,
I must shun every source of agitation. Think! With the banning, the
general's work begins. How you look at me! Well, yes! You, too, know how
easy it is for the man who has most to do to spare a leisure hour
which the person without occupation does not find, and neither of us is
accustomed to deceive the other. Besides, it would be of little avail.
So, to cut the matter short, I am unwilling to see Barbara again and
awaken false hopes in her mind! But even these plain words do not seem
to satisfy you."

"By your Majesty's permission," replied the leech, "deeply as I regret
it for the invalid's sake, I believe, on the contrary, that you are
choosing the right course. But I have only discharged the first part of
my patient's commission. Though I have no pleasant tidings to take back
to her, I am still permitted to tell her the truth. But your Majesty,
by avoiding an interview with the poor girl, will spare yourself a sad,
nay, perhaps a painful hour."

"Did the disease so cruelly mar this masterpiece of the Creator?" asked
the Emperor. "With so violent a fever it was only too natural," replied
the physician. "Time and what our feeble skill can do will improve
her condition, I hope, but--and this causes the poor girl the keenest
suffering--the unfortunate inflammation of the bronchial tubes most
seriously injures the tone of her clear voice."

"Ah!" exclaimed the startled Emperor with sincere compassion. "Do
everything in your power, Mathys, to purify this troubled spring of
melody. I will repay you with my warmest gratitude, for, though the
Romans said that Cupid conquered through the eyes, yet Barbara's singing
exerted a far more powerful influence over my heart than even her
wonderful golden hair. Restore the melting tones of her voice and,
though the bond of love which rendered this month of May so exquisitely
beautiful to us must remain severed, I will not fail to remember it with
all graciousness."

"That, your Majesty, can scarcely be avoided," the physician here
remarked with an embarrassment which was new in him to Charles, "for the
continuance of the memory of the spring days which your Majesty recalls
with such vivid pleasure seems to be assured. Yet, if it pleases Heaven,
as I have learned to-day for the first time, to call a living being into
existence for this purpose----"

"If I understand you correctly," cried the Emperor, starting up, "I am
to believe in hopes----"

"In hopes," interrupted the phy