iercing shriek! A death cry forces its way through
the door and in one long echo vibrates along the corridor. It sounds like
the wailing and moaning of invisible spirits. Then nothing more interrupts
the silence. Nothing more!

The door opens again, and Count Schwarzenberg steps into the corridor.

He is alone.

He locks the door and puts the key into his pocket. Then, with quiet, firm
tread, he goes down the corridor, down the little staircase, and finally,
with composed, haughty bearing, down the great staircase into the
guardroom.

"God be praised, your excellency, that you are here!" calls out Lehndorf,
hastening to meet him.

Count Schwarzenberg nods to him, and then turns to the soldiers, who stand
there silent and motionless.

"What fools you are!" he says, shrugging his shoulders. "To put you
soldiers to flight no cannon is required, but only a couple of white cats.
A white cat it was, which made cowards of you. I saw her bounding along
before me through the great corridor, and followed her to the upper story.
There she slipped into an open door, the last door in the upper story.
I jumped after her into the little apartment, but she must have found some
other way out, for I could find her nowhere again, and that is the only
wonder of the whole story, for the windows were closed. For the rest I
command you to let naught of this story transpire, for fear of giving rise
to idle tales."

The soldiers heard him in reverential silence, but the next morning it was
known throughout the castle and almost through the whole city that the
White Lady had made her appearance again, and that at last, when pursued,
she had vanished in the form of a white cat in one of the rooms in the
upper story of the castle. After that nobody ventured into the upper
story, and, as it was uninhabited, it was not necessary to station
sentinels there.

XII.--THE DEPARTURE.

When the Electoral Prince awoke the next morning after a long, refreshing
slumber, his first glance fell upon his faithful old valet, who stood at
the foot of his couch, his face actually beaming with joy.

"Why, Dietrich," said Frederick William, "you look so happy! What has
altered your old face so since yesterday?"

"The sight of you, most gracious sir, for your face has altered, too. Your
cheeks are no longer deadly pale, nor your features distorted. Your
highness looks quite like a well man now; somewhat pale, it is true; but
your lips are again re