and honeyed. He was so evidently pleased with his
own diplomacy that even the eye of the stern Mayence twinkled
maliciously when the girl turned impulsively toward the other end of the
table, and cried:

"Guardian, tell me the truth! I know this young man accepted me as if I
were a sack of grain, his whole mind intent on one thing only: to secure
for himself the position of Emperor. Is it not so?"

"It is not so, Countess," said Cologne solemnly.

"Prince Roland, it is true, made no stipulation regarding you."

"I was sure of it. Any Gretchen in Germany would have done just as well.
I was merely part of the bargain he was compelled to make with you, and
now I announce to the Court that no power on earth will induce me to
marry Prince Roland. I claim the right of my womanhood to wed only the
man whom I love, and who loves me!"

Mayence gave utterance to an exclamation that might be coarsely
described as a snort of contempt. The Elector of Treves was leaning back
in his chair discomfited by her abrupt desertion of him. The Elector of
Cologne now leaned forward, dismayed at the turn affairs had taken, deep
anxiety visible on his brow.

"Countess von Sayn," he began, and thus his ward realized how deeply she
had offended, "in all my life I never met any young man who impressed me
so favorably as Prince Roland of Germany. If I possessed a daughter whom
I dearly loved, I could wish her no better fortune than to marry so
honest a youth as he. The very point you make against him should have
told most strongly in his favor with a young girl. My reading of his
character is that so far as concerns the love you spoke of, he knows as
little of it as yourself, and thus he agreed to our proposal with a
seeming indifference which you entirely misjudge. If you, then, have any
belief in my goodwill towards you, in my deep anxiety for your welfare
and happiness, I implore you to agree to the suggestion my Lord of
Mayence has made. You speak of love knowing nothing concerning it. I
call to your remembrance the fact that one noble lady of your race may
have foregone the happiness that love perhaps brings, in her desire for
the advancement of one whom she loved so truly that she chose for her
guide the more subdued but steadier star of duty. The case is presented
to you, my dear, in different form, and I feel assured that duty and
love will shine together."

As the venerable Archbishop spoke with such deep earnestness, in a voice
she