But Pfannenschmidt was not the man to submit to such indignities.  With a wild cry of rage, he rushed upon his adversary; and now began a scene which neither words nor colors could portray.  The pious worshippers raised themselves from their knees and stared for a moment at this curious spectacle; and then, according as they believed in the devil or the priest, sprang forward to take part in the contest.

In the midst of this wild tumult the policemen appeared, to arrest those who were present, in the name of the king; to break up the assembly, and put an end to the noise and tumult.

Louise, meanwhile, laughing boisterously, observed this whole scene from the cabinet; she saw the police seize the raging astrologer, who uttered curses, loud and deep, against the unbelieving king, who dared to treat the pious and prayerful as culprits, and to arrest the servant and priest of the Lord.  Louise saw these counts and barons, these officers and secretaries, who had been the brave adherents of the astrologer, slipping away with shame and confusion of face.  She saw her own husband mocked and ridiculed by the police, who handed him an order from the king, written by the royal hand, commanding him to consider himself as under arrest in his own house.  As Louise heard this order read, her laughter was hushed and her brow was clouded.

“Truly,” said she, “that is a degree of consideration which looks like malice in the king.  To make my husband a prisoner in his own house is to punish me fearfully, by condemning me steadily to his hateful society.  My God, how cruel, how wicked is the king!  My husband is a prisoner here! that is to banish my beautiful, my beloved Salimberri from my presence.  Oh, when shall we meet again, my love, my adorer?”

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

The two sisters.

“I have triumphed!  I have reached the goal!” said Princess Ulrica, with a proud smile, as she laid her hymn-book aside, and removed from her head her long white veil.  “This important step is taken; yet one more grand ceremony, and I will be the Princess Royal of Sweden—­after that, a queen!  They have not succeeded in setting me aside.  Amelia will not be married before me, thus bringing upon me the contempt and ridicule of the mocking world.  All my plans have succeeded.  In place of shrouding my head in the funereal veil of an abbess, to which my brother had condemned me, I shall soon wear the festive myrtle-wreath, and ere long a crown will adorn my brow.”

Ulrica threw herself upon the divan, in order to indulge quietly in these proud and happy dreams of the future, when the door was hastily thrown open, and the Princess Amelia, with a pale and angry face, entered the room.  She cast one of those glances of flame, with which she, in common with the king, was wont to crush her adversaries, upon the splendid toilet of her sister, and a wild and scornful laugh burst from her lips.