was naturally anxious that might anticipate its arrival.

his patient As for Val

lensteïn, the moment she quitted the ramparts, without pausing to think, he mounted a horse from the castle stables, and, accompanied by Conrade, rode to St. Guthred's, where he bade adieu to one whose auspicious appearance had so effectually frustrated the machinations of his hated rival, and, followed by his grooms, took little rest till he found himself within his father's palace at Prague.

It may be curious to cast a glance on the actual situation of a disgraced man, the victim of adverse fortune. When Casimir reached the city which was the residence of the fallen general, and especially as he approached the Vallensteïn palace, he could not forbear to wonder at the solemn pomp and pageantry which reigned around: a patrol of armed watchmen paraded the environs, to prevent the slightest noise from without assailing the ears of their master; nay, as young Val

VOL. II.

lenstein and his grooms advanced, a barrier across the street immediately leading to the palace stopped their progress.

"What is all this? Is there danger? Is my father persecuted in his retirement ?"

"No, sir,” replied the guard, who kept the barrier, "there is neither danger nor persecution. Our duke retires with his face to the enemy, and they are glad to keep aloof; but, since he came to Prague, it is his pleasure that no sound should presume to interrupt his studies;-you must, therefore, alight here, sir :-your horses may not pass."

"Be it so," said young Vallenstein, alighting; yet he could not hear without some astonishment that a man, who had spent his life chiefly amid the tumult of war, should, on the sudden, find the distant sound of a horse's hoof, or rather the idea of it, insupportable; for, in fact, it was impossible that the faintest echo should reach his ear from that spot. This

superb abode was entered by six gates, each of which had its allotted guard, relieved as regularly as though it had been in a state of siege. At the principal of these gates Casimir presented himself, and was met by a young knight to whom that station was entrusted." I wish to be admitted immediately to the Duke of Friedland."

"That is impossible, sir.-It is his Excellency's hour of study.-The Emperor himself could not obtain entrance at this moment."

"And when does his Excellency admit the visits of those who would confer with him?"

"He will not be visible till he meets his officers at dinner: soon after that meal he retires to his audience chamber ; but the claimants on his attention are so numerous and pressing, that even then your chance of being heard is small."

Vallenstein was fully prepared to find his father, intrinsically, as great a man as

when he was both the head and the heart of the finest army in Europe; but, as he had only one notion of disgrace, he looked to have seen him neglected and solitary; deserted, save by his own high and constant mind: and thus, thought he, it would be in the history of any other man ; but here, fortune and genius are alike invincible.

The gentleman, perceiving him immersed in thought, conceived that the disappointment his earnest desire for admission to the. Duke encountered had dejected him.

Sir," said he, "have you a memorial? Perhaps by the interest of one of the favourite pages or nobles, who are permitted freer access to his Excellency's person, it may reach him this evening, or, at least, to-morrow."

"And is the Duke thus royally served?" "Six Barons, and as many knights, wear his livery, and relieve each other in personal attendance: sixty pages, the

sons of nobles, wait by turns in his antechamber; nor are his military depend

ants less worthy of their glorious master than his domestic ones.-Generals Terski, Illo, Kinski, Blumenberg, and many others, are in Prague; and the troops so lately disbanded flock hither daily by thousands, unwilling to follow any banners but those of the man who so often led them to conquest*.

“I thank you, sir," said Vallensteïn, "but I will farther encroach upon your courtesy: you say, his Imperial Majesty might wait before this gate till the studies of the Duke are concluded; but he who now addresses you has a prouder title to admission than the Emperor :-I am the

* Lest the reader should be disposed to suspect the Romancière of having drawn somewhat extravagantly on the sources of her imagination, she refers him to the authority of that excellent and indefatigable writer, Archdeacon Coxe, for a description of the almost incredible magnificence of this extraordinary man's retirement.-Vide Hist. of the House of Austria, vol. i. part. 2, page 867.