ghness," said Gotthold, "is the ultimatum. It was in the
very article of signature, when your Highness so opportunely entered."

Otto laid the paper before him; as he read, his fingers played tattoo
upon the table. "Was it proposed," he inquired, "to send this paper
forth without a knowledge of my pleasure?"

One of the non-combatants, eager to trim, volunteered an answer. "The
Herr Doctor von Hohenstockwitz had just entered his dissent," he added.

"Give me the rest of this correspondence," said the Prince. It was
handed to him, and he read it patiently from end to end, while the
councillors sat foolishly enough looking before them on the table. The
secretaries, in the background, were exchanging glances of delight; a
row at the council was for them a rare and welcome feature.

"Gentlemen," said Otto, when he had finished, "I have read with pain.
This claim upon Obermuensterol is palpably unjust; it has not a tincture,
not a show, of justice. There is not in all this ground enough for
after-dinner talk, and you propose to force it as a _casus belli_."

"Certainly, your Highness," returned Gondremark, too wise to defend the
indefensible, "the claim on Obermuensterol is simply a pretext."

"It is well," said the Prince. "Herr Cancellarius, take your pen. 'The
council,'" he began to dictate--"I withhold all notice of my
intervention," he said, in parenthesis, and addressing himself more
directly to his wife; "and I say nothing of the strange suppression by
which this business has been smuggled past my knowledge. I am content to
be in time--'The council,'" he resumed, "'on a further examination of
the facts, and enlightened by the note in the last despatch from
Gerolstein, have the pleasure to announce that they are entirely at one,
both as to fact and sentiment, with the Grand-Ducal Court of
Gerolstein.' You have it? Upon these lines, sir, you will draw up the
despatch."

"If your Highness will allow me," said the Baron, "your Highness is so
imperfectly acquainted with the internal history of this correspondence,
that any interference will be merely hurtful. Such a paper as your
Highness proposes would be to stultify the whole previous policy of
Gruenewald."

"The policy of Gruenewald!" cried the Prince. "One would suppose you had
no sense of humour! Would you fish in a coffee cup?"

"With deference, your Highness," returned the Baron, "even in a coffee
cup there may be poison. The purpose of this war is not simp