favourite might
not have had, at the commencement of this affair, serious views of
marrying the daughter, for he was well aware of the father's interest
with the Prince; but during these last few days the scene has quite
changed. The Prince has proposed to him an alliance with one of the
richest heiresses in the land; and he has determined, by one secret
stroke, so entirely to overwhelm the minister and his whole house, that
no one shall dare to cry for revenge or to complain of him. They will
all be silent, and the minister will be crushed beneath his foot, like
the worm, whose sufferings are unheard.

_Faustus_. But will not the Prince hear of this deed, and punish it?

_Devil_. Thine own eyes shall be witnesses of the issue of the affair.

_Faustus_. I command thee, under pain of my displeasure, to play none of
thy tricks here.

_Devil_. Those who by their crimes put the Devil himself to blush, have
very little need of his assistance. We begin now, O Faustus, to remove
the covering from the hearts of men; and I own that I feel sincere joy in
finding that the Germans are capable of something grand. You, indeed,
are merely the imitators of other nations, and lose thereby the glory of
originality; but in hell that is not esteemed essential, and good-will in
the cause of wickedness is all that is required.

Faustus passed his time gaily among the women of the court, corrupting
all those who were to be obtained by money or a fine face; whilst the
drama of the favourite was rapidly hastening to a conclusion. He now
revealed his finely-spun design to Baron H. The latter was to be the
instrument of it; and as the glitter of gold was no longer at hand to
sharpen his palled passion for the minister's wife, and as the tears of
the unfortunate daughter, the misery of the father, and the expected
arrival of the crippled son, began to bear heavily upon his tender
conscience, he determined at once to free himself of all these burdens.
His reward consisted in the Count's undertaking to persuade the Prince to
send the Baron on an important mission to the imperial court. In
consideration of this, the Baron was to procure the wife of the minister
to purloin secretly, from the cabinet of her husband, a certain
parchment, considered to be one of the most important title-deeds of the
princely house; and which the favourite was well aware would shortly be
called for, on account of a certain law-suit with another illustrious