t we shall always remain so.

"We hope therefore to see you three weeks hence at Sigismundingen, where
the Archduchess Valerie will by then have returned from Altseeborgen to
meet you and where we shall also meet the Emperor of Austria.

"It is our fervent hope that the long voyage with Herman will have done
you much good and that your wedding will take place at Altara _as soon
as possible_. This glad prospect affords us a pleasant diversion from
our difficulties with the army bill, which is encountering such stubborn
opposition in the house of deputies, though we hope for all that to
succeed in carrying it, as it is essential that our army should be
increased.

"We cordially embrace you.

"OSCAR."

CHAPTER V

1

It was after the state banquet in the castle at Sigismundingen, where
the imperial families of Liparia and Austria were assembled to celebrate
the betrothal of the Duke of Xara and the Archduchess Valerie. It was in
September: the day had been sultry and in the evening the oppressive
heat still hung brooding in the air.

Dinner was just over and the imperial procession returned through a long
corridor to the reception-rooms. All the balcony-windows of the
brightly-lighted gallery stood open; beneath, as in an abyss of river
landscape, flowed the Danube, rolling against the rocks, while above it
towered the castle with its innumerable little pointed turrets. The
mountain-tops were defined in a sombre, violet amphitheatre against the
paler sky, which was incessantly lit with electric flashes, as of
noiseless lightning. The wood stood gloomy and black, shadowy, sloping
up with the peaked tops of its fir-trees against the mountains; in the
distance lay small houses, huddled in the dusk of the evening, like some
straggling hamlet, with here and there a yellow light.

The Emperor of Liparia gave his arm to the mother of the bride, the
Archduchess Eudoxie; then followed the Emperor of Austria with the
Empress of Liparia, the Archduke Albrecht with the Empress of Austria,
Othomar with Valerie....

Valerie, lightly pressing Othomar's arm, withdrew with him from the
procession:

"It was so warm in the dining-room; you will excuse me," she said to
Othomar's sister, the Archduchess of Carinthia, who was following with
one of her Austrian cousins.

Valerie's smile requested the archduchess to go on. The others followed:
the august guests, t