The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-24

The despair of the princess at the
outcome of the jealousy which she her.
self had aroused in her son can be
imagined. True, she had no need to
fear for him. Prince of the land, he
stood in too high and unassailable
position to be called to account for his
crime; besides which, such affairs
wee looked upon with much less Sc
verify in those stormy times than they
are now, and this particular unhappy
matter had been 80 carefully hushed up
that few beyond those Immediately
concerned knew all the facts of the
case. What affected the princess most
deeply was the bitter reflection that the
whole terrible episode was of her own
bringing about. She had known 30
we'll her sons passionate undisciplined
nature, and, Notwithstanding that, had
played upon it in 80 dangerous q stylei
Too late she realized the tremendous
power of the love against which she
had tried to battle, and now her dear
est wish was to bring about that mar
riage which she had hitherto striven
with all all her might to prevent. For
it seemed to her now that in that alone
lay her sons salvation.
1t was q matter which required some
delicate handling. The apothecary's
family, firm and deep as was their 10y
atty and affection for their prince,
could not fail to feel both these senti-
ments deeply shaken by his fatal act;
and to give An Liese in marriage to
the very man 40 had slain her cousin
would no dc ubt seem to them too
dreadful thing to contemplate.
As for the pretty maid herself, she
was very much in Juliet's predicament.
She had loved her cousin and mourned
him deeply, but she loved his destroyer
still more, and that love nothing was
/ powerful enough to kill. How could
she forget that his fury had all been of
his love for her, and who knew better
than she, his playmate of old, that ter
rible side of his character, which, once
brought into play led him into acts for
which he was hardly responsible?
Many were the tears poor Anna Liese
shed in the solitude and silence of her
little chamber, both for the dead cousin
and that still dearer one whom she had
not seen since the fatal day, and whom
she knew would be now suffering all
the agonies of unavailing remorse.
She was sitting thus, some weeks
later, with her sad thoughts for sole
companions, when the door opened
and her mother with tear-stained eyes
stood before her.
Daughter, l have come to fetch
thee" she said in tones that trembled.
"The princess is down below with thy
father, and thou art wanted"
"The princess, mother?"
eyes, my child! And then the moth
er took the girl into her arms and her
tears welled forth afresh. ."She comes
to ask thee of us for her sons wife,"
she murmured. "She says she was to
blame for all his jealousy, and be-
seeches us to consent to the marriage.
She told us that she sees now that thou
alone canst guide him as he needs to be
led and make him good man; that his
life, for good or evil, is in thy hands to
make or mar"
"And you and my father-what did
you say?" faltered Anna Liese.
Her mother gently stroked her hair
as she answered:
"Thy father said at last that thine
own heart should decide, my child. 1t
may be that the princess is right, and
that thou art the one pointed out by
heaven to be this mans good angel
If this is 30 we have no right to with
hold his salvation. God, who is 80
great and wise, knows what is for the
best, and he will guide thee the right
way, my child"
Leopold, meanwhile, was sitting
brooding all alone in one of the great,
massively furnished rooms of the castle
1t was getting dark very rapidly, but
he did not notice the increasing gloom
it accorded but too we'll with the dark.
ness of his mind. His head was sunh
forward on his breast, but his eyes
were fixed on vacancy, while all man
ner of tormenting reflections were surg
ing through his brain. And the CHIEF
of these, which kept ever recurring
was, that by his own hand he had plac
ed barrier between his love and him.
self forever.
At that moment the door behind him
, opened nOiselessly, light footsteps Gid.
one came and stood beside him. AnG
| looking up he saw with wondering eyes
, his love, his Anna Liese, more beauti
, full than he had ever yet beheld her
with tears, half Of sadness, half OF joy
, in the tender eyes that gazed upor
! him. Then, even as he sat, speeches.
and bewildered, half doubling his OWL
, eyes, his mother glided up to him ani
| placed his sweetheart's hand in his.
Though this true story, happened in
, times far from idyllic, and the prince
was by nature far from an ideal hero OIL
romance, one might we'll end the nara
, tive of his wooing with the old finale Of
, the fairy tales: "They lived happily
ever AFTER" for Leopold and his wife
I from the time they were welded til
| Anna Liese's death, forty-seven years
i later, were lovers to the last.
Nearly two hundred years have pass
, ed since the day when pretty Anne
! Liese became the great lady of her ma
tive land, but the names of both mait
and lover still linger in the pages Of
German history, for the prince wal
Leopold Furst Won AnhalfD essau, ia
nous in Prussian annals as "der altt
Dessauer," the general who fought as
young man under Friedrich Wilhelm
of Brandenburg, the Great Elector
. and as an old one under Frederick tn,