e felt toward this stealer of love fatally
resembled sharp, gnawing ill will.

Yet the bright sense of happiness which pervaded her whole being
rendered it easy for her to thrust the image of the unloved woman far
into the shade, and the next morning became a glorious festival for her;
she used it to pay a visit to the Dubois couple, and when she told them
what she had heard from Wolf, and saw Frau Traut sob aloud in her joy
and Adrian wipe tears of grateful emotion from his aged eyes, her own
happiness was doubled by the others' sympathy.

Barbara had anticipated Wolf, but while going home she met him on his
way to the Dubois house. He joined her, and still had many questions to
answer.

During the next few days her friend helped her compose a letter to
her son; but he was constantly obliged to impose moderation upon the
passionate vehemence of her feelings. She often yielded to his superior
prudence, only she would not fulfil his desire to address her boy as
"your Excellency."

When she read the letter, she thought she had found the right course.

Barbara first introduced herself to John as his real mother. She had
loved and honoured his great father with all the strength of her soul,
and she might boast of having been clear to him also. By the Emperor
Charles's command he, her beloved child, had been taken from her. She
had submitted with a bleeding heart and, to place him in the path of
fortune, had inflicted the deepest wounds upon her own soul. Now her
self-sacrifice was richly rewarded, and it would make her happier than
himself if she should learn that his own merit had led him to the height
of fame which she prayed that he might reach.

Then she congratulated him, and begged him not to forget her entirely
amid his grandeur. She was only a plain woman, but she, too, belonged
to an ancient knightly race, and therefore he need not be ashamed of his
mother's blood.

Lastly, at Wolf's desire, she requested her son to thank the lady who so
lovingly filled her place to him.

Her friend was to give this letter himself to Don John of Austria, and
he voluntarily promised to lead the high-minded boy to the belief that
his own mother had also been worthy of an Emperor's love.

Lastly, Wolf promised to inform her of any important event in her son's
life or his own. During the last hour of their meeting he admitted that
he was one of the few who felt satisfied with their lot. True, he
could not say that he had no