They had heard
the news, and others, while on their way to afternoon church, stopped,
and at last there was quite a crowd. There was much merriment, for
every man said that he would gladly let the king borrow his wife for a
year.

Stasi offered to help the grandmother. It was not without pride that
she spoke of her being able to write a good hand and promised to send
Walpurga a letter once a week, about the child, the husband, and the
mother.

She then brought the plates, for it was high time they were at dinner.
Walpurga said that she would put all to rights within the next few
days.

"What I now deny my child," said she, "I can more than make up to her
for the rest of her life."

While she was thus speaking, she heard the child crying in the other
room and hurried to it.

The two physicians and the innkeeper were about to leave, when the
sounds of a post-horn were heard in the direction of the road that led
up from the lake.

The special post had arrived. The lackey whom Doctor Sixtus had left at
the telegraph station near by, was sitting in the open carriage. He
raised his hand, in which he held a letter aloft. He stopped before the
cottage and called out to the crowd:

"Shout huzza! every one of you! A crown prince was born an hour ago!"

They cheered again and again.

An old woman, bent double, suddenly turned toward the lackey and gazed
into his face with her bright, brown eyes that, in spite of her years,
were still sparkling.

"Whose voice is that?" muttered the old woman to herself.

There was an almost imperceptible change in the features of the lackey,
but the old woman had noticed it. "Clear the way, folks!" said he, "so
that I may alight!"

"Get out of the way, Zenza!" (Vincenza) "Old Zenza's always in the
way."

The old woman stood there, staring before her vacantly, as if in a
waking dream. She was shoved aside, and lost the staff with which she
had supported herself. The lackey tripped over it, but, without looking
to the right or left, hurried into the cottage.

Doctor Sixtus advanced to meet him, took the dispatch, and returned to
the room. Walpurga had come back in the mean while, and he said to her:

"It has happened sooner than we expected. I've just received a
dispatch; at ten o'clock this morning, the crown prince was born. I am
to hurry off to the capital and bring the nurse with me. Now, Walpurga,
is the time to prove your strength. We leave in an hour."

"I'm ready," said