He took the arm of the young man, and drew him into a shady, private pathway.

“Now, my dear friend, listen to me, and lay to heart all that I say to you.  Accident, or, if you prefer it, Fate brought us together.  After all, it seems indeed more than an accident.  I had just returned to Berlin, and was about to pay my respects to the queen-mother, when I met you, who at the same time seek an audience, in order to commend yourself to her royal protection.  You bear a letter of commendation from my old friend, Count Lottum.  All this, of course, excites my curiosity.  I ask your name, and learn, to my astonishment, that you are young Von Trenck, the son of the woman who was my first love, and who made me most unhappy by not returning my passion.  I assure you, it produces a singular sensation to meet so unexpectedly the son of a first love, whose father, alas! you have not the happiness to be.  I feel already that I am prepared to love you as foolishly as I once loved your fair mother.”

“I will not, like my mother, reject your vows,” said the young officer, smiling, and extending his hand to Pollnitz.

“I hoped as much,” said Pollnitz; “you shall find a fond father in me, and even to-day I will commence my parental duties.  In the first place, what brings you here?”

“To make my fortune—­to become a general, or field-marshal, if possible,” said the young man, laughing.

“How old are you?”

“I am nineteen.”

“You wear the uniform of an officer of the life-guard; the king has, therefore, already promoted you?”

“I was a cadet but eight days,” said Trenck, proudly.  “My step-father, Count Lottum, came with me from Dantzic, and presented me to the king.  His majesty received me graciously, and remembered well that I had received, at the examination at Konigsberg, the first prize from his hand.”

“Go on, go on,” said Pollnitz; “you see I am all ear, and I must know your present position in order to be useful to you.”

“The king, as I have said, received me graciously, even kindly; he made me a cadet in his cavalry corps, and three weeks after, I was summoned before him; he had heard something of my wonderful memory, and he wished to prove me.”

“Well, how did you stand the proof?”

“I stood with the king at the window, and he called over to me quickly the names of fifty soldiers who were standing in the court below, pointing to each man as he called his name.  I then repeated to him every name in the same succession, but backward.”

“A wonderful memory, indeed,” said Pollnitz, taking a pinch of Spanish snuff; “a terrible memory, which would make me shudder if I were your sweetheart!”

“And why?” said the young officer.

“Because you would hold ever in remembrance all her caprices and all her oaths, and one day, when she no longer loved you, she would be held to a strict account.  Well, did the king subject you to further proof?”