s, but the benevolent, mighty friends, who have lent us
their aid, and will help us still further. Ah! without these noble friends
our flight would have been wholly impossible, and we would have been
separated for ever! To-morrow I would have been the bride of the Prince of
Hesse, and your father would already have found means to compel your
return home. Ah! beloved, they would have separated us, if our noble
friends had not helped us. They have prepared everything, cared for
everything. As soon as we are married, we shall journey away to our safe
asylum, and there, under the protection of friends, be sheltered and
secure. For such love and devotion we must be grateful, must we not?"

"Certainly, that we must, and shall be gladly, beloved of my heart! Let
them say how we can prove our gratitude, and certainly it shall be done!"

"They have said it, and written it down in the contract. Come, dearest, we
will sign it, and then to the altar."

She throws her arm around his neck, she draws him to the table where
stands the notary with his witnesses. She hands him the pen and looks at
him with a sweet smile.

Venus! Venus ever!

But he? He is no longer Endymion! He is the Electoral Prince Frederick
William! And strange! like a dream, like a greeting from afar, conies
stealing to his ears, "Be a good man."

"Take the pen and sign!" whispers Venus, with glowing looks of love.

He lays down the pen. "I must know what I sign. Read it, Sir Notary!"

The notary bows low and reads: "In friendship and devotion to the
Electoral Prince Frederick William of Brandenburg and his spouse, born
Princess Ludovicka Hollandine of the Palatinate, we grant them an
undisturbed asylum in our territories, promise to protect and defend them
with all our power, to grant them, besides, maintenance and support,
paying to the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg yearly subsidies of three
hundred thousand livres, until he assumes the reins of government. On his
side, the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg pledges himself, so soon as he
begins to rule in his own right, to conclude a league with us for twenty
years, and never to unite with our enemies against us, but to be true to
us in good as also in evil days. Both parties confirm this by their
signatures. Count d'Entragues has signed in the name of France."

"France!" cried the Electoral Prince, with loudly ringing voice. "France
is the friend who will lend us aid?"

"Yes, Prince, France it is," said