taught the hitherto indifferent youth the art of
love.

Duke Carl had effected arrangements for his marriage, secret, but
complete and soon to be made public. Long since he had cast complacent
eyes on a strange architectural relic, an old grange or hunting-lodge
on the heath, with he could hardly have defined what charm of
remoteness and old romance. Popular belief amused itself with reports
of the wizard who inhabited or haunted the place, his fantastic
treasures, his immense age. His windows might be seen glittering afar
on stormy nights, with a blaze of golden ornaments, said the more
adventurous loiterer. It was not because he was suspicious still, but
in a kind of wantonness of affection, and as if by way of giving yet
greater zest to the luxury of their mutual trust that Duke Carl added
to his announcement of the purposed place and time of the event a
pretended test of the girl's devotion. He tells her the story of the
aged wizard, meagre and wan, to whom she must find her way alone for
the purpose of asking a question all-important to himself. The fierce
old man will try to escape with terrible threats, will turn, or half
turn, into repulsive animals. She must cling the faster; at last the
spell will be broken; he will yield, he will become a youth once more,
and give the desired answer.

The girl, otherwise so self-denying, and still modestly anxious for a
private union, not to shame his high position in the world, had wished
for one thing at least--to be loved amid the splendours habitual to
him. Duke Carl sends to the old lodge his choicest personal
possessions. For many days the public is aware of something on hand; a
few get delightful glimpses of the treasures on their way to "the place
on the heath." Was he preparing against contingencies, should the great
army, soon to pass through these parts, not leave the country as
innocently as might be desired?

The short grey day seemed a long one to those who, for various reasons,
were waiting anxiously for the darkness; the court people fretful and
on their mettle, the townsfolk suspicious, Duke Carl full of amorous
longing. At her distant cottage beyond the hills, Gretchen kept herself
ready for the trial. It was expected that certain great military
officers would arrive that night, commanders of a victorious host
making its way across Northern Germany, with no great respect for the
rights of neutral territory, often dealing with life and property too
rudely