comprehend the minutest details;
nothing escapes them, and, with the finest instruments in their
possession, they can more readily deal with a crushed heart. If love had
left Frances a single hope, she might still have found happiness in
friendship.

Nowhere at rest, she sometimes left Sulgostow for the convent of the
Holy Sacrament in Warsaw; but solitude could not restore her peace, and
her prayers were one cry of despair sent up to God to implore death.

The genius of sorrow is the most prolific of all spirits, it seems as if
human nature were infinite in nothing but in the power to suffer. There
was still another grief in store for Frances, another wound for her
afflicted soul; she lost her parents, lost them before they had bestowed
the name of son upon their daughter's husband. At this time she went to
the Franciscan convent in Cracow, whither Barbara sent her her young
daughter Angelica, to endeavor to bind her to earth through the
influence of this innocent and youthful affection.

She lived also at Cznestochowa or at Opole, and everywhere received
orders not to disclose her marriage. At long intervals of time, the
prince royal came to see her, and thus accomplished an external duty of
conscience: total desertion and forgetfulness would perhaps have been
preferable.

The prophecy made by the little Matthias was finally verified: the ducal
crown and the throne of Poland both slipped from Prince Charles's grasp;
Biren was named Duke of Courland, and, when Augustus III. died (at
Dresden, October 5th, 1763), he was succeeded by Stanislaus Augustus
Poniatowski.

To quiet the uneasiness and the melancholy suspicions of Frances, the
prince royal declared to her that through regard for his father's
advanced age he must continue to conceal his marriage. But many years
passed after the king's death without bringing any amelioration or
change in the position of Frances; the prince and the royal family lived
in Dresden, while the prince's wife was constrained to hide her real
name in obscurity.

The Lubomirski family did all in their power to obtain a recognition of
Frances's rights; they even appealed to the Empress Maria Theresa.
Prince Charles finally yielded; he wrote a most tender letter to his
wife, begging her to come to him in Dresden; this letter found her at
Opole, and the Lubomirski advised her to await another advance from the
prince before she consented to go to Dresden, which she did.

Prince Charles,