into her power?

Far from impossible.

I curse the day when I entered Dresden, joined this court and family.

* * * * *

LOSCHWITZ, _May 15, 1902_.

Royal command to join the court at Pillnitz June 1. The King, who has
been ailing for some time, is anxious to be reunited with the children,
and, as a necessary evil, I must go along.

I replied that I would prefer Nossen, or even Stolpen, if it pleases His
Majesty.

Castle Stolpen is an old-time stronghold of the bishops of Meissen, and
its very ruins are pregnant with reminiscences of a barbaric age. The
apartments once occupied by the Countess Cosel, as a prison first, as a
residence after the death of Augustus, might be made habitable even now.
Exceedingly interesting are the old-time torture chambers and the
subterranean living rooms of the "sworn torturer" and the dogs,
man-shaped, that served him.

Sanct. Donatus Tower, a wing of the great, black pile, was the ancient
_habitat_ of these worthies, and the torture chamber, still extant, is a
hall almost as big as the Dresden throne-room. In an inscription hewn in
the basalt, the sovereign bishop, Johannes VI, poses as builder and
seems proud of the damnable fact. Other princes of the Church let us
know in high-sounding Latin script that they created the "Monk hole" and
the "stairless prison" respectively.

The latter is a vast subterranean vault, never reached by sunshine or
light of any kind. Its victims were made to descend some twenty feet
below the surface of the earth on a ladder. When near the bottom, the
ladder was pulled up and--stayed up. The prisoners were fed once every
twenty-four hours, when a leather water pouch and some pounds of black
bread were sent down on a rope.

Of course only the strongest got a morsel, or a drink of water. The
others died of starvation and the survivors lived only until there were
new arrivals, stronger than themselves. The dead bodies were never
removed, and horrible stories of necrophily smudge the records of this
awful prison and cover its princely keepers with infamy.

The "Monk's hole" was called officially "Obey Your Judge." It is a sort
of chimney, just large enough to take the body of a man.

When a monk or other prisoner refused to confess, he was let down into
the hole in the wall to starve, while tempting dishes, meat, wine and
bread, were dangled over his head, almost within reach of his hands.

Of course, after end