welling-place; there stood no
sentry now before her Excellency's pavilion. The windows were closed and
shuttered, and when she entered a chill air met her. She shivered; the
gay, bright pavilion was like a tomb, the grave of happy hours, she
thought. Her upstair rooms were dark and desolate. Once more she realised
that she, her power, her glory, were dead things, and she bowed before
the inexorable law, Change.

She passed through the statue gallery and into the arras passage. A
deathlike silence reigned in his Highness's apartments. O God! would she
find a still, white figure--a rigid, sheet-covered shape? She pushed open
the tapestry door; the writing-closet was empty, but beyond, in the
sleeping-room, she heard whispering voices.

The Duke lay on his bed fully dressed in his riding-clothes. His left arm
was held by the second physician, while the chief surgeon bent over it,
lancet in hand. A third doctor kneeled, holding a bowl under his
Highness's arm, from which large drops of blood welled slowly, and fell
with a sickening soft thud into the china bowl.

Friedrich Graevenitz, Schuetz, and Roeder stood near the window, talking
together in low tones. They started forward when the Landhofmeisterin
appeared on the threshold, and Graevenitz approached her with outstretched
hand.

'Wilhelmine, you must not come here now,' he said in an ungentle voice.

'It is my place! let me pass,' she returned; and, waving her brother
away, she moved swiftly round to the other side of the bed. She knelt
down close to the Duke, and taking his right hand she raised it gently
to her lips. The sufferer moved slightly for the first time since he had
fallen fainting from his horse.

'Stem the blood, he is returning to consciousness,' whispered the chief
surgeon; and the first physician twisted a linen band above the open
vein, while the second doctor stanched the blood with a cloth, and then
bound up the wound.

'His Highness must have entire quiet, Madame,' the court doctor said,
bowing respectfully to the Landhofmeisterin. 'It were well if all retired
and left him to my care alone, if you will permit me.'

'As Prime Minister, I consider it my duty to remain----' began Friedrich
Graevenitz in a louder tone.

'As chief physician, I consider it my duty to order you to retire!
Madame, will you assist me in this matter?' he said quietly to the
Graevenitz.

'I will assist you, Herr Medicinalrath, by retiring myself. I am sure the
ge