woman's hand, accusing that saint of wishing to poison her husband, and had put poison in a place where he could find it. Then, for the first time, I realized that you and I had murdered my sainted sister-in-law's body, and my brother's soul; and I fled here, where I believed you dared not follow me."

"Madame paid me highly," said Kriegsthurm, and also treated me kindly. My object was to carry out Madame's wishes most fully. And I did so."

There was a certain terrible truth in the man's defence of himself. There was a large liberal grandeur about his rascality which made him, without all question, the greatest rascal in Europe. The general rule, I believe, in employing a rascal is to promise him his pay as soon as the villany is completed. Such a procedure was utterly unnecessary in the case of Kriegsthurm. Pay Kriegsthurm well first, and then all you had to look out for was that he did not, in his enthusiastic devotion to rascality, outrun his instructions, and compromise you. What his real name was, or where he came from, is a thing we shall never know. His name certainly could not have been Kriegsthurm; even in the case of such an arch scoundrel as he was it is impossible to believe that he would keep his own name. That would have been a stroke of genius with which we cannot credit even him. Dalmatian crossed with Greek might produce him, did not his German, almost Dutch, physique render such a theory entirely impossible.

Yet such entirely noble people as Frangipanni and Boginski believed in the man; believed, at the very least, that, if he was faithless in most things, he was faithful to them. Conspirators, often at the same time the most honest and the most credulous of men, are not difficult men to deceive. About this man there was a broad radical magnificence of scoundrelism which might have taken in some statesmen, leave alone conspirators.

"We will not dispute further, your Highness," he said, now giving her the

title she loved; "I served your interests, and I was paid. I will begin all over again. again. I want money."

"And I have none," said the Princess, now perfectly confident. "This is a good beginning."

"But your Highness may get money again. What is your object in wanting money?"

"You know. I want it for Tom.' "Use your influence with your brother, and reinstate him as heir of Silcotes. I tell you, and I know, that there is no one whom the Squire loves as he does the Colonel. The Colonel is steady enough now, and has had his lesson. The Squire is quite sick of Arthur, and besides, Arthur has fits, and bullies the old gentleman. I tell your Highness that, if you and I put our wits to work, we can get the Colonel out of this, and safe back to Silcote before the French have crossed the bridge of Buffalora."

"Are they going to fight, then?" said the Princess eagerly."

"Are they not?" said Kriegsthurm emphatically. "Do you think I don't know? Did I ever leave England before?"

"I cannot have Tom," said the Princess, "in a campaign, he is so rash and audacious. Can you save Tom for me? I cannot do without Tom now; I would part with my opals to save Tom. Kriegsthurm, can you save Tom for me?"

"No harm will come to him, your Highness, believe me. He must go to the campaign; not only because his character is ruined if he does not, not only because he cannot avoid it if he would, but because one half of my plan consists in his winning back his father's favour by distinguishing himself in it." "Give me you plan, then."

"I will," said Kriegsthurm. "Now you must allow that the Colonel has a very good notion of his own interests. You can't deny that, your Highness; at least, if you did, your pocket would turn inside out in contradiction."

"I allow it," said the Princess; "Tom is fond of pleasure; and natural, too, at his time of life."

Tom was over forty, but she always looked on him as a boy.

"I do not exactly allude to his fondness for pleasure, your Highness," said Kriegsthurm, "I only allude to his perfect readiness to lead an easy life on other people's money. I call attention, en passant only, to this amiable little trait in his character, to show that we shall have no difficulty whatever with him; that, if he saw any chance of being reinstated at Silcotes, he would give up his career in the Austrian army, his character for personal courage, his chance of salvation, yourself, or the mother that bore him, to attain it."

"Tom certainly has all the persistence of the family in the pursuit of an object," was the way the Princess complacently put it.

"He has. I asked if he would stick at murder, and he rode the high horse, and talked about kicking me down stairs; but he wouldn't; no more would "-he was going to say, "you," but he said, a great many other people."

"Now, instead of trying to bring Tom's nature to your own level, my dear Kriegsthurm," replied the Princess, 'you should try to raise your nature to his;" which was pretty as it stood, but which, on the face of it, did not seem to mean quite enough to arrest Kriegsthurm's line of argument.

66

Now," he therefore regardlessly went on, "we three being pretty comfortable together, and I having to find brains for the pair of you, it comes to this. The Squire is very fond of you, and very fond of the Colonel. You haven't hit it off together exactly, you remark. Why, no; but nothing is commoner than for people who are very fond of one another not to hit it off. You and the Colonel don't always hit it off, you know; why, if he were to offer to touch your jewels, the dead soldiers at Aspern down there would hear the row you two would make together. I and my poor wife didn't hit it off together. She put a knife into me once, but I didn't think much about that. When I married a Sicilian I knew that I might have to attend vespers.

But

we were very fond of one another, and you and the Colonel are fond of one another, and you and the Squire are fond of cne another, in spite of all said and done. And the Colonel must cheer the Squire's old English heart by killing a few Frenchmen; and you must use your influence with the Squire, and get the Colonel reinstated.”

