this before; nor had any
one ever dared so to address him....

"Explain yourself more clearly," he thundered into the professor's rigid
face.

Barzia did not move a muscle:

"If his highness is married next month ... it means his death."

The empress remained sitting stiff and upright, but she turned very
pale, shuddered and closed her eyes as though she felt giddy.

"His death?" echoed the emperor, in consternation.

"Or worse," rejoined Barzia.

"Worse?"

"The extinction of your majesty's posterity."

The emperor rapped out a furious oath and struck his fist on the huge
writing-table. The bronze ornaments on it rang. Myxila drew a step
nearer:

"Sir," he said, "there is nothing lost. If I understand Professor
Barzia, his highness' illness is only temporary and is curable."

"Certainly, excellency," replied Barzia. "So long as it is not forced to
become incurable and chronic."

Oscar bit his lips convulsively. His glittering eyes stood out small and
cruel. It struck Myxila how much, at this moment, he resembled a
portrait of Wenceslas the Cruel.

"Professor," he hissed, "we thank you. Stay at Lipara till to-morrow, so
as to observe his highness once more."

"I will obey your majesty's commands," said Barzia.

He bowed, the physicians bowed; they withdrew. Left alone with the
empress and the imperial chancellor, Oscar no longer restrained his
rage. Like a beast foaming at the mouth, he walked fiercely up and down
with heavy steps, gurgling as though the breath refused to come through
his constricted throat:

"Oh!" he gnashed between his teeth, bursting out at last. "That boy,
that boy!... He's not even fit to get married! His duchess: he was able
to get married to her! And that boy, oh, that boy is to succeed me,
_me!_..."

A furious laugh of contempt grated from between his large, white teeth,
with biting irony.

The empress rose:

"Count Myxila," she said, trembling, "may I beg your excellency to come
with me?"

She turned to leave the room. Myxila, hesitating, was already following
her to the door.

"What for?" roared the emperor. "What's the reason of that? I have
something more to say to Myxila."

The empress gave the emperor a look as cold as ice:

"It is my express wish, sir, that Count Myxila should go with me," she
said, in the same trembling voice. "I think your majesty needs solitude.
Your majesty is saying things which a father must not even think and
which a sovereign must c