s,
prints, colored drawings,--some representing views of Swiss scenery,
others being portraits of opera celebrities,--were mingled with
illuminated missals and richly-embossed rosaries; while police reports,
petitions, rose-colored billets and bon-bons, made up a mass of
confusion wonderfully typical of the illustrious individual himself.

Stubber had scarcely crossed the threshold of the room when he appeared
to appreciate the exact frame of his master's mind. It was the very
essence of his tact to catch in a moment the ruling impulse which swayed
for a time that strange and vacillating nature, and he had but to glance
at him to divine what was passing within.

"So then," broke out the Prince, "here we are actually in the very midst
of revolution. Marocchi has been stabbed in the Piazza of Carrara. Is it
a thing to laugh at, sir?"

"The wound has only been fatal to the breast of his surtout, your
Highness; and so adroitly given, besides, that it does not correspond
with the incision in his waistcoat."

"You distrust everyone and everything, Stubber; and, of course, you
attribute all that is going forward to the police."

"Of course I do, your Highness. They predict events with too much
accuracy not to have a hand in their fulfilment. I knew three weeks ago
when this outbreak was to occur, who was to be assassinated,--since that
is the phrase for Marocchi's mock wound,--who was to be arrested, and
the exact nature of the demand the Council would make of your Royal
Highness to suppress the troubles."

"And what was that?" asked the Duke, grasping a paper in his hand as he
spoke.

"An Austrian division, with a half-battery of field-artillery, a
judge-advocate to try the prisoners, and a provost-marshal to shoot
them."

"And you 'd have me believe that all these disturbances are deliberate
plots of a party who desire Austrian influence in the Duchy?" cried
the Duke, eagerly. "There may be really something in what you suspect.
Here's a letter I have just received from La Sabloukoff,--she 's always
keen-sighted; and _she_ thinks that the Court at Vienna is playing out
here the game that they have not courage to attempt in Lombardy. What if
this Wahnsdorf was a secret agent in the scheme, eh, Stubber?"

Stubber started with well-affected astonishment, and appeared as if
astounded at the keen acuteness of the Duke's suggestion.

"Eh!" cried his Highness, in evident delight. "That never occurred to
_you_, Stubber?