"That won't do," said the Princess decisively.

"And why, your Highness?" asked Kriegsthurm.

"Because, the next time my brother sees me, he will probably assassinate me publicly, and, if not, hand me over to justice for robbing him. Now don't look farouche like that, and, if you choose to swear, swear in something less than a dozen languages at once."

"I was not swearing, your Highness; I was praying-praying for the safety of your Highness's intellect."

"Well, then, if praying produces that effect on your face, I should advise you to stop it until you have consulted a priest of your faith, whatever that may be."

"I will do so, Madame. Will Madame explain?" said Kriegsthurm, coming down sulkily to the inferior title.

"Your Highness has committed a serious felony," said Kreigsthurm.

"So I supposed at the time," said the Princess. "But it is not of much consequence, I think. I talked about his assassinating me, or handing me over to justice just now. I spoke too fast, as usual. He will never prosecute, you know. But our meeting again is an impossibility, that is all."

"I might prosecute," said Kriegsthurm, "if your Highness returned to England."

"The idea of your prosecuting any one, my dear Kriegsthurm! I don't know anything about law, but I know perfectly well that you are by far too disreputable a person to be believed on your oath. Off your oath you can be trusted, as I have often shown you ; but once sworn, I would not trust you, and you know that no English jury would."

"I have been faithful to Madame."

"Yes, but never on your oath. I have heard you swear, certainly, in many languages, but you never took an oath to me. Pray, par exemple, to how many democratic societies have you sworn oaths, and how many of those oaths remain unbroken?"

"Your Highness is too strong for me. I wish to talk business. I cannot stand your Highness's logic."

"I am a great fool," replied the Princess, "but, like most fools, I am very cunning in a low way; and a fool must be a very low fool who is not a match for a thrice-perjured conspirator like you. You have ten times my brains, and ten times my physique; yet you tremble at every shiver of the breeze in the poplars above you. You would answer that I am a conspirator also; yet who is the bravest of us now? I am not so much afraid of a violent death as you are. Women are braver than men. Come, to business."

"I think I am as brave as most men, Madame," said Kriegsthurm; " and I was not, until this moment, aware that your Highness was in expectation of a sudden and violent death, as I have been for now twenty years. If your Highness doubts my nerve, would you be No. 91.-VOL. XVI.

so condescending as to allow me to prove it ?"

"Certainly," said the Princess.

Kriegsthurm was standing with his head bent down into his bosom, as if shamefaced at losing the scolding-match with her. He now said, without altering his attitude, "Your Highness speaks Italian as well as English. Will you allow me to converse with you in Italian?"

Again she said, "Certainly." Kriegsthurm, with his chin on his chest, went on in that language. "The Signora has challenged my nerves, I now challenge hers. The dearest friend of the man whom her late husband wronged so shamefully is standing close behind her; if you turn you are lost. I am going to seize him, and I shall have to spring past you. He does not understand Italian. I demand therefore of the Signora that she shall remain perfectly tranquil in the little imbroglio which approaches. All I ask of your Highness is, that you will walk away from the combatants."

The Princess, with her English nerves, stood as still as a lighthouse; Kriegsthurm, with his great powerful head bent down to the hollow of his enormous chest, as if to make his congé. But in one moment he had dashed past her, and had seized in his enormous muscular, coarse-bred, inexpressive fingers, the cravat and collar of our old friend Boginsky.

CHAPTER XLIII.

66 THE CUB'S" PROSPECTS ARE DISCUSSED. KRIEGSTHURM was some fifteen stone, and Boginsky some eleven. The natural consequence of which was, that Boginsky came hurling on his back on the gravel, with old Kriegsthurm a-top of him. The Princess heard the hurlyburly, but, like a true woman, waited to see what would be made out of it. She did not hear the conversation which followed between the two men, when they had got on their legs again, which was carried on in German.

C

Why, what art thou doing here, and now, of all places and times?" demanded Kriegsthurm, as soon as he had picked himself up from the top of the laughing Boginsky, and was standing face to face with him.

"I was listening to what you and the Princess were saying," replied Boginsky merrily. "The devil, but you are strong. You will face a man boldly enough when he faces you; but you were frightened when I came behind you just now."

"I am afraid of your democratic committees," said Kriegsthurm.

"You have reason to be so," said Boginsky.

"Meet me again in half an hour," said Kriegsthurm, naming the place. And so they hurriedly parted.

"No danger after all, your Highness. Only an old brother conspirator, who may be useful to us. Now let us resume our conversation. What were the contents of these wills which you took?"

"I cannot say. Do you think that I would demean myself so far as to abuse my brother's confidence? I burnt them, and a nice smell they made. My maid thought that I had scorched my boots against the stove, and I showed her a burnt glove to account for it."

At this characteristic piece of hopeless wandering folly on her part, Kriegsthurm was very nearly throwing up the whole business in despair. Not in disgust, for, he in his way loved the woman. He went on, without any sign of contempt.

"That is rather a pity. One would have liked to know. I suppose he kept two wills by him to see how different people behaved themselves, so that he might destroy either.

