d secure the
enviable position.

"Wuertemberg is a kingdom belonging to the Germanic Confederation," the
professor began. "It has an area of about seventy-eight hundred square
miles, varying but a few miles from that of the State of Massachusetts.
It has a population of one million seven hundred thousand, which during
the last ten years has diminished on account of the large emigration to
the United States. The government is an hereditary monarchy, and, like
so many English stock companies, 'limited.' Freedom of person and
property, liberty of speech, and liberty of conscience, are guaranteed
by the constitution; but liberty of the press, like the monarchy and
the stock companies, is also 'limited.' The legislature is composed of
two houses, the higher one being made up of princes and nobles. The
present king is Charles I., whose wife is the daughter of Czar Nicholas
I. of Russia. The royal family is quite numerous in its various
branches, and is connected by marriage with many of the royal houses of
Europe. The former Duchy of Wuertemberg was made a kingdom in 1806, by
Napoleon, after having been enlarged by the annexation of several
smaller states. Stuttgart, the capital, is also the largest town,
containing a population of fifty thousand. I close this lecture, which
I think has not been a very tedious one, with this remarkable fact: In
1840 there was not to be found an individual in the kingdom, above the
age of ten years, who could not read and write."

"Is that all?" asked Lady Feodora.

"That's all this time; but sometimes we have to take it for a couple of
hours," laughed Shuffles.

"I'm sure I wish he had said more. What do you do now?"

"We go to Ulm at two this afternoon. After that we go to Stuttgart,
Carlsruhe, Baden, and then down the Rhine."

"We must go with them, pa," added she, turning to the earl.

"We shall be ready to go to Ulm this afternoon in the same train,"
replied her father.

"I am delighted!" exclaimed Feodora. "I hope we shall go with you down
the Rhine."

Sir William, for some reason or other, did not hope so. In fact, he was
rather dumpy and morose.

"Possibly you will," suggested Shuffles.

"What a happy life you must lead, captain!"

"Perhaps you would not think so, if you were at sea with us, when we
have to stand watch in the night and the storm, whether it blows high
or blows low."

"But you are the captain."

"I was a seaman. It is nearly an hour till dinner time;