ness of the surprise.

He was about halfway between the fountain and the Flying Mercury before
his thoughts began to be clear; and he was surprised to find them
resentful. He paused in a kind of temper, and struck with his hand a
little shrub. Thence there arose instantly a cloud of awakened sparrows,
which as instantly dispersed and disappeared into the thicket. He looked
at them stupidly, and when they were gone continued staring at the
stars. "I am angry. By what right? By none!" he thought; but he was
still angry. He cursed Madame von Rosen and instantly repented. Heavy
was the money on his shoulders.

When he reached the fountain, he did, out of ill-humour and parade, an
unpardonable act. He gave the money bodily to the dishonest groom. "Keep
this for me," he said, "until I call for it to-morrow. It is a great
sum, and by that you will judge that I have not condemned you." And he
strode away ruffling, as if he had done something generous. It was a
desperate stroke to re-enter at the point of the bayonet into his
self-esteem; and, like all such, it was fruitless in the end. He got to
bed with the devil, it appeared: kicked and tumbled till the grey of the
morning; and then fell inopportunely into a leaden slumber, and awoke to
find it ten. To miss the appointment with old Killian after all had been
too tragic a miscarriage: and he hurried with all his might, found the
groom (for a wonder) faithful to his trust, and arrived only a few
minutes before noon in the guest-chamber of the "Morning Star." Killian
was there in his Sunday's best and looking very gaunt and rigid; a
lawyer from Brandenau stood sentinel over his outspread papers; and the
groom and the landlord of the inn were called to serve as witnesses. The
obvious deference of that great man, the innkeeper, plainly affected the
old farmer with surprise; but it was not until Otto had taken the pen
and signed that the truth flashed upon him fully. Then, indeed, he was
beside himself.

"His Highness!" he cried, "His Highness!" and repeated the exclamation
till his mind had grappled fairly with the facts. Then he turned to the
witnesses. "Gentlemen," he said, "you dwell in a country highly favoured
by God; for of all generous gentlemen, I will say it on my conscience,
this one is the king. I am an old man, and I have seen good and bad, and
the year of the great famine; but a more excellent gentleman, no,
never."

"We know that," cried the landlord, "we know th