The stern old lord of Klugenstein sat in a chair of state meditating.

Presently he said, with a tender accent: "My daughter!" A young man of noble presence, clad from head to heel in knightly mail, answered: "Speak, father!" "My daughter, the time is come for the revealing of the mystery that hath puzzled all your young life.

Know, then, that it had its birth in the matters which I shall now unfold.

My brother Ulrich is the great Duke of Brandenburgh.

Our father, on his deathbed, decreed that if no son were born to Ulrich, the succession should pass to my house, provided a son were born to me.