chorus her serene princess of y the heroine the hero of this ballad shame in s ears he up short and sat stunned in the saddle and the singers continued to descend the hill without him the song went to a rough popular air and long after the words became the swing of the music rising and falling echoed insult in the prince s brain he fled the sounds hard by him on his right a road struck towards the palace and he followed it through the thick shadows and of the park it was a busy place on a fine summer s afternoon when the court a romance and met and saluted but at that hour of the night in the early spring it was deserted to the birds among the covert here and there a statue stood glimmering with its eternal gesture here and there the echo of an imitation temple ghostly to the of the mare ten minutes brought him to the upper end of his own home garden where the small stables opened over a bridge upon the park the yard clock was striking the hour of ten so was the big bell in the palace bell tower and farther off the of the town about the stables all else was silent but the stamping of horses and the rattle of dismounted and as he did so a memory came back to him a whisper of and stolen corn once heard long forgotten and now in the nick of opportunity he crossed the bridge and going up to a window knocked six or seven heavy blows in a particular and as he did so smiled a was opened in the gate and a man s head appeared in the dim l to night said a voice bring a lantern said the prince dear heart a mercy i cried the groom who s that it is i the prince replied bring a lantern take in the mare and let me through into the garden the man remained silent for a while his head still projecting through the prince his he said at last and why did your knock so strange it is a superstition in answered that it com with a sound like a sob the groom fled he was very white when he returned even by the light of the lantern and his hand trembled as he the and took the mare your he began at last for god s sake and there he paused oppressed with guilt for god s sake what asked cheerfully for god s sake let us have cheaper com say i good night and he strode off into the garden leaving the groom once more the garden descended by a succession of stone to the level of the fish pond on the far side the ground rose again and was crowned by the confused roofs and of the palace the modern front the ball room the great library the apartments the busy and illuminated quarters of that great house all faced the town the garden side was much older and here it was almost dark only a few windows quietly lighted at various the great square tower rose by stages like a and on the top of all the flag hung motionless the garden as it now lay in the dusk and glimmer of the breathed of april under night s arch the shrubs through the and down a romance the marble stairs the prince rapidly descended before uncomfortable thoughts but alas from these there is no city of refuge and now when he was about of the descent distant strains of music began to fall upon his ear from the ball room where the court was dancing they reached him faint and broken but they touched the keys of memory and through and above them heard the melody of the wood merchants song mere blackness seized upon his mind here he was coming home the wife was dancing the husband had been playing a trick upon a and meanwhile all about them they were a to their subjects such a prince such a husband such a man as this had become and he sped the faster onward some way below he came unexpectedly upon a yet a little further and he was by a second and as he crossed the bridge over the fish pond an officer making the rounds stopped him once more the parade of watch was more than usual but curiosity was dead in s mind and he only at the interruption the porter of the back admitted him and started to behold him so disordered thence by private stairs and passages he came at length unseen to his own chamber tore off his clothes and threw himself upon his bed in the dark the music of the ball room still continued to a very lively measure and still behind that he heard in spirit the chorus of the merchants down the hill book n of love and politics chapter l what in the at a quarter before six on the following morning doctor was already at his desk in the library and with a small of black coffee at his elbow and an eye occasionally wandering to the and the long array of many colored books was quietly the labors of the day before he was a man of about forty haired with refined features a little worn bright eyes somewhat faded early to bed and early to rise his life was devoted to two things and wine an ancient friendship existed latent between him and they rarely met but when they did it was to take up at once the thread of their suspended intimacy the virgin priest of knowledge had envied his cousin for half a day when he was married he had never envied him his throne reading was not a popular diversion at the court of and that great pleasant gallery of 