did not know--a wife who has made
me the most miserable of men--a wife who has outraged my honor, and
betrayed my heart. You gave me a wife who has robbed me of all I held
dear on earth--of the wife I loved, and of the friend I trusted."

"Poor brother," said the king, gently, "you are enduring the torments
from which I also suffered, before my heart became hardened as it now
is. Yes, it is a fearful pain to be forced to despise the friend that
you trusted--to be betrayed by those we have loved. I have passed
through that grief. The man suffered deeply in me before his existence
was merged in that of the king."

"Sire," said the prince, suddenly, "I have come to you to demand justice
and punishment. You have occasioned the misery of my house, it is
therefore your duty to alleviate it, as far as in you lies. I accuse
my wife, the Princess Wilhelmina, of infidelity and treachery. I accuse
Count Kalkreuth, who dares to love my wife, of being a traitor to your
royal family. I demand your consent to my divorce from the princess,
and to the punishment of the traitor. That is the satisfaction which I
demand of your majesty for the ruin which you have wrought in my life."

"You wish to make me answerable for the capriciousness of woman and the
faithlessness of man," asked the king, with a sad smile. "You do that
because I, in performing my duty as a king, forced you to marry. It is
true you did not love your intended wife, because you did not know
her, but you learned to love her. That proves that I did not make a bad
choice; your present pain is a justification for me. You are unhappy
because you love the wife I gave you with your whole heart. For the
capriciousness of women you cannot hold me responsible, and I did not
select the friend who has so wickedly betrayed you. You demand of me
that I should punish both. Have you considered, my brother, that in
punishing them I should make your disgrace and misery public to the
world? Do not imagine, Henry, that men pity us for our griefs; when they
seem most deeply to sympathize with us they feel an inward pleasure,
especially if it is a prince who suffers. It pleases men that fate,
which has given us an exceptional position, does not spare us the
ordinary sorrows of humanity."

"I understand, then, that you refuse my request," said the prince. "You
will not consent to my divorce, you will not punish the traitor?"

"No, I do not refuse your request, but I beg you will take three