Royal Highness the young Prince of Saxe
Kissankumigen; and the Premier was in despair!
The Prince, on the contrary, took no pains to
conceal his delight. "Baron," he said, "your
talent for arranging and managing a fête shall
not be thrown away. The festival shall still be
held. You have my permission to invite every
soul in the city." His Serene Highness then sat
down, and wrote an autograph letter to Mr.
Oberschneider, inviting him, his daughter, and
nephew, to dinner. At this democratic
proceeding Rrobrecht stood aghast. He trembled
for the security of the throne of Hesse
Minnigissengen. But the Prince was peremptory,
and the state servant was obliged to
obey.

The invitation set every member of the
establishment near the acacias in an exceeding
flutter, except Heinrich. That young
gentleman, having imbibed the politics of the
least respectable of the Parisian estaminets,
told his uncle that he would never sit at the
table of a "tyrant."

Oberschneider, who was tying on his whitest
neckcloth at the glass, made a grimace
expressive of the most condign ridicule; to
which his nephew retorted that he—Hubert
Oberschneider, tailor—was a worshipper of
power, and a sycophant! The uncle—an
easy-going, but shrewd man, who regularly
read the papers, and knew what was going
on in the world—said to his daughter,
while escorting her to the palace, "The
truth, is, my dear, your cousin has got hold
of those egregious notions which are so
flattering to people who prefer amusement or
idleness to work. Property is robbery;
restraint, tyranny; government, brigandage."

"How very odd!" said Albertina; who
knew nothing of politics, and was thinking of
the Prince.

The tailor went on, warming as his subject
expanded. "Confounding such silly theories
with the glorious acts of the true patriots,
who have burst the bonds of royal chicanery
in France, and of tyranny in some portions
of this empire; Heinrich has, I fear, brought
notions home to my shop which will unsettle
the heads of all my journeymen."

"How very naughty of him!" said
Albertina; because she felt it was necessary she
must say something just then.

When they arrived at the palace, the
Prince received them in the throne-room,
with marked distinction. The Baron
Rrobrecht grinned (like one of the heraldic hyenas
on his breast) and bore it, with wonderful
fortitude.

The dinner went off well; because the rain,
which fell in torrents, could not spoil that.
But, although the fire-works proved utterly
uninflammable, the thunder-storm drowned the
music, and nobody could dance on the lawn;
yet Albertina was there, and the Prince was
delighted. She wore his favourite colours—
white with blue ribbons.

"Rrobrecht," said he that night after his
guests had departed, "your fête was charming
and amused me immensely. You may sell
another farm to-morrow."

"Something must be done," returned the
Prime Minister, who, to his other multifarious
places, added that of Chancellor of the Exchequer;
"our coffers are exhausted, and two
years' revenues have been already anticipated.
Only one resource remains—"

"Which is?—" interrogated the Prince, as
he folded up a piece of blue ribbon and put it
inside his vest.

"Marriage!" answered the principal privy
councillor solemnly: "you have a crowd of
wealthy and noble cousins, out of which you
might choose a wife—a rich wife."

The Prince yawned. He was tired. Would
Rrobrecht ring for his valet?

Many days had not elapsed since the grand
fête at the palace, in honour of the prince who
did not arrive, before old Hubert's fears
about his nephew proved but too true. He
had originally conceived the idea of getting
up a match between Heinrich and Albertina;
but, in addition to the young student's
coarse and turbulent manners—which were in
the highest degree displeasing to the girl—
he himself made no efforts to overcome this
visible antipathy. He passed his time in the
public-houses, uttering a variety of commonplaces
to a pack of young fellows, as idle and
ill-disposed as himself. He formed them into a
club, and explained to them his political creed.
He spoke a great deal about Brutus and a
"bloated oligarchy;" by which he meant the
first minister, who united in his own podgy
little person all the aristocratic and oligarchical
power of the state. He denounced the Prince
merely as an incarnation of royalty, against
which he made war in the abstract; but—
because, perhaps, he found the roll of the baron's
name tell with effect in his harangues, (for he
had learned at Paris to revel in the canine
letter, and called the baron " R-r-r-r-ro-brecht!")
to him, his enmity was relentlessly
personal. Every misfortune that happened
to anybody, he attributed to the Government—
otherwise to the bloated oligarchy—otherwise
to R-r-r-r-robrecht. The storm on the night of
the fête he traced to the vengeance of Heaven
for the atrocious vices, corruptions, and
oppressions of the Court. When Hans Hiccup,
the cobbler, reduced himself to beggary by
beer, and nobody would trust him with their
boots, Heinrich held him up as a martyr to
political oppression, and demanded an
organisation of labour. When Madame
Maggschifter's baby took the small-pox, Heinrich
had no manner of doubt that the infant had
been infected by a secret emissary of Government.
The club spread the sentiments
which their leader originated, and obtained
the sympathies of all the idlers in
Minnigissenbourgh.

Yet, for a people ground down by all
manner of social and political oppressions, the
more respectable citizens did not seem an