he beauteous queen, he proudly pressed his richly plumed cap
over his eyes.

Meanwhile Clara had lighted his chamber lamp and handed it to him.

'I am going out again immediately, dear Clara,' said Alf, with some
little embarrassment. 'I came merely to tell you, that you might not
sit up all night waiting for me.'

'You are going out again?' asked Clara, looking intently at him. 'This
is not your time for guard duty.'

'The feast of to-day has disturbed all our arrangements,' stammered Alf
with embarrassment. 'I must actually go to the palace once more
to-night.'

Clara seized his hand with both of hers, and with her mild honest eyes
gave him a piercing look. His guilty conscience deprived him of the
power to meet her gaze. 'Kippenbrock,' cried she, suddenly alarmed,
'are you not going for some wicked purpose?'

'You are already dreaming, from having watched so long, my child. Go to
bed, pretty one,' said Alf, bending down to kiss the maiden as he
wished her good night; a friendly habit in which he had for some time
indulged. But Clara avoided his embrace, saying earnestly to him, 'not
this evening, dear Kippenbrock, all is not as it should be.'

'You are a little simpleton!' cried he half indignantly, and hastened
forth as if he wished to run away from the 'unpleasant feelings her
suspicions had given him. As the third quarter after midnight struck,
he stood by the stove, closely wrapped in his mantle, in the upper
passage way of the palace, watching with anxious eyes, by the dim light
of the almost expiring lamps, the first door on the left. Finally, the
hour struck, and still no door was opened.

'It is in reality a great wrong for me to be standing here,' said Alf
to himself. 'Let the king now be what he may, and do what he will, yet
I have once for all acknowledged him as my lord, and this Gertrude is
his wife. It is the duty of my office to preserve order and propriety
in the royal palace, which I in intention am so vile as to violate.
Moreover, I encroach upon the rights of the good Clara, who so secretly
and tenderly loves me, and whom I should look upon as my affianced
bride. Did she but know that I was standing here waiting for the
creaking of that door, she would weep her eyes out of her head; and she
even appeared to suspect some intrigue. Her manner toward me appeared
very strange at my departure. Good God! with what face shall I appear
before her in the morning! No! it is settled,--the beautiful G