"Order the carriage, Pollnitz," said the king. "Without doubt my
brother has taken the shortest road to Berlin?"

"Yes, sire."

"Then there is no danger of our meeting them and being recognized;
and as we have relays on the road, we will reach Berlin before
them."




CHAPTER III.

LOUISE VON KLEIST.


Madame von Kleist was alone in her boudoir. She had just completed
her toilet, and was viewing herself with considerable pleasure in a
large Venetian glass. She had reason to be pleased. The costume of
an odalisque became her wonderfully; suited her luxuriant beauty,
her large, dreamy blue eyes, her full red lips, her slender, swaying
form. At twenty-eight, Louise von Kleist was still a sparkling
beauty; the many trials and sorrows she had passed through had not
scattered the roses from her cheek, nor banished youth from her
heart.

Louise von Kleist resembled greatly the little Louise von Schwerin
of earlier days--the little dreamer who found it romantic to love a
gardener, and was quite ready to flee with him to a paradise of