highness."

The prince stamped his foot impatiently, and walked hastily to and fro;
his brow was clouded, his lips trembled with inward emotion. The sharp
eye of the baron followed with an attentive, pitiless glance every
movement of his face, noted every sigh that came from his anxious heart,
that he might judge whether the seeds of mistrust that he had sown in
the breast of the prince would grow. But Prince Henry was still young,
brave, and hopeful; it was his first love they wished to poison, but
his young, healthy nature withstood the venom, and vanquished its evil
effects. His countenance resumed its quiet, earnest expression, and the
cloud disappeared from his brow.

"Do you know," he said, standing before Pollnitz, and looking smilingly
into his cunning face--"do you know that you do not descend, as the rest
of mankind, from Adam and Eve, but in a direct line from the celebrated
serpent? And truly you do honor to your ancestor! No paradise is holy
to you, and to do evil gives you pleasure. But you shall not disturb my
paradise; and as much of the old Adam as is still in me, I will not be
foolish enough to eat of the bitter fruit that you offer me. No, you
shall not succeed in making me jealous and distrustful; you shall not
destroy my faith: and see you, those that believe are still in paradise,
notwithstanding your ancestor, the serpent."

"My prince," said Pollnitz, shrugging his shoulders, "your highness
looks upon me as a kind of Messiah--at least it pleases you to give me
a mother and no father. But oh, my prince! if you are right about my
descent, philosophers are certainly wrong, for they maintain that the
serpent of paradise left gold as a fearful inheritance to mankind. I
shall accuse my great-grandmother the serpent of disinheriting me and
condemning me to live upon the generosity of my friends and patrons."

He looked at the prince, with a sly, covetous glance, but he had not
understood him; engaged in deep thought, he had stepped to the window,
and was gazing up at the heavens, where the clouds were chasing each
other.

"She will be the entire day with my mother, and I shall not see her,"
he murmured. Then, turning hastily to Pollnitz, he asked, "How is the
queen-mother? Did I not hear that she was suffering?"

"Certainly, your highness, a severe attack of gout confines her to her
chair, and holds her prisoner."

"Poor mother! it is long since I saw you."

"It is true, the queen complained of