at the prison were yesterday doubled. Our
duchess has a tight grasp."

"Stuff!" said the other, "I not only don't
believe it, but what's more, I don't even believe
there are any conspirators in Eiseriherz
who assume such a name."

"Come, come, neighbour," said the first,
"we know there are disaffected people in Eisenherz,
and it does not much matter what name
they go by. You yourself probably are one of
them, because you deny what every one knows
is a fact. They know each other, that's
certain."

The gossips were but too correct. Poor
Mohrart was that day found guilty and sentenced
to be broken on the wheel on the first
day of November. An hour before midnight
of the day of his trial the prisoner's cell door
grated open. Mohrart leaped up from his
knees, for he was praying. It was General
Blossow.

"Mohrart," he said, "I was no friend of
yours when you were in prosperity. I hated you
because I thought you had proudly refused to
answer the letters of my daughter who loved
you, you thought I coveted the duke's power
and title; but now I see it all. The associates
of the Sealed Knots have proved to
me that the dates of the letters shown at
the trial were forged, and that it was the
duchess and not you who poisoned the duke.
She had long resolved his death. Through one
of the same secret societies I have just gained
access here to-night to plan your escape. Do
you still love Beatrice? Did you ever really
love her?"

"General Blossow, I love your daughter, so
that I would not dread even that terrible
death to-morrow, could I but press my lips
to hers but once more. I always loved her. It
was my evil pride alone that forbade me to ask
the reason why my letters of passionate appeal
as well as of passionate accusation were never
answered. Saints in Heaven, how could I ever
suspect her gentle heart of forgetfulness or of
mean ambition!"

"Beatrice is here. You shall see her; she
knows all now," said the general, throwing open
the door. The next instant the lovers were
clasped in each other's arms, in all the ecstatic
joy of renewed hope.

Suddenly their conversation was interrupted
by the tramp of feet, and a sound of grounded
muskets. The door flew open, and the duchess
appeared upon the threshold.

General," she said, mockingly, with the old
viperish hatred in her pursed-up eyes, "you
seem surprised to see me. You were rash to
trust my paid emissaries. I too, you see, have
dealings with conspirators. Every step you
took I knew. As for this wanton, seize her
soldiers, for she has been an accomplice in this
detestable crime, as I before found. General
Blossow, you shall answer us promptly for this
treason. Where are your brave conspirators of
the Sealed Knot now? As for you, poisoner,
the wheel will soon be ready for you. Yes, if
half Eisenherz had joined in killing my poor
stepson, half Eisenherz should perish miserably
as you shall. Soldiers, to separate prisons with
them. Remove them. Jailers, tear that woman
from the murderer's arms."

There was a groan, the shriek of a fainting
woman, and the ponderous door closed upon the
unhappy Mohrart as the doors of a vault might
do upon a corpse. The next time it opened it
would be for the soldiers who were to lead him
to a death of shame.

He seemed forsaken even by Heaven.

IV. THE INSURRECTION.

THERE is a limit to the patience even of slaves.
An insurrection had broken out in the city of
Eiseuherz. A rumour that Count Schwellenberg
was marching upon the city from Hesse
Darmstadt, with ten thousand men, having been
summoned by the urgent entreaties of the
duchess, had set every heart on fire. The
mysterious members of the Sealed Knot Club
had been, however, it was said, untiring in their
efforts to delay the revolt, which they considered
premature.

The insurgents, in an irresistible deluge, were
pouring on towards the palace, now closely
guarded by two thousand Hessian soldiers, who
had sworn to defend the duchess to the last. The
sea of angry faces had already surged into the
great square of the cathedral, to mass together
for the attack upon the palace. A dozen blacksmiths
having dragged a cannon from the adjacent
park, were already shouting for the advance,
when a small group of masked men quietly
emerged from a house next the cathedral, and
dispersing through the crowd, whispered directions
to the leaders of the mob. Their mandates
at first seemed to be disputed.

"Let's burn the Hell-cat!" cried some. " She
showed no mercy for others; she has no mercy
for Mohrart or the general's daughter."

"Break her on the wheel," cried another,
"as she did my father!"

"Hang her from the cathedral tower!"
screamed a third. " She had my son shot yesterday
for merely crying, ' Long live General
Blossow.'"

But the frantic outcries of these men were in
vain. A secret irresistible agency seemed at
work. Even the blacksmiths left the cannon
at the cathedral doors, the savage pikemen and
hammermen, by twos and threes, turned sullenly
homeward. The roaring crowd gradually
grew silent as by enchantment, and melted like
ice, for so the Sealed Knots had willed it.

When the duchess heard of it, she smiled,
tapped her fan, and calmly said, "I thought
the scum would never face bayonets. The
instinct of self-preservation is still, you see,
strong, even in the detested canaille."

V. THE CHAPEL ON THE MOUNTAIN.

IT was the annual custom of the duchess, who
was as superstitious as she was cruel, to spend
two days in the first week of every November in
a little chapel half way up a lonely mountain,