relate rode to Ludwigsburg.

It was as he had feared, and he was conducted to her Excellency's
reception room in the Corps de Logis. Bowing deeply, the page ushered the
Prelate into the large apartment and retired, and Osiander found himself
alone in the presence of the great Landhofmeisterin.

She came forward graciously and greeted the churchman with a profoundly
reverential courtesy. He returned her salutation coldly and turned away
his eyes, for her beauty was dazzling still, and he feared he might be
influenced.

'I think, your Excellency,' he said quietly, 'I think his Highness the
Duke wished to speak with me?'

'Monseigneur Osiander, I have ventured to request your presence
concerning a matter which has been long in my thoughts,' she said in her
most sonorous tones, and with that smile upon her lips which few could
resist; but Osiander observed her coldly and gravely.

'I pray you be seated,' she continued, and pointed to a large
red-cushioned chair, one which Zollern had brought from Rome, the typical
dignified, high-backed chair of the Roman Cardinal. To Osiander its very
shape was Papistical.

She flung herself down upon a gilt tabouret which stood near. It was much
lower than the Prelate's seat, and he could not fail to look down into
the deep decolletage of her bodice. He moved away a little, while a faint
flush rose to his cheeks.

'I am listening, Excellency,' he said; 'but you will pardon me if I urge
you to be brief, for I have much business to transact this afternoon.'

'Ah! Prelate, it is so difficult to be brief with those who do not
comprehend!' She leaned towards him. 'I have ever--respected you,
Monseigneur.'

The Prelate drew back from her. In his mind he repeated over and over
again, as though the phrase were an incantation against some evil spirit:
'The Jezebel flatters me, the Jezebel flatters me,' but man, he could not
remain insensible to the woman who thus appealed to him, though priest,
he abhorred her. All her charm was in her eyes, her smile; there was a
fragrance about her--an exhilaration.

'Madame, it were better if you respected God's laws,' he said sternly.
His severity seemed to him as a barrier which he raised between his human
weakness and her evil fascination. She sprang up; actress that she was,
she meant to convince this man by a grand and tragical scene. She knew
him to be too simple, too unsubtle, to detect the art which lent power
and pathos to her words. Beside