It was said--" "A pretty tale it is!" commented the German--"that the child wasn't exactly Karl's own.

He took it quite hard--went away to hide his shame in exile, taking his son Frederick Augustus with him." "He was surely mad," remarked Chauvenet, sipping a cordial.

"He is much better dead and out of the way for the good of Austria.

Francis, as I say, is a good fellow.

We have hunted together, and I know him well." They fell to talking about the lost sons of royal houses--and a goodly number there have been, even in these later centuries--and then of the latest marriages between American women and titled foreigners.