ctory. The king nodded kindly to them,
but during the entire meal, he only let some indifferent questions fall
from his lips, which were devotedly and tediously answered by some one
of the old generals. As their dry, peevish voices resounded through
the high, vaulted room, it seemed to reawaken in Frederick's heart the
souvenirs of memory and become the echo of vanished days. He gazed up
at the little Cupids, in the varied play of bright colors, looking down
from the clouds, and the goddesses trumpeting through their long tubes
the fame of the immortal, the same as formerly, when they smiled from
the clouds upon the beaming face of the young king, dining in the
distinguished circle of his friends Voltaire, D'Argens, Algarotti, La
Melbrie, and Keith.

The Cupids were fresh as ever, and the goddesses had not removed the
trumpets from their lips. But where were the of the merry round-table?
Returned to dust. The jests and poesy have died away--all have sunken to
decay and darkness. The king silently raised his glass of Tokay, gazing
up to the clouds and Cupids, draining it slowly in sacrifice for the
dead. Then with a vehement, contemptuous movement, he threw the
glass over his shoulder, shivering it into a thousand pieces. The old
generals, after dessert, had gently sunk into their afternoon nap, and
now started, frightened, looking wildly around, as if they expected
the enemy were approaching. Alkmene crept from under the king's chair
muffing with her long, delicate nose, the glistening pieces of glass,
and the footman bent himself to carefully pick them up.

The king rose silently, saluting the old generals, pointing with his
staff to the large folding-doors which led to the garden.

The footmen hastened forward to open them, and stand in stiff, military
order upon each side. Frederick walked slowly out, mounting the two
steps which led to the upper terrace, signing to the attendants to close
the doors.

He was alone. Only Windspiel was there to spring about joyfully,
barking, and turning to meet him, who wandered on the border of the
terrace, where he had formerly walked with his friends. Now he stopped
to gaze up the broad, deserted steps which led from terrace to terrace,
as if he could re-people them with the well-known forms, and could see
them approach and greet him with the look of endless love and constancy.
Then he raised his eyes to heaven, as if to seek there those he in vain
sought upon earth.

"Do you