possible, that is certain; the
bars are in their places, the walls are whole, and neither the locks
nor the bolts have been disturbed; but there are witches in the world
that pass through walls without moving a stone, and who knows but what
the prisoner is one of them? Was it ever known whence she came?"

The king sent in search of the doctor. He was a strong-minded man and
had little faith in witches. He sounded the walls, shook the bars, and
cross-examined the jailer, but all to no purpose. Trusty men were sent
everywhere through the town, and spies were set on the countess, whom
the doctor suspected, but all in vain, and after a week the search
was abandoned. Rachimburg lost his place as jailer, but as he
possessed the royal secret, as he was needed, and as he thirsted to
avenge himself, he was made the warden of the royal castle. Furious at
his bad luck, he exercised his supervision with such strictness that
in less than three days he arrested Wieduwillst himself half a dozen
times, and disarmed all suspicion.

At the end of a week some fishermen brought to the court the robe and
mantle of the queen. The waves had cast on the shore these sad relics,
covered with sand and sea-foam. That the poor mad woman had drowned
herself no one doubted on seeing the grief of the king and the tears
of the countess. The council was assembled. It decided with a
unanimous voice that the queen was legally dead and that the king was
legally a widower, and for the interest of the people entreated his
majesty to abridge a painful mourning and to marry again as soon as
possible, in order to strengthen the dynasty. This decision was
transmitted to the king by Wieduwillst, the chief physician to the
king and president of the royal council, who made so touching a speech
that the whole court burst into tears, and Charming threw himself into
the doctor's arms, calling him his cruel friend.

It is unnecessary to say that the funeral of a queen so much lamented
was magnificent. In the kingdom of Wild Oats everything serves as a
pretext for ceremony. The pageant was worthy of admiration, but the
most admirable thing in it was the attitude of the young girls of the
court. Every one looked at Charming, who was handsomer than ever in
his mourning dress; every one wept with one eye in honor of the
princess, and smiled with the other to attract the king. Ah! had
photography only been invented, what portraits would antiquity have
transmitted to us--