ge, notwithstanding the early death of my
brother, I was sent to seek advancement in the service of the house of
Austria, under the feigned name I bear. I will not tell thee the anguish I
felt, Adelheid, when the truth was at length revealed! Of all the
cruelties inflicted by society, there is none so unrighteous in its nature
as the stigma it entails in the succession of crime or misfortune: of all
its favors, none can find so little justification, in right and reason, as
the privileges accorded to the accident of descent."

"And yet we are much accustomed to honor those that come of an ancient
line, and to see some part of the glory of the ancestor even in the most
remote descendant."

"The more remote, the greater is the world's deference. What better proof
can we have of the world's weakness? Thus the immediate child of the hero,
he whose blood is certain, who bears the image of the father in his face,
who has listened to his counsels, and may be supposed to have derived, at
least, some portion of his greatness from the nearness of his origin, is
less a prince than he who has imbibed the current through a hundred vulgar
streams, and, were truth but known, may have no natural claim at all upon
the much-prized blood! This comes of artfully leading the mind to
prejudices, and of a vicious longing in man to forget his origin and
destiny, by wishing to be more than nature ever intended he should
become."

"Surely, Sigismund, there is something justifiable in the sentiment of
desiring to belong to the good and noble!"

"If good and noble were the same. Thou hast well designated the feeling;
so long as it is truly a sentiment, it is not only excusable but wise; for
who would not wish to come of the brave, and honest, and learned, or by
what other greatness they may be known?--it is wise, since the legacy of
his virtues is perhaps the dearest incentive that a good man has for
struggling against the currents of baser interest; but what hope is left
to one like me, who finds himself so placed that he can neither inherit
nor transmit aught but disgrace! I do not affect to despise the advantages
of birth, simply because I do not possess them; I only complain that
artful combinations have perverted what should be sentiment and taste,
into a narrow and vulgar prejudice, by which the really ignoble enjoy
privileges greater than those perhaps who are worthy of the highest honors
man can bestow."

Adelheid had encouraged the di