The crown I wear is of lead; God hasten the day that lifts it from my brow." When the king spoke again, he said: "And that insolent Von Rumpf is gone at last?
I am easier.

He should have been sent about his business ten years ago.

What does Madame the duchess say ?" "So little," answered the chancellor, "that I begin to distrust her silence.

But she is a wise woman, though her years are but five and twenty, and she will not make any foolish declaration of war which would only redound to her chagrin." "What is the fascination in these crowns of straw ?" said the king to the prelate.

"Ah, my father, you strive for the crown to come; and yet your earnest but misguided efforts placed this earthly one on my head.