e
lid.

The burial took place in the English cemetery. I am glad to say that
the Princess contrived to avoid the mockery of a religious service by
alleging that Mr. Sterling had belonged to a peculiar sect--the
Quakers, I fancy--which holds such ceremonies to be worldly and
unnecessary.

I may add that I have since visited my grave, which is still to be
seen in a corner of the cemetery. It is marked by a stone slab with
an inscription in English.

In the afternoon the faithful Fauchette persuaded her mistress to go
out for a drive, to soothe her over-strained nerves.

Before quitting the house, the Princess came in to take a last look
at me.

She lingered minute after minute, as though with some premonition
that our next meeting would be under widely different circumstances.

To herself, I heard her whisper, sighing softly:

"Andreas! O Andreas! If I could sleep, or thou couldst never wake!"

She crept away, and the better to secure me locked both the bedroom
doors herself, and carried off the keys.

On her return, two hours later, Sophia, with a look that told the
watchful Fauchette of her uneasiness, hurried straight up-stairs,
toward the door of the little oratory.

She found it locked from the outside, with the key in the door.

It had cost me something to break my pledge to the Princess Y----
that I would give her my new address before leaving her.

But her unfortunate discovery of the portrait I wore around my neck
and her plainly-declared intention to hold me a prisoner till she
could shake my fidelity, had rendered it necessary for me to meet
treachery with treachery.

The secret service, it must always be borne in mind, has its own code
of honor, differing on many points from that obtaining in other
careers, but perhaps stricter on the whole.

For instance, I can lay my hand on my heart and declare that I have
never done either of two things which are done every day by men
holding high offices and high places in the world's esteem. I have
never taken a secret commission. And I have never taken advantage of
my political information to gamble in stocks.

The manner of my escape was simplicity itself.

My assistant had not come to live with the Princess without making
some preparations for the part she was to play, and these included
the bringing with her of a bunch of skeleton keys, fully equal to the
work of opening any ordinary lock.

As soon as her mistress was safely out of the way, Fau