he letter; restoring to the persons who figure in it the
names under which they are already known. The writer began in these
satirically familiar terms:

"When you left the Prince's dominions, my dear sir, you no doubt
believed yourself to be a free agent. Quite a mistake! You were a mere
puppet; and the strings that moved you were pulled by the Doctor.

"Let me tell you how.

"On a certain night, which you well remember, the Princess was
unexpectedly summoned to the presence of her father. His physician's
skill had succeeded in relieving the illustrious Prince, prostrate under
nervous miseries. He was able to attend to a state affair of importance,
revealed to him by the Doctor--who then for the first time acknowledged
that he had presented himself at Court in a diplomatic, as well as in a
medical capacity.

"This state affair related to a proposal for the hand of the Princess,
received from the Grand Duke through the authorized medium of the
Doctor. Her Highness, being consulted, refused to consider the proposal.
The Prince asked for her reason. She answered: 'I have no wish to be
married.' Naturally irritated by such a ridiculous excuse, her father
declared positively that the marriage should take place.

"The impression produced on the Grand Duke's favorite and emissary was
of a different kind.

"Certain suspicions of the Princess and yourself, which you had
successfully contrived to dissipate, revived in the Doctor's mind when
he heard the lady's reason for refusing to marry his royal master. It
was now too late to regret that he had suffered himself to be misled by
cleverly managed appearances. He could not recall the favorable report
which he had addressed to the Duke--or withdraw the proposal of marriage
which he had been commanded to make.

"In this emergency, the one safe course open to him was to get rid of
You--and, at the same time, so to handle circumstances as to excite
against you the pride and anger of the Princess. In the pursuit of this
latter object he was assisted by one of the ladies in waiting, sincerely
interested in the welfare of her gracious mistress, and therefore
ardently desirous of seeing her Highness married to the Duke.

"A wretched old French conspirator was made the convenient pivot on
which the intrigue turned.

"An order for the arrest of this foreign republican having been first
obtained, the Prince was prevailed on to extend his distrust of the
Frenchman to the Frenchm