king, offering his hand, his handsome face
kindly and without rancor, "I should be an ungrateful wretch if I did
not ask your full pardon. I am indebted to you twice for my life, little
as it amounts to. And in my kingdom you will always be welcome. Will
you accept my hand, as one man to another?"

"With happiness, your Majesty. And I ask that you pardon my own hasty
words."

"Thank you."

"He is only young," sighed Ludwig.

The king emptied the drawer, put the contents in his pack, tied the
strings, and put it under his arm.

"What are you going to do?" asked the uncle, vaguely perturbed.

"I am going down to the soldiers. I am no longer a vintner, I am a
king!" And he said this in a manner truly royal.

"_Gott!_" burst from the prince regent. "This boy has marrow in his
bones, after all!"

"As you will find, dear uncle, the day after the coronation. You will,
of course, go down to them with me?"

"As I am your uncle! But the incarceration will not be long," Ludwig
grumbled. "There are ten thousand troops on the other side of the
passes, and they have been there ever since I learned that you had gone
a-wooing."

"Ten thousand? Well, they shall stay there," said the king
determinedly. "I shall not begin my reign with war. I am in the wrong; I
had no business to be here. Technically I have broken the treaty, though
not in spirit."

"What will you do?"

"Tell the duke the truth. He will not dare go far."

"He will be a good politician, too," said Ludwig, with a smile of
approval at Carmichael. "No, boy, there will be no war. And yet I was
prepared for it; nor was I wrong in doing so. Already, but for Herbeck,
there would be plenty of fighting in the passes. _Ach!_ Could you but
see the princess!"

"I have seen her," replied the king. "Heaven would have been kinder had
I seen her months ago."

"Say to his serene highness, then, that you are willing to marry her."

"I'm afraid you do not understand, uncle," the king replied sadly. "I
have the supreme happiness to love and to be loved. Of that nothing can
rob me. And for some time to come, uncle mine, I shall treasure that
happiness."

"And the little Gretchen?"

"Yes, yes! I have been a scoundrel." And the king's eyes grew moist.
"You are happy, Mr. Carmichael; you have no crown to weigh against your
love."

"Has he not?" mocked Ludwig.

"That, uncle, is neither kind nor gallant."

And from that moment Carmichael's heart warmed toward the youn