“Why do you not send him about his business?  So rude a fellow is not worthy of serving so famous a beauty.”

“It’s too late.  A woman whom you don’t know would get possession of him.  I should be obliged to conceal my feelings, and that would vex me.”

“I understand—­I understand.  Would that I were a great prince!  In the mean time, let me tell you that my sickness is greater than Kettler’s.”

“You are joking, I hope.”

“Nay, not at all; I am speaking seriously, for the kisses I was so happy to snatch from you at the ball have inflamed my blood, and if you have not enough kindness to cure me in the only possible way I shall leave Cologne with a life-long grief.”

“Put off your departure:  why should you desire to go to Stuttgart so earnestly?  I think of you, believe me, and I do not wish to deceive you; but it is hard to find an opportunity.”

“If you had not the general’s carriage waiting for you to-night, and I had mine, I could take you home with perfect propriety.”

“Hush!  As you have not your carriage, it is my part to take you home.  It is a splendid idea, that we must so contrive it that it may not seem to be a concerted plan.  You must give me your arm to my carriage, and I shall then ask you where your carriage is; you will answer that you have not got one.  I shall ask you to come into mine, and I will drop you at your hotel.  It will only give us a couple of minutes, but that is something till we are more fortunate.”

I replied to her only by a look which expressed the intoxication of my spirits at the prospect of so great bliss.

Although the play was quite a short one, it seemed to me to last for ever.  At last the curtain fell, and we went downstairs.  When we got to the portico she asked me the questions we had agreed upon, and when I told her I had not got a carriage, she said, “I am going to the general’s to ask after his health; if it will not take you too much out of your way, I can leave you at your lodging as we come back.”

It was a grand idea.  We should pass the entire length of the ill-paved town twice, and thus we secured a little more time.  Unfortunately, the carriage was a chariot, and as we were going the moon shone directly on us.  On that occasion the planet was certainly not entitled to the appellation of the lovers’ friend.  We did all we could, but that was almost nothing, and I found the attempt a desperate one, though my lovely partner endeavoured to help me as much as possible.  To add to our discomforts, the inquisitive and impudent coachman kept turning his head round, which forced us to moderate the energy of our movements.  The sentry at the general’s door told our coachman that his excellency could see no one, and we joyfully turned towards my hotel, and now that the moon was behind us and the man’s curiosity less inconvenient, we got on a little better, or rather not so badly as before, but the horses seemed to me to fly rather than gallop; however, feeling that it would be well to have the coachman on my side in case of another opportunity, I gave him a ducat as I got down.