A servant of Satan

les crawled up to the park gates of a handsome villa on the road to Posilipo. Carelessly tossing a five-lire note to the driver

er was waiting for admittance, and when he finally issued forth to unlock the gates, his face bore manifest evid

n Waldberg's villa?"

porter in a gruff v

to him at once.

want to see h

on

the day-if you wish to be granted the honor of an audience," and with that he turned away and was about to leave the stranger standing in the

g

of bed at this unearthly hour of the mor

ng fellow outside there who actually in

lance at the stranger, and suddenly seizing the pompous porter by the shoulder, c

at do you mean by keeping him waiting out

ished Italian he brushed past him, threw open

nexpected pleasure is this. How

o speak to my father at once. Let him know that I am

r of the villa and attending to his wants the old serv

open window, and sat gazing with a tired and troubled expre

s, and he realized in a moment the terrible consequences of his act. Visions of court-martial, life-long incarceration in a fortress, or even death, flashed like lightning through his brain and, rushing from the room, he hastened to his stables. Hastily saddling the fleetest of the three horses which he had brought from Berlin, he galloped at break-neck speed to the nearest point of the frontier, and within an hour after the incident was out of Germ

cting her to lose no time in leaving the neighbourhood of Biala and to pr

his eldest son's conduct. Moreover, Frederick was at the time in great financial difficulties. The debts which he had contracted before leaving Berlin were enormous. His appeal to the trustees of the fortune left to him by his mother for an increase of his allowance, [Pg 24] or, at any rate, for an advance sufficient to stave off the most pressing claims, had been met by a stern refusal, and the "cent per cent. gentry" of the capital proved equally obdurate in decli

the latter already received news of his son's conduct? That was hardly possible. It was too soon. How,

anz's return to tell him that General

of the Herr Graff's arrival," said Franz, with a beaming

e grief and anger which the discovery of the true r

ed in his father's arms. General Count von Waldberg was still at that time a remarkably handsome and young-looking man. Tall, and straight as

g

n exchanged, the general sat down

eave of absence after such a short service in his regiment. I know you of old. What fresh dev

ONFESSES TO

s, "I am afraid that the confession which I have to make wi

smile had suddenly given [Pg 26] way to a very stern expression. "Surely you are joking

his head, and

rated by his son's silence, and starting to his feet. "You must be bereft of your senses, sir, to dar

nces. "We quarrelled, and in a moment of blind passion I struck him a blow in the face which f

m, and, laying his hand heavily on the young man's shoulder, s

nable crime, you made matters worse by deserting, like a coward, instead of at least displaying the courage

the only course to adopt lay in throwing himself enti

ed his regiment, summoned me five days ago, to reprimand me concerning my relations with a

ther [Pg 27] of those insane scrapes into which you

treat you. It was just for such a remark that I struck my col

ent-without the permission of the military authorities-without the approval of your fa

l, whose only sin is her humb

e her name, and how

-Well, she was a shop-girl at Louise'

erfectly calm, but it was a calm that

covering the full extent of your misconduct. You will be good enough to consider yourself as under arrest here. I forbid you to leave your room under any pretext whatever. I will tell your step-mother that you

some words of regret and explanation, but the general pointed

g

to the gloomiest forebodings, and spent hours in gazing abstractedly out of the windows. Hi

that she had been subjected to the greatest indignity after his flight-in fact, treated like a mere common camp-follower-and had been turned out of the inn and driven from the village by the orders of the colonel. She added that, having but little money, she had not been able to proceed any farther than Biala, where she

no means of obtaining any except through his father. He therefore immediately wrote a few lines, which he s

d couched in such terms as to leave no glimme

he money he required, but he was forced to acknowledge to himself that each was more hare-brained

scuffle in the general's library, on the ground floor. The general himself and several of the men-servants rushed to the spot from which th

KING REVOLVER

g

the garden and rushed across the lawn and through the shrubbery, followed by the general and the more or less terrified servants. All their endeavors to

ing sound proceeding from the room immediately beneath his own. That, jumping out of bed, he had quickly put on his dressing-gown, and seizing a loaded revolver, had softly crept down stairs. Peeping through the keyhole he had seen two men who, by the light of a small taper, were ransacking his father's desk. His effor

the young man had been guilty. Grasping his son's hands he expressed his satisfaction to him in no measured terms, and indeed was on the point of releasing him from any further arrest or confinement to his room. On second thoug

fication, on the pluck shown by his son during the night, and determined to write at once an account of the whole occurrence to the king, in the hope [Pg 32] that it might induce his majesty to regard with greater leniency the lad's misconduct. He was just in the act of entering his library for this purp

yes lowered before his master's stern gaze, and he confessed in faltering tones that the "young c

ill attend to it, and see here, if you breathe a word about this either to Count Frederick o

e badly scared Italian, as with many low bo

e of discovering the destination of his son's letter. It was addressed to Rose Hartmann, a

N, COUNTESS

itude and doubt. Could his son be guilty? The solution of the mystery was [Pg 33] contained in that envelope. Would he be justified in opening it? The whole honor of the ancient house of Waldberg was at stake. It was absolutely necessary that he, as its chief, should know whether or not one of the principal members thereof was a common thief. If so it was his duty t

For several hours he sat at his writing-table, his gray head bowed in grief and almost prostrated by this awful discovery. For a long time he was totally unable to decide what was t

his father's hand. Glancing at its contents the young man uttered a cry of despair and terror, and springing

ny pretext until the hour of departure. I have his strict commands to remain wit

to see [Pg 34] the suffering depicted on the lad's face, and what between his loyalty and devotion to his maste

p his father's letter read it ov

y house to-night forever. The proceeds of your robbery will keep you for some time from want. It will be all that you will have to depend on, for having become an outlaw by your desertion, and your attack on your colonel, the Prussian Government will never permi

. von Wa

ked at Naples on a Marseilles-bound stea

s father again.