The one,

if Madame will follow me, was probably made in favour of your favourite Thomas, the heir of his choice." And he paused to let her speak.

"And the other in favour of Arthur," she said.

"Excuse me. Silcote proposed to make him his heir, but Arthur refused, and they had words over it. No. The second will was probably in favour of

James Sugden, a young man towards whom the Squire has shown the most singular favour: a favour so singular for him that there is little doubt that he is forgive me-the darling son of your brother's old age.

"That cub !" exclaimed the Princess.

"I am glad that you consider him a cub," said Kriegsthurm. "I have never seen him, and have doubtless been misinformed about him. He has been represented to me as a youth of singular personal beauty, of amazingly artistic talent, and of irresistibly engaging manners."

"He kept all these qualities carefully to himself whenever I saw him,” said the Princess. "Yet still he was handsome, now I think of it, and drew beautifully, and everybody was very fond of him."

"Exactly," said Kriegsthurm, admiring the admirable way in which she contradicted herself, talking "smartly" one moment, and then letting her honesty, or simplicity, or whatever it was, get the better of her. "And this beautiful youth, born close to the lodge-gates, is desperately in love with your niece Anne, the Squire's favourite grandchild. It seems evident that one of the Squire's two plans is to foster a marriage between these two, and leave them the estate."

"If your theory of his birth be true," said the Princess, laughing, "it seems hardly probable that my brother, with his extremely rigid notions, should encourage a match between Anne and her uncle !"

Kriegsthurm had never thought of that. He had merely an idea that they were in some sort cousins. I suppose that all conspiracies go blundering and tumbling about in this way before the time of projection. Judging from their almost universal failure, one would certainly say so.

"Besides, I remember all about this boy. He was not born near the parkgates at all. His father and mother were two Devonshire peasants, who migrated up into our part of the world when the child was quite big. And

:

moreover my brother's morality is utterly beyond suspicion,-has not his inexorable Puritanism been the cause of half this misery ?-but to whom do I talk? I remember all about the boy and his belongings now. His mother was a woman of singular and remarkable beauty with a rude ladylike nobility in her manner, which I never saw anywhere else. That very impertinent old woman Miss Raylock (who by the by was creeping and bothering about at the ball to-night,) pointed her out to me first, one time when I was talking about the superiority of the Italian peasant over the English. And I remember all about the boy too. and the people went out after some poachers from Newby, and this boy showed the most splendid courage, and got fearfully beaten and bruised, almost killed. And Tom,-was it not like my dear Tom?-carried the boy to Silcotes in his arms, as tenderly as if he was his own son. He little knew that the ungrateful cub would ever come to stand between him and his inheritance."

Tom

As little, kind Princess, as he knew that the poor wounded boy he carried in his arms so tenderly was his own son. Once in his wild loose wicked life, God gave him the chance of doing his duty by his own child he had so cruelly neglected and ignored: ignored so utterly that he would not inform himself about its existence. Through his own unutterable selfishness, once, and once only, had he the chance of doing his duty by his own son: on that occasion he did it tenderly and well. Let us remember this in his favour, since we have but little else to remember. The man was not all bad. Few men are. Show me a perfectly good man, and I will show you a perfectly bad man. The challenge is not likely to be accepted, I think.

"Your Highness's reminiscences are interesting," said Kriegsthurm. "This youth, this James Sugden, stands between the Colonel and his inheritance, and must be removed."

"What do you propose to do?" then.

"Wait, your Highness. I give up my theory of his birth, of course. I see that it is indefensible so the original difficulty remains, don't you see? What is more likely than that Silcote should have planned a match between these two?"

"Nothing, I suppose."

"Of course, nothing We all know that they are his two favourites, and moreover they have fallen in love with one another."

"Excuse me once more," said the Princess. "This boy is not in love with Anne. He has the most extreme personal objection to her, to all her ways, and all her works. It is that mealy-faced, wretched little Reginald who is her adorer. This James worships Dora, Algernon's daughter."

"As if it mattered with a boy of nineteen. If his patron gave the word he would fall in love with this beautiful little niece of yours to morrow."

"I don't know that," said the Princess. "He is terribly resolute, quiet as he looks. And she is a vixen."

"Your Highness is so absorbed in sentimental trivialities between boys and girls, that we shall never get on."

"They count, you know. And Dora, the Squire's other favourite, is desperately fond of him."

"I beg pardon?"

"I said that she was deeply, jealously in love with this cub."

"That might be made to work" said Kriegsthurm. "Do you see how?" "No," said the Princess.

"No more do I just at present," said Kriegsthurm, thoughtfully. "Have you any remark to make, Madame į"

"I have to remark that you and I have got into a very idiotic muddle at present. I generally remark that an idiotic muddle is the upshot of all conspiracies. I have not been engaged in so many as you have, but I have been engaged in enough, and to spare: I can speak of the effect of them on my own mind, and that effect has been muddle, unutterable muddle: a muddle which I fear has got chronic with me. For instance, I don't at this moment know