the Palace together, the Chancellor was visualizing another scene, which
must come soon, pray God with as good result: the time when, the old
King dead and the solemn bell of the cathedral tolling, this boy would
step out on to the balcony overlooking the Place, and show himself to
the great throng below the windows.

To offset violence and anarchy itself, only that one small figure on the
balcony!

Late in the afternoon the King sent for Prince Ferdinand William Otto.
He had not left his bed since the day he had placed the matter of
Hedwig's marriage before the Council, and now he knew he would never
leave it. There were times between sleeping and waking when he fancied
he had already gone, and that only his weary body on the bed remained.
At such times he saw Hubert, only, strangely enough, not as a man grown,
but as a small boy again; and his Queen, but as she had looked many
years before, when he married her, and when at last, after months of
married wooing, she had crept willing into his arms.

So, awakening from a doze, he saw the boy there, and called him Hubert.
Prince Ferdinand William Otto, feeling rather worried, did the only
thing he could think of. He thrust his warm hand into his grandfather's
groping one, and the touch of his soft flesh roused the King.

The Sister left them together, and in her small room dropped on her
knees before the holy image. There, until he left, she prayed for the
King's soul, for the safety and heavenly guidance of the boy. The wind
stirred her black habit and touched gently her white coif. She prayed,
her pale lips moving silently.

In the King's bedchamber Prince Ferdinand William Otto sat on a high
chair, and talked. He was extremely relieved that his exile was over,
but he viewed his grandfather, with alarm. His aunt had certainly
intimated that his running away had made the King worse. And he looked
very ill.

"I'm awfully sorry, grandfather," he said.

"For what?"

"That I went away the other day, sir."

"It was, after all, a natural thing to do."

The Crown Prince could hardly believe his ears.

"If it could only be arranged safely--a little freedom--" The King lay
still with closed eyes.

Prince Ferdinand William Otto felt uneasy. "But I am very comfortable,
and--and happy," he hastened to say. "You are, please, not to worry
about me, sir. And about the paper I threw at Monsieur Puaux the other
day, I am sorry about that too. I don't know exactly why I d