What recollections, what dreams arose before the king's soul as he gazed at that bewitching and lovely face; at those soft, melting eyes, whose glance had once made him so happy! But that was long ago; it had passed like a sunbeam on a rainy day, it had been long buried in clouds.

These remembrances warmed the king's heart as he now stood so solitary and loveless before this picture; and he confessed to that sweet image, once so fondly loved, what he had never admitted to himself, that his heart was very lonely.
But these painful recollections, these sad thoughts, did not last.

The king roused himself from those dangerous dreams, and on leaving the picture cast upon it almost a look of hatred.
"This is folly," he said; "I will to work." He approached the secretary, and seized the sealed letters and packets that were lying there.

"A letter and packet from the queen," he said, wonderingly opening the letter first.

Casting a hasty glance through it, a mocking smile crossed his face.