since the unfortunate campaign against Algiers, in which he participated,
and after his recovery from the severe illness he endured after his
return home, they enjoy a beautiful conjugal happiness. His Majesty is
warmly attached to his daughter, and the great distinction which he will
bestow upon her husband to-day is given by no means least to please his
own beloved child, though her mother was only a Jollanna van der
Gheynst."

Barbara had listened to these communications with dilated eyes, but the
speaker was now interrupted; the leech, Dr. Matthys, was announced, and
immediately entered the room.

Barbara's outburst of rage had not lessened his sympathy for her, and in
the interest of science he desired to learn what effect his remedies had
had. Unfortunately, in spite of their use, no improvement was visible.

The strange absence of mind with which the girl, who usually answered
questions so promptly and decidedly, now seemed scarcely to hear them, he
attributed to the painful remembrance of her unseemly behaviour at their
last meeting, and therefore soon left her, by no means satisfied with his
visit. On the way, however, he told himself that it was unfair to blame
the bird which had just been captured for fluttering.

When the leech had retired, Barbara regretted that she had answered him
so indifferently. But the anticipation of seeing her imperial lover
again dominated every thought and feeling. Besides, she again and again
saw before her the figure of the young duke, whom she had never beheld,
but whom Charles had married to the daughter of that Johanna who was said
to have been neither more beautiful nor more aristocratic than she
herself.