or lying helpless in the open air, stricken down by fever
or inflammation of the lungs. Henceforth she thought no more about the
decisive battle, and forgot all else during the hours that she sat and
followed George's movements. Then she sent for huntsmen, for messengers
and for all the professors who studied geography, botany, or geology,
and bade them look into the mirror, and asked them if they knew where
those mountains were, of which they saw the reflection. The smooth
surface showed only the immediate surroundings of the boy, and no one
could tell what the district was where George wandered. Thereupon she
sent messengers towards all points of the compass to seek him.

Thus half the day passed, and when the chancellor came again in the
afternoon to inquire after the fortunes of the battle, the duchess was
frightened, for she had entirely forgotten the conflict.

She therefore commanded the mirror to show her again the army and
Moustache, the field-marshal, who was a cousin of her late husband. She
beheld with dismay that the ranks of her soldiers were wavering. The
chancellor saw it, too; he put his hand to his narrow forehead and
cried:

"Everything is lost! My office, your Highness, and the land! I must to
the treasury, to the stables! The enemy--flight--our brave soldiers--I
pray your Highness to keep a watch over the battle! More important
duties...."

He withdrew, and when half an hour later he returned, very red in the
face from all the orders that he had given, and looked over the duchess'
shoulder, unperceived into the mirror, he started back and cried out
angrily, as no true courtier ought ever to allow himself to do in the
presence of his sovereign: "By the blood of my ancestors! A boy climbing
a mountain. And there is such dire need to know..."

The duchess sighed and called the battle once more into view. During the
time that she had been watching her son, things had taken a better
turn. This pleased her greatly, and the chancellor exclaimed: "Did I
not prophesy this to your Highness. The circumstances were such that the
victory was bound to be ours. Brave Moustache! I had such confidence in
him that I saw the caravans bearing the treasure depart, without a pang
of uneasiness. Will your Highness be good enough to have them recalled."

After this the duchess had no further opportunity to see the reflection
of her boy until the battle was decided and the victory