row, madam, I set forth, and hope, ere my return, that this hitherto unspotted sword will have drank deep of the blood of your Majesty's enemies. There is, no doubt, something inspiring to a man of mettle in riding forth to the battle, and I would fain at this moment have preserved my mind clear and unclouded by any sinister event; but, really, the mysterious circumstances attending my nephew's departure a youth indeed of very plausible manners, at least to the eye of natural affection it appeared so, has somewhat dismayed,—that is, has cast ra-ather a damp upon my feelings."

The Empress made no reply; but, as the blame of having broken the silence which had hitherto prevailed throughout the assembly would rest exclusively with Count Harrach, many individuals now flocked around him, and besieged him on all sides with questions.

"I suspected," said he, with an air of penetration," I suspected sometime ago

how matters stood. The late despatches of my very dear and illustrious brother have never once named this ill-starred youth :to me it pleased him to be precise in his orders, and it would have been natural, you know, to have made me the medium of communication, occasionally with his son; --but no, my credentials came singly, and his name never appeared in them of course, to a man of any acuteness; a man practised in extracting meanings and forming conclusions, it appeared ra-ather suspicious-nay, indeed, very suspicious; -at least, I have thought so since."

His audience were too eager for information to comment on the singular quality of Count Harrach's foresight.

"I have heard," said Count Markoff very seriously, "that in consequence of Baroness Marchfeldt's rejection, he has quarrelled with the world, and that he is gone into a monastery of Carthusians, at the top of a Bohemian mountain: if it be true, I am sure it is ten thousand pities."

"An idle tale, an idle tale, rely upon it, Count. No, no, you should not lend an ear to such unfounded rumours."

You, Count Harrach," said Markoff, modestly, "are, no doubt, better informed."

"A proud, dissatisfied spirit, sir, rely on it, a greedy and boundless ambition; look to that, sir, and you will trace this matter to its source at once, I believe. I have reason to know, that is, I have a right to conjecture, that my most illustrious brother has found him a headstrong youth, an unmanageable, froward-spirited lad, sir ;-wayward, sir-wayward from his very cradle. The deduction is plain': the Duke of Friedland has offered him a command, such perhaps as he deem's proportioned to his years and abilities; and he, forsooth, rating himself at a higher standard, scorns the tender, defies his most illustrious parent, renounces all the compatibilities, all the decencies of his station, and-but this is a hint which

came to me in a delicate manner-it is only amongst friends that I would breathe the most remote suspicion of such a thing: I have had a notion suggested to me, that he is actually gone to join the desperate banditti who have established their dens amid the ravines of the Carpathian mountains. My heart bleeds to the centre for my illustrious brother."

The majority of voices were at once upraised in a chorus of wonder and reprobation, while a few only hazarded a doubt of the accuracy of this afflicted uncle's intelligence: amongst these few Lindau stood foremost.

"Impossible, sir!" said he: "that the ambition of Count Casimir may have been piqued and disappointed; even that his expectations were extravagant, and his father's limitations just, and that he may have surrendered up his reason to a temporary fit of vexation, is within the scope of belief; although, judging from the few observations I have been able to

make on his temper, I do not believe it: but that Casimir of Vallenstein will ever become the companion of a horde of robbers, I should smile at such an insinuation, but that the source from whence the scandal emanates, excites a deeper feeling than can express itself in smiles."

"Well, sir," replied Count Harrach, indignantly, "take your own view of the matter, and time shall be our umpire; but if a man acts the extravagant part my nephew has done, conjecture will be busy; he may be insane,-not that on his mother's side it is traceable in the blood. But, sir, perhaps you are ignorant that of the princely retinue with which my illustrious brother sent him hither he has dismissed every man, except that gruff lieutenant, who always looked as if he was going to sabre somebody, His noble stud, and his costly equipages, are left as perquisites of these menials; and I have just been so fortunate to purchase, for a mere trifle, two of his finest chargers.