bring the Stadtholder to me!"




III.--COUNT ADAM VON SCHWARZENBERG.


"I thank you, Master Gabriel Nietzel, I thank you with my whole heart, for
you have indeed prepared me a great pleasure," cried Count Adam von
Schwarzenberg, at the same time nodding pleasantly to the young man who
stood beside him. Then he was lost again in contemplation of the picture
before which they both stood, and which was mounted upon an easel in one
of the deep bay windows of the lofty apartment.

"I well knew that my most gracious lord would take pleasure in this
glorious work of art," said Master Gabriel Nietzel, smiling, "and
therefore have I spared neither expense, toil, nor danger in bringing to
your excellency this noble painting of the great Italian master."

"And I am astonished that you have succeeded, master," exclaimed the
count, changing his position before the picture, in order to examine it in
a new light, from a different point of view.

"Most gracious sir, if I had had in the box which I guarded so closely
hams or other edibles, instead of this picture, or even articles of
clothing or munitions of war, then surely I should have failed in bringing
it here from Italy, considering all the bands of soldiers and robbers who
fly through the German empire now, like a swarm of bees, and like locusts
leave in their train, wherever they alight, want and wretchedness."