om across the door, bade him get horses, which were always kept in
readiness in the stables, and, flinging a parcel of letters into a
box, told the page to follow him on horseback with these. The young man
(Monsieur de Weissenborn) told this to a young lady who was then of my
household, and who is now Madame de Weissenborn, and a mother of a score
of children.

'The page described that never was such a change seen as in his august
master in the course of that single night. His eyes were bloodshot, his
face livid, his clothes were hanging loose about him, and he who
had always made his appearance on parade as precisely dressed as any
sergeant of his troops, might have been seen galloping through the
lonely streets at early dawn without a hat, his unpowdered hair
streaming behind him like a madman.

'The page, with the box of papers, clattered after his master,--it was
no easy task to follow him; and they rode from the palace to the town,
and through it to the General's quarter. The sentinels at the door were
scared at the strange figure that rushed up to the General's gate, and,
not knowing him, crossed bayonets, and refused him admission. "Fools,"
said Weissenborn, "it is the Prince!" And, jangling at the bell as if
for an alarm of fire, the door was at length opened by the porter, and
his Highness ran up to the Generals bedchamber, followed by the page
with the box.

'"Magny--Magny," roared the Prince, thundering at the closed door, "get
up!" And to the queries of the old man from within, answered, "It is
I--Victor--the Prince!--get up!" And presently the door was opened by
the General in his ROBE-DE-CHAMBRE, and the Prince entered. The page
brought in the box, and was bidden to wait without, which he did; but
there led from Monsieur de Magny's bedroom into his antechamber two
doors, the great one which formed the entrance into his room, and a
smaller one which led, as the fashion is with our houses abroad, into
the closet which communicates with the alcove where the bed is. The door
of this was found by M. de Weissenborn to be open, and the young man
was thus enabled to hear and see everything which occurred within the
apartment.

'The General, somewhat nervously, asked what was the reason of so early
a visit from his Highness; to which the Prince did not for a while
reply, farther than by staring at him rather wildly, and pacing up and
down the room.

'At last he said, "Here is the cause!" dashing his fist on t