eye; and as the latter
was in a state of vibration he concluded that some one who had been busy
adjusting it had been interrupted in the work by his sudden arrival. All
this he saw, and summoned together his subtilty to evade the impending
danger, resolved, should he find that impossible, to defend himself to
the last against whomsoever should assail him.

Thus resolved, and with a step and look corresponding to the
determination he had taken, Martius presented himself before Louis,
alike unabashed at the miscarriage of his predictions, and undismayed at
the Monarch's anger, and its probable consequences.

"Every good planet be gracious to your Majesty!" said Galeotti, with
an inclination almost Oriental in manner. "Every evil constellation
withhold its influence from my royal master!"

"Methinks," replied the King, "that when you look around this apartment,
when you think where it is situated, and how guarded, your wisdom might
consider that my propitious stars had proved faithless and that each
evil conjunction had already done its worst. Art thou not ashamed,
Martius Galeotti, to see me here and a prisoner, when you recollect by
what assurances I was lured hither?"

"And art thou not ashamed, my royal Sire?" replied the philosopher,
"thou, whose step in science was so forward, thy apprehension so quick,
thy perseverance so unceasing--art thou not ashamed to turn from the
first frown of fortune, like a craven from the first clash of arms?
Didst thou propose to become participant of those mysteries which raise
men above the passions, the mischances, the pains, the sorrows of life,
a state only to be attained by rivalling the firmness of the ancient
Stoic, and dost thou shrink from the first pressure of adversity, and
forfeit the glorious prize for which thou didst start as a competitor,
frightened out of the course, like a scared racer, by shadowy and unreal
evils?"

"Shadowy and unreal! frontless as thou art!" exclaimed the King. "Is
this dungeon unreal?--the weapons of the guards of my detested enemy
Burgundy, which you may hear clash at the gate, are those shadows? What,
traitor, are real evils, if imprisonment, dethronement, and danger of
life are not so?"

"Ignorance--ignorance, my brother, and prejudice," answered the sage,
with great firmness, "are the only real evils. Believe me that Kings in
the plenitude of power, if immersed in ignorance and prejudice, are less
free than sages in a dungeon, and loade