you, leave
me alone! May I not be alone?"

"Let me remain with Your Majesty," said the Doctor, taking her hand,
which hung as if lifeless at her side.

Countess Brinkenstein withdrew.

For a long while, the queen did not speak a word. She seemed to be
staring at vacancy, breathed heavily and would, at times, start
convulsively. She was suddenly seized with a chill, and fell back
insensible.

The doctor bathed her forehead and wrists with a few drops of some
restorative, and then called her maid. Accompanied by the latter, he
conducted the queen to her apartments, and ordered that she should be
put to bed.

"I shall never again see the light of day, nor a human face; and
he--and he!" cried she; then she forced her lace handkerchief into her
mouth and tore it to pieces with her teeth.

She lay thus for some time, the doctor sitting silently by her bedside.

At length she heaved a deep sigh, opened her eyes, and said:

"I thank you, but I would like to sleep."

"Yes, do so," said the doctor. He was about to leave, but she called to
him:

"One word more. Does the king know--?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"And he went to the hunt?"

"He is king, Your Majesty."

"I know, I know!--Anything to avoid creating a sensation. Yes, yes."

"I beg of you, Your Majesty, don't think now. Don't worry about
anything. Try to sleep."

"We can give ourselves the sleep eternal, but not temporal sleep."

"I entreat you. Your Majesty; don't give way to this violent
excitement; do try to sleep."

"I will, I will. Good-night! Give me a sleeping draught, a drop of
forgetfulness. Poison were better! Good-night!"

The doctor withdrew, but, by a faint gesture, signified to Madame
Leoni, the woman in waiting, that he should remain in the next room.

CHAPTER V.

It was silent and lonely at the hunting-seat in the Highlands. The
walls of the great hall were hung with antlers; a stuffed boar's head
stared from over the entrance. A bright fire was burning on the large
hearth, for here among the mountains it was already cold. The king sat
before the fire, staring at the blazing embers. The flames,
intertwining, would leap on high, like so many tongues of fire. The
king left his chair several times, but soon sat down again.

Under the antlers hung tablets marking the year and date of each hunt.
A long line of ancestors had contributed to these proofs of victory. If
all the guns that had been used