of a miserable adventurer, but it might possibly reflect upon the
virtue of her Highness the Princess Hildegarde."

"What do you want?" I growled.

"I want to see if your passports are proper so that you will have no
difficulty in passing over the frontier."

"Perhaps it would be just as well to wake the American Minister?" I
suggested.

"Not at all. If you were found dead there might be a possibility of
that. But I should explain to him, and he would understand that it was
a case without diplomatic precedent."

"Well?"

"You are to leave this country at once, sir; that is, if you place any
value upon your life."

"Oh; then it is really serious?"

"Very. It is a matter of life and death--to you. Moreover, you must
never enter this country again. If you do, I will not give a pfennig
for your life."

He found my passports in good order. I permitted him to rummage
through some of my papers.

"Ach! a damned scribbler, too!" coming across some of my notes.