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"He will never come back," said Herbeck

"Not if he is wise He was clever He sent all his fortune to Paris, so I found, and what I confiscated was nothing but his estate But do you believehere tells ive him into my hands?"

"You are very bitter"

"And have I not cause? Did not my wife die of a broken heart, and did I not become a broken man? You do not know all, Herbeck, not quite all Franz also sought the hand of the Princess Sofia He, too, loved her, but I won Well, his revenge hter has been restored to her own"

"Due to your indefatigable efforts alone Ah, Herbeck, nothing will ever fill up the gap between, nothing will ever restore the htfully

"I love hter and she loves me, but I don't knohat it is, I can't explain it," irresolutely

"What can not your highness explain?"

"Perhaps the gap is too wide, perhaps the separation has been too long"

Herbeck did not press the duke to behood envelope, crested and sealed

"Your Highness, here is a letter fro the hand of the Princess Hildegarde for his nephew, Frederick, ill shortly be crowned My advice is to accept, to let bygones be bygones"

"Write the prince that I respectfully decline"

"Do nothing in haste, your Highness Temporize; say that you desire soe your , whereas your abrupt refusal will only widen the breach"

"The wider the breach the better"

"No, no, your Highness; the past has disturbed you We can stand war, and it is possible that we endheit; but war at this late day would be a colossal blunder Victory would leave us where we began thirty years ago One does not go to war for a cause that has been practically dead these sixteen years And an insult to Jugendheit ht precipitate war It would be far wiser to let ive the proposal your thoughtful consideration"

"Have your way, then, but on your head be it if you coather up his documentary evidence, when Herbeck touched his hand