ral. He could not, of course, expect that
such a step would be agreeable to the other members of the House of
Bourbon, but he valued his love more than his pride, and if his royal
uncle would only grant such an allowance as would enable himself and
his wife to live in a position of independence, he would trouble him
no more, and the world need never know that the son of Louis XVI. was
alive, and had perpetrated a _mesalliance_. But Louis XVIII. was
obdurate, and would not listen even to the seductive voice of Hymen.
The young couple were allowed to wed, but they had to look for their
means of livelihood elsewhere.

For a time Nauendorff was equal to the occasion, and supported the
corporal's daughter and his rising brood by cleaning the watches and
clocks of the Brandenburgers. But trouble came upon him. The house of
his next door neighbour took fire, and the watchmaker was suspected of
being the incendiary. He was arrested and thrown into prison; his wife
and children were turned into the street; and, although his innocence
was unequivocally proved, his trade was ruined, and he had to flee
from the midst of the distrustful and suspicious folks among whom he
had laboured and loved and wedded.

By the exertions of one of the few friends who remained to him
Nauendorff was appointed foreman in a watchmaking factory at Crossen,
and thither he removed, carrying with him his wife and the half-dozen
children who had blessed his union. But the distance was long, the
roads were bad, and the man was poor. When Nauendorff reached Crossen
on foot with his weary and half-famished band he found that the post
which he had come to obtain had been given to another, and abandoned
himself to despair. Then the plebeian energy of the corporal's
daughter rose superior to the weakness of her royal husband. She
obtained a temporary shelter, procured needlework, and, by her unaided
efforts, managed to keep the wolf from the door. After a little delay
work was obtained for Nauendorff also; and as his spirits revived his
hopes and pretensions revived also. Little by little he told his story
to his fellow-workmen, who paid no heed to it at first, but nicknamed
him in derision "the French prince." But the tale was improving as it
got older, and by-and-by he could number among his followers the
syndic of the town, one of the preachers, a magistrate, and a teacher
of languages. The syndic, in particular, was an enthusiastic partizan,
and himself ad