“No, Ludwig, this is my country, however unjustly it has treated me.”

“Yes, yes.  And to think that you and I and the grand duke were comrades at Heidelberg!  But if your Gipsy fails you?”

“Still I shall remain.  This will be all I shall have, these clocks.  I am only sixty-eight, yet no one would believe me under eighty.  I no longer gaze into mirrors.  I have forgotten how I look.  There were letters found in my desk, all forgeries, I knew, but so cleverly done I could only deny.  I saw that my case was hopeless, so I fled to Paris.  I wrote Herbeck once while there.  He believed that I was innocent.  I have his letter yet.  He has a great heart, Ludwig, and he has done splendid work for Ehrenstein.”

“He keeps a steady hand on the duke.”

“But you, what are you doing in Dreiberg, in this guise?”

Herr Ludwig sat upon the counter and clasped a knee.  “Do you care for fairy-stories?”

“Sometimes.”

“Well, once upon a time there lived a king.  He was young.  He had an uncle who watched over him and his affairs.  They call such uncles prince regents.  This prince regent had an idea regarding the future welfare of this nephew.  He would bring him up to be a man, well educated, broad-minded, and clean-lived.  He should have a pilot to guide him past the traps and vices which befall the young.  Time wore on.  The lad grew up, clean in mind, strong in body, liberal; a fine prince.  No scandalous entanglements; no gaming; no wine-bibbing beyond what any decent man may do.  In his palace few saw anything of him after his fifteenth year.  He went into the world under an assumed name.  By and by he came home, quietly.  His uncle was proud of him, for his eye was clear and his tongue was clean.  In one month he was to be coronated.  And now what do you think?  He must have one more adventure, just one.  Would his uncle go with him?  Certainly not.  Moreover, the time for adventure was over.  He must no longer wander about; he was a king; he must put his hand to king-craft.  And one morning his uncle found him gone, gone as completely as if he had never existed.  What to do?  Ah!  The prince regent set it going that his majesty had gone a-hunting in Bavaria.  Then the prince regent put on some old clothes and went a-venturing himself.”

“And the end?”

“God knows!” said Ludwig, sliding off the counter.

Nothing but the ticking of the clocks was heard.

“And fatuous fool that this uncle was, he committed an almost irreparable blunder.  He tried to marry his nephew.”

“I understand.  But if you are discovered here?”

“That is not likely.”

“Ah, Ludwig, it is not the expected that always happens.  Be careful; you know the full wording of Herbeck’s treaty.”

“Herbeck; there’s a man,” said Herr Ludwig admiringly.  “To have found her highness as he did!”

“He is lucky,” but without resentment.