unhappy or discontented community. Each
lived in the bosom of his family. In the
evening, under the acacias or lime-trees that
overshadowed these miserable people's porches,
might be heard the cheerful song with its
accompaniment of flute or harpsichord.

It happened about this time that a violent
hail-storm did some damage to the crops.
This was an opportunity not to be lost;
accordingly, Heinrich and his acolytes spread
themselves over the principality (this was
soon done, and at a cost for travelling
expenses quite nominal), bewailing the loss of
the husbandmen. They insinuated—without,
however, daring openly to avow it—that one
of the rights of the agricultural interest was
that of not having their fields cut up by the
hail.

This doctrine soon became popular; for,
decidedly, the most disagreeable of all human
misfortunes are those which we are unable
to lay at our neighbour's door. We would all
of us rather be stoned by a man upon whom
we can be revenged; than receive a couple of
aerolites, for the fall of which no one is
responsible. Urged on, therefore, by the Club,
the farmers profited by the hailstorm to
neglect paying their rents, and to utter loud
complaints and woeful lamentations.

The consequence of such defalcations was,
that the State Treasury became more and
more impoverished; and Rrobrecht was
obliged to discharge more servants, and sell
two of the three horses which his royal
master still possessed. Under these
disagreeable circumstances, however, the Prince
had his consolations. He practised new
symphonies with his musicians; he passed
his time in angling, and in botanising
expeditions into the woods, close to the dwelling
of Master Hubert Oberschneider; and where,
by some extraordinary concatenation of
circumstances, he had very frequently the
pleasure of meeting Albertina.

One day the student Heinrich, mounted
upon a table covered with pots of beer and
drinking-horns, spoke thus to his followers,
at what he was pleased to term a Monster
Meeting. Thirty-seven were actually present.

"It is time, my friends, that a corrupt and
bloated oligarchy should cease from fattening
themselves upon our substance! It is
cowardice that produces the insolence of kings!
Let us rend asunder the chains that have too
long held captive our beautiful fatherland.
Let us break the yoke of tyranny! Let us
proceed at once to the palace, where the
tyrant gives himself up to impure delights,
surrounded by his ferocious satellites: let us
reclaim our rights and liberties, or perish in
the attempt!"

By the time the peroration was finished, the
crowd had increased considerably.

While these affairs, big with the fate of
Minnigissenbourgh, were passing at the
bierhaus, the Prince was sauntering in his garden
amusing himself with plucking the dead
leaves from four favourite carnations, and
angling for rhymes for a sonnet to Albertina's
blue eyes. "Desires" and "fires" were just
arranging themselves prettily at the ends of
a couplet, when the conspirators—to the
number of eighty-three—burning with beer
and patriotism, arrived at the palace gates.

The ferocious satellites, of whom Heinrich
had spoken, were at that moment represented
by one old sentry, who was then busily
engaged in practising on the flute his part in
the new symphony of Beethoven's, which the
band was to perform on the following day.
This warrior permitted the revolters to pass,
on their stating that they desired to speak to
the Prince. But, as a preliminary precaution,
he shouldered his forelock, "dressed himself"
up in line with his sentry-box; and asked the
invaders to be so good as to keep on the
gravel-walks, and not to pluck the flowers.

The Prince, though a little surprised at
this great gathering, turned his calm and
indifferent countenance carelessly on the
troop; and, when he demanded what they
wanted with him? no one had sufficient nerve
to speak. They replied only by confused and
almost unintelligible cries; amongst which,
however, might be detected a timid stuttering,
which sounded like—"Down with the
tyrant!"

The Prince smiled, and in a voice which
was clearly audible above the whispered
clamour of the disaffected, said—

"Let some one among you speak for the
whole: for if you all speak in turns it will
take up too much time; and, if altogether, the
noise will be deafening."

At these words there was a dead silence.
All recoiled a few paces; leaving by common
assent to the student Heinrich, the right of
explaining those grievances, of which none
were exactly cognisant.

"We stand here," said Heinrich, "in the
name of——"

"Will you take a seat?" interrupted the
Prince, pointing to a rustic chair.

"We come," continued the orator, not
heeding the polite invitation, "to protest
against abuses too long suffered. We come
in the name of the People!"

"My good friend," said the Prince. "My
people are not so numerous as to have need
of delegates; they might very well speak
for themselves. Let them assemble
to-morrow in the great court of the palace, and,
if they wish it, we will have a chat together."

"The People have no time to wait!"
exclaimed the orator fiercely.

"Believe me, Monsieur Heinrich, my calling
of Prince is not such a delightful one that
I should desire to play it every day. I shall
be a prince to-morrow; to-day I am but a
private individual, very anxious respecting
the fate of a beautiful carnation of which I
have just set a cutting. As a private individual,
therefore, I desire to be master in my
own house. So, my friends, be advised by