e of a real palace, and I never expected such an honor."

"How long will you be making your visit?"

"Only a few days, your Excellency. Then I shall proceed to Bavaria."

"Your excellency has no further orders?" said the head gardener
patiently.

"Good Heaven, Breunner, I had forgotten all about you! There is nothing
more. Gentlemen, your pardon for having detained you so long. Herr
Captain, you will return with me to the ball-room?"

"If your excellency will excuse me, no. I am tired. I shall return to
the hotel with Herr Grumbach."

"As you please. Good night."

The three left the cabinet under various emotions. The sub-chief bowed
himself off at the gates, and Carmichael and Grumbach crossed the Platz
leisurely.

"How did you come by that Bavarian passport?" asked Carmichael abruptly.

"It is a forgery, my friend, but his excellency will never find that
out."

"You have me all at sea. Why did he bring in the head gardener and leave
him standing there all that while?"

"He had a sound purpose, but it fell. The head gardener did not
recognize me."

"Do you know him?"

"Yes. He is my elder brother."

CHAPTER VIII

THE KING'S LETTER

The ambassador from Jugendheit, Baron von Steinbock, was not popular in
Dreiberg, at least not among the people, who still held to the grand
duke's idea that the kingdom had been behind the abduction of the
Princess Hildegarde. The citizens scowled at his carriage, they scowled
at the mention of his name, they scowled whenever they passed the
embassy, which stood in the heart of the fashionable residences in the
Koenig Strasse. Never a hot-headed Dreiberger passed the house without a
desire to loot it, to scale the piked fence and batter in the doors and
windows. Steinbock himself was a polished, amiable gentleman, in no wise
meriting this ill-feeling. The embassy was in all manner the most
important in Dreiberg, though Prussia and Austria overshadowed it in
wealth and prestige.

At this moment the people gazed at the house less in rancor than in
astonishment. The king of Jugendheit was to marry her serene highness!
It was a bad business, a bad business; no good would come of it. The
great duke was a weak man, after all.

The menials in and about the embassy felt the new importance of their
positions. So then, imagine the indignation of the majordomo, when,
summoned at dusk one evening to the carriage gates, three or four days
after the portentous news had is