"We will see what can be done. I have joyful news for the king to-
day. Perhaps it will make him gay and complaisant, and he will grant
you an audience."

"And this news which you have for him?"

"The Barbarina has arrived!"

"What! the celebrated dancer?"

"The same. We have seized and forcibly carried her off from the
republic of Venice and from Lord McKenzie; and Baron Swartz has
brought her as prisoner to Berlin!"

Pollnitz half raised himself from the sofa, and, seizing the arm of
the private secretary, he looked him joyfully in the face. "I have
conceived a plan," said he, "a heavenly plan! My friend, the sun of
power and splendor is rising for us, and your ambition, which has
been weary and ready to die, will now revive, and raise its head
proudly on high! That which I have long sought for is at last found.
The king is too young, too ardent, too much the genius and poet, to
be completely unimpassioned. Even Achilles was not impenetrable in
the heel, and Frederick has also his mortal part. Do you know,
Fredersdorf, who will discover the weak point, and send an arrow
there?"

"No."

"Well, I will tell you: the Signora Barbarina. Ah, you smile! you