art, which beat so true for him. "No!" said he, looking up to heaven,
in gratitude, "all has been ordained for my good. Upon any other who
had stood in my situation this day, destruction might have fallen, but
I have been saved!" In thankfulness for the mercies apparently
vouchsafed to him, he cast away the gloomy forebodings with which his
mind had been haunted; his natural cheerfulness returned, and he sang a
song as merrily as in his former happy mood.

Herr von Kraft beheld him with astonishment, as he entered the room.
"Well, that is curious," said he; "I hastened home to console my guest
in his distress, and find him merrier than ever: how do these two
things rhyme together?"

"Have you never heard, Herr Dieterich," replied Albert, who thought it
advisable to conceal his joy, "have you never heard that one can laugh
in anger and sing in pain?"

"I have certainly heard it, but never witnessed it till this moment,"
answered Kraft.

"Well, and so you have heard of my vexatious affair with the grand
council?" asked Albert. "I suppose it has run through all the streets
already?"

"Oh no!" answered the secretary to the council; "no one knows any thing
of it; for it would not do to trumpet forth your intended secret
embassy to Wuertemberg. No, thank God! I have my private sources, and
learn many things the very hour they are done or spoken. But, don't be
offended, if I say that I think you have acted a foolish part."

"Really," answered Albert; "and in what way?"

"Could there have been a better opportunity offered you to distinguish
yourself? To whom would the commanders of the League have been under
greater obligations than to him who----"

"Out with it at once," interrupted Albert--"than to him, you mean, who
would steal into the enemy's country as a spy, worm out their secrets,
and then, like other villains, betray them. I only regret that the name
and honour of my father had not secured for me a higher and brighter
destination."

"Those are scruples which I would not have thought to find in you.
Really, if I were as well acquainted as you are with that
neighbourhood, they should not have asked me a second time."

"You, perhaps, in this country, possess different principles upon this
point from us in Franconia," replied Albert, not without disdain:
"Truchses von Waldburg should have thought of that, and appointed an
Ulmer to the service."

"You remind me now of another subject; the general of the forces