“I will obey your majesty, immediately,” said Jordan, who now found himself completely overcome by the weakness which follows loss of blood; trembling, and almost sinking, he leaned upon the table.  Frederick perceived this, and rolling forward his own arm-chair, with loving and tender care, he placed Jordan within it.  He called his servant, and ordered him to roll the chair to Jordan’s room, and go instantly for the physician Ellertt.

“It will be all in vain, and I shall lose him,” murmured the king.  “Yes, I will lose him, as I have lost Suhm, and as I shall soon lose my Caesarius, the good Kaiserling.  Alas! why did God give me so warm a heart for friendship, and then deprive me of my friends?”

Folding his arms, he stepped to the window and gazed thoughtfully and sadly into the garden below, but he saw not its bloom and beauty; his eyes were turned inward, and he saw only the grave of his friend.  Suddenly rousing and conquering himself, he shook off the weary spirit of melancholy, and sought comfort in his flute, the faithful companion of all his sufferings and struggles.

CHAPTER IV.

The pardoned courtier.

Frederick commenced again to play, but this time it was not an adagio, but a joyous and triumphant allegro, with which he sought to dispel the melancholy and quench the tears flowing in his troubled heart.  He walked backward and forward in his room, and from time to time stood before the sofa upon which his graceful greyhound, Biche, was quietly resting.  Every minute the king passed her sofa, Biche raised her beautiful head and greeted her royal friend with an intelligent and friendly glance and a gentle wagging of her tail, and this salutation was returned each time by Frederick before he passed on.  Finally, and still playing the flute, the king pressed his foot upon a silver button in the floor of his room, and rang a bell which hung in Fredersdorf’s room, immediately under his own.

A few minutes later the secretary entered, but stood quietly at the door till the king had finished his allegro and laid aside his flute.

“Good-morning,” said the king, and he looked up at his favorite with so sharp and piercing a glance that Fredersdorf involuntarily trembled, and cast his eyes to the ground.  “You must have been long wide awake, you answer the bell so quickly.”

“Yes, your majesty, I have been long awake.  I am happy, for I have good news to bring you.”

“Well, what is it?” said the king smiling.  “Has my god-mother, the Empress Maria Theresa, voluntarily surrendered to the Emperor Charles VII.?  Have France and England become reconciled? or—­and that seems to me the most probable—­has my private secretary mastered the mystery of gold-making, after which he has so long striven, and for which he so willingly offers up the most costly and solemn sacrifices?” The king laid so peculiar an expression upon the word sacrifice that Fredersdorf wondered if he had not listened to his conversation with Joseph, and learned the strange sacrifice which they now proposed to offer up to the devil’s shrine.