ecided to await his return in an
adjoining room. He had taken but a few steps in a hall littered with
cuirasses and swords and lances, when he heard the Emperor's voice,
speaking in an angry tone. It was scarcely calculated to produce a
reassuring effect upon the statesman, but he approached the partition
and listened attentively.

Upon leaving the Empress, Frederic had met Count Rechberg in the
antechamber. For some time the young man had been thinking seriously of
asking the Emperor's consent to his marriage with Bonello's daughter,
and the uncertainty of the result of his application produced a state
of painful anxiety. He was seated in a corner, his head resting on his
hands and his elbows on his knees, when the monarch entered, and was so
absorbed in his reflections that he was unconscious of his presence.
Frederic looked at him with some surprise, and shook his head. At this
moment Erwin sighed deeply, and the Emperor involuntarily shuddered.

"Erwin!" said he, with a loud voice.

The young count sprang up hastily, and stood, with heightened color,
before his sovereign.

"What is the matter, my boy? For some time past you seem out of
spirits. Can nothing amuse your sad thoughts? Tell me what ails you."

Erwin only answered by a still deeper blush. The man who by a word
could render him happy, was before him, and yet, trembling like a
criminal, he did not dare to speak.

"Are you dumb? Ah! now I begin to be really curious to learn the secret
which saddens your young heart."

"I must really help this poor fellow," thought Rinaldo.

"Come, Erwin, your reticence displeases me. What motive can there be
for silence with your godfather?"

Rechberg looked sadly at the Emperor, as if to show him how painfully
he felt this reproach.

"Well! if you have confidence in me, speak out! What is the matter? For
some time past I have noticed your mournful and dejected appearance,
and I hoped to have received your confession without being obliged to
ask for it."

"Pardon, Sire; it is not my want of confidence in your Majesty which
has closed my mouth, but rather the conviction that my cares were
unworthy of your notice."

"Your cares!" resumed Barbarossa, looking at the young man more
attentively. "True, true, it is some piece of childishness; I might
have guessed it sooner."

Rinaldo's entrance on one side, and the Empress on the other,
interrupted Frederic.

"Beatrice," said he, "I give this sick boy up to your