t? You prevented the interview?"

"I wanted to guard my sister against her own indiscretion; I wanted to
preserve her from error."

"You knew it and kept silence, magnanimously kept my secret from my
mother? Oh, and _he_ is innocent? He did not scorn and insult me? I can
think of him without anger, without--No, no; forgive me, brother, I--"

"Hear me, Louise," said he softly. "I will prove to you how much I have
your happiness at heart, and how gladly I would promote it. If in spite of
all that you have learned to-day, in spite of his mode of wooing, you
still love Count Schwarzenberg--so love him that for his sake you can
forever--mark well my words, _forever_--give up mother, brother and
sister, home, country, yea, religion itself, sundering all the ties which
bind you here--if you so love him that he is family, home, everything to
you, then tell me so, sister, and I will overcome my repugnance and have
the count recalled, will accept his offer, and bestow you upon him in
marriage. Only you must choose between him and us. In that hour, when I
join your hands, we have seen each other for the last time, and never will
your return home be possible. But if you really love him, go, for well I
know that love only finds its home in the heart of the beloved one.
Choose then, sister. Will you follow him? Speak, I shall not reproach
you--speak, and I will have him recalled!"

She flung her arms around his neck and gently laid her head upon his
breast. "No," she said softly--"no, do not call him back. He has betrayed
and desecrated love. My heart revolts from him and turns with deep
affection to you. Thank you, brother, for acquainting me with the truth
and taking that weight of humiliation from my soul. Now I shall be
comforted, now I can hold up my head again. I am not the rejected, but the
rejecter. Yes, brother, I have renounced love and happiness. The golden
morning dream is over, and I am awake! Let me weep, Frederick, my last
tears for a lost love!"

The Elector bent over her and imprinted a kiss upon her brow. "Weep,
sister, weep," he said softly. "And if it can in any degree console you,
know that I have wept and suffered as you do now."

[Illustration: Wladislaus IV, King of Poland]

XII.--THE INVESTITURE AT WARSAW.

At last all matters of dispute were settled, all difficulties smoothed
over. King Wladislaus of Poland had declared himself ready to receive the
oath of allegiance from his vassal the Elect