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the help of this youth's father, of ere long surprising our kinsman, and would not find myself anticipated. To-morrow," said he to Casimir, "you will appear at the levee, where you must quite forget this night's dream, and I shall set you the example. Be not chilled, whatever may appear on the surface. The frost-work pageant you will then behold exhibited is all artificial; what you now see and hear is genuine, and your heart may rest upon it."

He then bade him cordially good night, and the Empress, again presenting him her hand, said graciously,

"Count, you have smoothed his Majesty's brow by your communications : very seldom have his nocturnal vigils a like effect. In truth, your countenance bodes well. May a portion of whatever good you bring rest with the messenger!"

Entrusted with a key to the little postern door, which he was to retain for his

future use, and taught to elude whatever obstructions he might meet from centinels or others, he glided down the stair, and soon returned safe and unobserved at the Hotel Vallenstein. He went to his bed with a mind and heart so full, that sleep was out of the question: even the image of Louisa was compelled to divide its residence with other objects the purest zeal and compassion for his betrayed and persecuted sovereign; the most ardent desire to behold him and his own father restored to a position in which they might triumphantly defy their mutual enemies; and, above all, an enthusiastic wish to be in the lowest degree an instrument in restoring happiness and tranquillity to that majestic woman who shared the throne and sorrows of the Emperorsuch were the materials of which his reveries were made; nor were they unbecoming a temper so lofty and ingenuous. He could not conceive how

those who had daily opportunities of beholding and listening to the Empress could find courage to implant a thorn in that gentle, yet exalted bosom; for Casimir was a chevalier of the old stamp, and the ostensible motives which bade an ancient knight ride forth, afforded exactly the sort of spur which would have stimulated him to range the uni

verse.

CHAPTER VII.

Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never

Saw'st good manners; if thou never saw'st good

manners,

Then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness

is sin,

And sin damnation: thou art in a parlous state,

shepherd !"

Shakspeare.

THE Baroness of Marchfeldt was to be presented by her aunt of Erdenheïm, by a singular coincidence, on the same day on which Vallenstein's maternal uncle, Count Harrach, was to perform the same service for him. When the former entered the drawing-room, she found the Empress surrounded by the ladies of her household, and a few of the distinguished female noblesse: the gentlemen consisted only of her chamberlain and a couple of pages, one of them merely a child.

There was a resemblance of person and correspondence of mind between the Empress and Louisa of Marchfeldt, which was mutually and almost instantaneously felt each internally acknowledged her kindred and accordance with the other, and they were friends in heart ere, in fact, they ceased to be strangers. Louisa had never before stood in the presence of royalty; a sentiment of filial awe mingled in the admiration with which she beheld her august sovereign, and the smile of the Empress was more than usually benign and gracious, as she raised and embraced the fair Hungarian.

"At length, then, Baroness," said she, "we have succeeded in winning you from your beloved retirement: such a rose was not born to wither in the wilderness. And yet," added she, thoughtfully, "there is peace in the wilderness, and if there are none to flatter there, there are none to betray."

Poor Louisa echoed the sigh with