hrone!" cried the populace.

Then a great cheering arose.

"Long live the Princess Bertha, our rightful queen!"

But some of the faction for the Princess Clothilde called out, "It is
false; she is dead and buried, we will not be imposed upon by this man
and his dwarf."

"The arch-priest recognises her," cried others. "The arch-priest dotes;
he is mistaken," cried they for the Princess Clothilde.

"Let the coffin of the princess be exhumed!" cried the crowd, and they
appealed to the priest, who consented that the coffin should be opened
in the presence of all the people.

"Where is the undertaker?" cried one of the crowd.

"Here!" cried a voice.

"Let him come forward."

Then the crowd made room for the undertaker, and one amongst them asked
him if he had placed the late princess in the coffin with his own hands.

He replied in the negative.

"Who closed the coffin, then?" asked the former questioner.

"The Princess Clothilde herself," answered the undertaker.

"That seems suspicious," said another; "she also is said to have found
the body, which she concealed in her cloak and allowed nobody to see."

"Because," answered one of the faction, for Clothilde, "because the
body, being already in an advanced state of decay, she was unwilling to
make a disgusting exhibition of the remains of her sister, who she so
dearly loved. We are witnesses of her emotion upon finding her sister's
body."

"It is false," cried Hans; "the Princess Clothilde is a hypocrite and an
usurper, and has plotted to obtain the crown for herself."

"Treason, treason!" cried the faction for Clothilde. But those in favour
of the Princess Bertha applauded the words of Hans, and cried out, "We
shall see if the remains be in the coffin."

After waiting some little time longer, the coffin was exhumed and given
into the hands of the arch-priest, who, standing upon the balcony of his
palace, opened the coffin with his penknife in the presence of all the
crowd, and found therein nothing but cinders, which he emptied into the
street below.

"I hope now, citizens, you are convinced that foul play is at the bottom
of it all," said the old priest.

"Ay," cried the crowd, "most vile treachery--down with the Princess
Clothilde; we will have none to reign over us but the Princess Bertha."

"Stay a moment," shouted the champion for the Princess Clothilde. "What
was there in the coffin if not the body of the Princess Bertha?"

"Nothing but dust