se about? who are you?" exclaimed the
devil.

"I'm Walpurga, from the lake; and I've a child and husband and mother,
at home. I was brought here to be the crown prince's nurse, but indeed,
I didn't want to come."

"Indeed! and so you're the nurse. I rather like your looks."

"But I don't want you, or any one else, to like my looks. I've a
husband of my own and want nothing to do with other men."

The black fellow laughed heartily.

"Then what were you doing in my master's apartments?"

"Who's your master? I've nothing to do with him. I and all good spirits
praise God the Lord! Speak! What is it you want of me?"

"Oh, you stupid! My master is the queen's brother. I'm his _valet de
chambre_. We arrived here last evening."

Walpurga could not understand what it all meant. Luckily for her, at
that moment, the duke and the king came out of the apartment.

Addressing the Moor in English, the duke inquired what had happened;
answering in the same tongue, the Moor said that the peasant woman had
taken him for the devil incarnate; upon hearing which, the duke and the
king laughed heartily.

"What brings you here?" inquired the king.

"I lost my way, after leaving the chapel," replied Walpurga. "My child
will cry. Do please show me the way back to him."

The king instructed one of the lackeys to conduct her to her
apartments. While going away she overheard the uncle, who was to be
chief sponsor, saying: "What a fine milch-cow you've brought from the
Highlands!"

When she had returned to her room, and again beheld herself in the
large mirror, she said:

"You're nothing but a cow that can chatter, and is dressed up in
clothes! Well, it served you right."

CHAPTER XVII.

The night was a bad one. The crown prince suffered because of the
fright which the Moor had given his foster-mother. Doctor Gunther sat
up all night, in the adjoining room, so as to be within ready call, and
was constant in his inquiries as to Walpurga and the child. He
instructed Mademoiselle Kramer never again to allow the nurse to leave
the room without his permission.

To Walpurga this imprisonment was welcome, as she wished to have
nothing more to do with the whole world; for the child filled her soul
and, while she lay on the sofa, she vowed to God that nothing else
should enter her mind. She looked at the new clothes that were spread
out on the large table and shook her head; she no longer cared for t