University of Virginia Library

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4. CHAPTER IV.
THE AWFUL REVELATION.

TIME passed on. A settled sadness rested
once more upon the countenance of
the good Duke's daughter. She and
Conrad were seen together no more now. The
Duke grieved at this. But as the weeks wore
away, Conrad's color came back to his cheeks
and his old-time vivacity to his eye, and he administered
the government with a clear and
steadily ripening wisdom.

Presently a strange whisper began to be heard
about the palace. It grew louder; it spread
farther. The gossips of the city got hold of it.
It swept the dukedom. And this is what the
whisper said:

“The Lady Constance hath given birth to a
child!”

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When the lord of Klugenstein heard it, he
swung his plumed helmet thrice around his head
and shouted:

“Long live Duke Conrad!—for lo, his crown
is sure, from this day forward! Detzin has
done his errand well, and the good scoundrel
shall be rewarded!”

And he spread the tidings far and wide, and
for eight-and-forty hours no soul in all the barony
but did dance and sing, carouse and illuminate,
to celebrate the great event, and all at
proud and happy old Klugenstein's expense.