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Then he entered the castle, reverentially greeted by the lackeys, who ventured not to oppose him, as with rapid bounds, like a young deer, he sprang up the steps. Straight to the apartments of the Princess Ludovicka he strode, through the antechamber into the drawing room. But she was not there; she came not to meet him in her enchanting beauty, with that affectionate smile upon her crimson lips.
"But see, Frederick, see my poor foot; it is freezing, pining for its house!" And smilingly Ludovicka extended toward the Prince her shoeless little foot. He took it between his hands and breathed on it with his glowing breath, and pressed upon it his burning lips. "Forgive me, you beautiful foot, for having robbed you of your house.
With youthful agility he arose from his knees, took off his cloak, which he carelessly threw into a corner of the apartment, and presented himself to the Princess in a gold-embroidered velvet suit, richly trimmed with lace and ribbons. Ludovicka fixed her large eyes upon the proud and dazzling apparition of the young count, and the angry flashing of her eyes softened.
"Have you read it, my Ludovicka?" With a charmingly pouting expression she shook her head. "No," said she sadly, "I can not read it, or perhaps there is nothing in them, or at least nothing for me!" He jumped up, and, throwing his arms around her neck, leaned his face close against hers, flashed his burning glance deep into her eyes, and in doing so smiled a blissful, childlike smile.
"No, no, I will have it again!" cried Ludovicka. "My heavens! what would my chambermaid say, if to-morrow morning one of my shoes had vanished been spirited away?" "Let her say and think what she pleases, dearest. Tell her you will direct her where to find it on the day after to-morrow. Think you not that when our flight is discovered, she will readily guess who has stolen your shoe?"
"Most gracious mother!" he cried, "look here! the base of this goblet is broken off, and an apt symbol it is of my love. With the last wine which this glass will ever hold let me drink a last farewell to my love, and do you pledge her with me: To the health of the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine of the Palatinate!"
She, bending over him with a look brimful of love, he gazing up at her with animated, radiant eyes. The full light of the wax candles in the silver chandelier illuminated his countenance, and Ludovicka looked down upon him with a smile as blissful as if she had now seen him for the first time.
"Where was she then? Where was Ludovicka?" "Most noble sir, you have imposed upon me the duty of always telling you the truth, but at this moment I feel it to be a difficult duty." "Perform it, Leuchtmar, I require you to do so! Where was the Princess Ludovicka, if she was no longer with her mother?"
"The Princesses of the Palatinate are our own cousins, and it seems very natural, surely, that he should have a cordial, cousinly regard for them." "Maybe, Electress!" cried George William, "but it were to be wished that it had stopped there! I should like, therefore, to hear something about the Princess Ludovicka Hollandine. Is she, indeed, so very fair as report represents her to be?"
"Now let me look into your eyes and see what is written in them," continued Ludovicka, and she stooped lower over the kneeling youth, and looked long into those large, dark-blue eyes, which gazed up at her, lustrous and bright as two twinkling stars. "Have you read what is in my eyes?" he asked, after a long pause, in which only their glances and their beating hearts had spoken to one another.
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