king together in low tones.

Many would gladly have caught part of their conversation, but no one
dared to move nearer, and the Southerners and Germans among them did not
understand the Flemish which they spoke.

Not until after the leech had raised his tall, pointed hat and the
statesman had pressed his prelate's cap closer upon his short, wavy dark
hair and drawn his sable-trimmed velvet cloak around him did several
courtiers hasten forward with officious zeal to open the little side
door for them.

Something must be going wrong upstairs.

Dr. Mathys's jovial face wore a very different expression when his
imperial patient was doing well, and Granvelle always bestowed a
friendly nod on one and another if he himself had cause to be content.

When the door had closed behind the pair, the tongues of the
ecclesiastics, the secular lords, and the ladies in the corridor
were again loosed; but there were no loud discussions in the various
languages now mingling in the Golden Cross, far less was a gay
exclamation or a peal of laughter heard from any of the groups who stood
waiting for the shower to cease.

Although each individual was concerned about his own affairs, one
thought, nevertheless, ruled them all--the Emperor Charles, his health,
and his decisions. Upon them depended not only the destiny of the world,
but also the weal and woe of the greatest as well as the humblest of
those assembled here.

"Emperor Charles" was the spell by which the inhabitants of half the
world obtained prosperity or ill-luck, war or peace, fulfilment or
denial of the wishes which most deeply stirred their souls. Even the
highest in the land, who expected from his justice or favour fresh
good-fortune or the averting of impending disasters, found their way
to him wherever, on his long and numerous journeys, he established his
court.

Numerous petitioners had also flocked to Ratisbon, but the two great
nobles who now entered the Golden Cross certainly did not belong to
their number. One shook the raindrops from his richly embroidered velvet
cloak and the plumes in his cap, the other from his steel helmet and
suit of Milan mail, inlaid with gold. Chamberlain de Praet accosted the
former, Duke Peter of Columna, in Italian; the latter, the Landgrave of
Leuchtenberg, in a mixture of German and his Flemish native tongue. He
had no occasion to say much, for the Emperor wished to be alone. He had
ordered even crowned heads and ambassadors to b