h," the Count cried, "thou liest!"

"Thy faith I begrudge, open that door and thyself be the judge," she
screamed, quite beside herself with anger. Of course everybody looked
toward the door of the cabinet, and finally the Count opened it, and
there stood Thaddeus.

He staggered back, the Queen was delighted, but everybody else was
frightened half to death.

Everybody concerned seemed then to be in the worst possible way.
Arline determined to stand by Thaddeus, and she was quite appalled at
the wickedness of the Queen.

"Leave the place instantly," the Count roared to Thaddeus.

"I go, Arline," Thaddeus answered sorrowfully.

"Never!--unless I go with thee," she declared, quite overcome by the
situation. "Father, I love thee, but I cannot give up Thaddeus," she
protested sorrowfully to the Count. Then the Count drew his sword and
rushed between them.

"Go!" he cried again to Thaddeus, and at the same time the Queen urged
him to go with her. Then Arline begged to be left alone with her
father that she might have a private word with him. Everybody withdrew
except Thaddeus, wondering what next, and how it would all turn out.

"Father," Arline pleaded when they were alone, "I am at your feet. If
you love me you will listen. It was Thaddeus who restored me to you;
who has guarded me from harm for twelve years. I cannot give him up,
and to send him away is unworthy of you." The Count made a despairing
gesture of dismissal to Thaddeus.

"But, father, we are already united," she urged, referring to the
gipsy marriage. At that the Count was quite horrified.

"United?--to a strolling fellow like this?" This was more than
Thaddeus could stand, knowing as he did that he was every bit as good
as the Count--being a Polish noble. True, if he revealed himself, he
might have to pay for it with his life, because he was still reckoned
at large as the enemy of the Emperor, but even so, he decided to tell
the truth about himself for Arline's sake.

"Listen," he cried, stepping nearer to the Count. "I am not what you
think me. Let this prove to you my birth," and he took the old
commission from his pocket where he had carried it for years, and
handed it to the Count. "This will prove to thee, though I am an
exile, that I am a noble like thyself; and my birth does not separate
me from thy daughter." The Count read the paper tremblingly and then
looked long at Thaddeus. Tears came to his eyes.

"The storms of a nation's strife s