no secret in the world that women cannot know if they will), despatched
him on the following mysterious commission.

'"There lives," said his Highness, "on the Kehl side of the river,
opposite to Strasbourg, a man whose residence you will easily find
out from his name, which is MONSIEUR DE STRASBOURG. You will make your
inquiries concerning him quietly, and without occasioning any remark;
perhaps you had better go into Strasbourg for the purpose, where the
person is quite well known. You will take with you any comrade on whom
you can perfectly rely: the lives of both, remember, depend on your
secrecy. You will find out some period when MONSIEUR DE STRASBOURG is
alone, or only in company of the domestic who lives with him (I myself
visited the man by accident on my return from Paris five years since,
and hence am induced to send for him now, in my present emergency). You
will have your carriage waiting at his door at night; and you and your
comrade will enter his house masked; and present him with a purse of
a hundred louis; promising him double that sum on his return from his
expedition. If he refuse, you must use force and bring him; menacing him
with instant death should he decline to follow you. You will place him
in the carriage with the blinds drawn, one or other of you never
losing sight of him the whole way, and threatening him with death if he
discover himself or cry out. You will lodge him in the old Tower here,
where a room shall be prepared for him; and his work being done, you
will restore him to his home with the same speed and secrecy with which
you brought him from it."

'Such were the mysterious orders Prince Victor gave his page; and
Weissenborn, selecting for his comrade in the expedition Lieutenant
Bartenstein, set out on his strange journey.

'All this while the palace was hushed, as if in mourning, the bulletins
in the COURT GAZETTE appeared, announcing the continuance of the
Princess's malady; and though she had but few attendants, strange
and circumstantial stories were told regarding the progress of her
complaint. She was quite wild. She had tried to kill herself. She
had fancied herself to be I don't know how many different characters.
Expresses were sent to her family informing them of her state, and
couriers despatched PUBLICLY to Vienna and Paris to procure the
attendance of physicians skilled in treating diseases of the brain.
That pretended anxiety was all a feint: it was never intended