under Louis XIV., was crowded by a throng of idle courtiers; a few lounging listlessly against the wide casements opening upon the Joseph-Platz, apparently watching for some anticipated event; others shedding around them an envenomed shower of that courtly small talk which is generally as wicked as it is witty,-that flood of brilliant. epigrams and rounded period which engulfs a reputation in a repartee, or sacrifices the feelings of a friend to a rhetorical flourish. Others again, more ambitious and less vain, sauntered near the door of the Emperor's reception-room, keeping their eyes steadfastly fixed upon the usher on duty, and calculating the amount of their present favor by the length of the period which elapsed before they were admitted to the presence. Never, perhaps, since the gorgeous but friv olous court to which we have already alluded filled the gardens and saloons of Versailles with a galaxy of splendor, has the palace of any European sovereign afforded so brilliant a spectacle as that of the Cæsars. The blending of so many national costumes, all alike costly and picturesque, among which that of the noble Hungarian guard, alike in form, but varying in color and ornament, is eminently conspicuous, renders the select circle of the Emperors of Austria a human kaleidoscope, of which every successive move only tends to enhance the attraction; and thus it was on the morning of which we write. "Can it be true, my dear Marquis," asked a tardy courtier, as he made his way from the gallery toward a member of the government, "that our gracious Emperor has at length consented to arrest that rascally alchemist, Gottlieb Faust ?" laughed the light-hearted young Bohemian. "As for me, I have only the memory of my inheritance and two mortgaged estates to exist upon." "And the smiles of an Arch-Duchess," murmured the younger of his two companions. "No scandal within the walls of the palace," was the merry reply. "You know that it is as contraband as Turkish tobacco." "And, consequently, as easy to enjoy. But as regards this Faust; they say that he has not only the Midas touch, that turns all upon which he lays his hand, into gold, but that he also deals in spells, some of which are not so innocent as to defy the law." "I can believe it," observed a magnificent Hungarian, carelessly adjusting the jeweled belt which sustained his sword; "such practices are common in the Banât, and I could give you instances- Not now, Erdödi, not now," said the first speaker; "remember that walls have ears, and that Faust is not far off." The Hungarian was silenced. He would not have turned his back upon a host in a fair field, but he was not superior to the superstition of his age and country. Suddenly a murmur was heard in the state gallery, and an instant afterward a stranger was seen to enter the waiting-room, between two officers of the imperial guard. In a moment every voice was hushed, and every eye turned upon the new-comer. He was a tall and stately man, in the full vigor of life; his eyes were large, dark, and singularly calm; his black hair was parted along the centre of his finely-moulded head, and fell in heavy masses about his brow, and over his shoulders. His nose was, perhaps, a trifle too prominent, but its outline was perfect; while the firm and graceful curve of his mouth was rendered conspicuous by the jetty blackness of his beard and mustachio, which, contrary to the fashion then prevalent in Germany, he wore full and smooth. He was richly habited in a pourpoint of black velvet, embroidered with arabesques in gold ; and in his hand he carried a cap of the same material, to which a short red feather was attached by a clasp of large emeralds; and as he moved forward with a graceful and dignified unrestraint, which it had taken years to enable some of those now about him to acquire, the astonishment was universal. His lip never quivered, his eye never sank; and when, as he was summoned onward by the sonorous voice of the usher, he traversed the vast apartment on his way toward the audi ence-chamber, his step was as free and as firm as though no peril awaited him at the termination of his progress. which, however splendid it may be, is still only a gilded prison. You are too young to yield to so ignoble an indolence. What!silent!" As the tapestried hanging of the imperial saloon fell behind him, every tongue was unloosed. "Can that be Gottlieb Faust? Can that be the son of the alchemist of the Leo-plied Joseph II. ; poldstadt? And admitted on the instant to the Emperor, while we have been so long waiting!" "Pshaw!" exclaimed another, "our good master is anxious to be rid of him. He is a dangerous inmate for a palace." They will surely not accord to him the honor of decapitation," remarked a third; "he is of plebeian birth, and should die by the cord." "I was thinking of my orphan sister, sire." "Nor have I forgotten her," eagerly reshe shall be cared for. We will attach her to the suite of one of the Arch-Duchesses." "Not so, sire, if your imperial majesty will pardon me," said the young man, gloomily; she is a wild bird, fit only for the free wood; she would pine and die in a gilded cage." "No fear of that, my friend," persisted Joseph II.; "we shall not keep her long. Young, rich, and beautiful, she will soon become noble in her turn." "I will serve in your armies, sire, should you consider me worthy of such an honor; and during my absence from the Capital, my sister shall seek refuge in a Convent." "Come forward, mine host, come forward!" said the Emperor, good-humoredly. "I owe you a courteous welcome for that "By St. Stephen! it is a poor alternative," which you bestowed upon myself last night. smiled the monarch; but be it as you will; Ay, and for more than that. Do you see although it is certain that you must, by such these multiplied columns of figures which a measure, mar her fortunes; for, should make the eye dance that endeavors to rest on others only feel as I do, she were a bride for them? Well, my assayer has given me full whom the noblest in the empire might not assurance that, through your means, a sponge scorn to contend." may be passed over them all; and this is no "I know it," said the young man, with a trifling obligation. I have faith in all that you kindling eye;" but hers is not a nature to conhave told me. I believe you to be an honest tend against proud mothers or insolent sisman and a gentleman; but this acknowledg-ters, who might presume upon her meaner ment is insufficient to satisfy the pride of an Austrian monarch. You have laid me under a heavy debt, Count Von Faustemburg. Nay, do not kneel; your new title will serve to tickle the ears of the courtiers, so that it may be useful in its way. But here, sir," he continued with sudden dignity, as he took from the table a cross of the order of Maria Theresa; "here is an honor less empty, and to which I am convinced you will not be insensible. I bestow it freely, for I know that the jewel will rest upon an honest heart." "Your imperial majesty beggars me," stammered the young man, overcome for the first time by his feelings. "And now," said the Emperor, waving his hand, as if to deprecate all further acknowledgment on the part of the new-made noble ; "and now, Count, what are your future intentions? You surely cannot purpose to waste your life in a solitary home, birth; and thus the blossom which I have reared so tenderly would be withered in its first bloom. I have read her heart, aye, like an open volume; and I feel sure that, once our separation over, she will cling to the calm refuge of a cloister. So let it be, sire; if you would indeed bind me to you forever-so let it be. She is too pure for the contact of a world-for the contact of a court. So let it be; and the doomed name of Faust will then perish upon earth-perish, and be forgotten.' "You are a poor courtier, my friend." "I shall make the better soldier, sire. Trust me-try me--and I shall not fail." "I believe you, Count; and now I will present you to a few of my private circle." As the Emperor ceased speaking, he rang a silver bell beside him, which was no sooner answered than he rapidly ran over a number of the noblest names in Austria, and desired that those who bore them might be introdu- | ced. Anxious and excited, the courtiers lost not a moment in obeying the imperial summons; and great was their surprise when, upon entering the presence, they saw the descendant of the Caesars standing within a pace or two of the supposed criminal, whom they believed themselves to have been called upon to judge; but upon whose breast each detected at a glance the glittering cross of Maria Theresa. "You are welcome, gentlemen," said Joseph II., as he slightly bent his head in acknowledgment of their salutations; "I have requested your presence in order to make known to you your new comrade, the Count von Faustemburg, upon whom I have just conferred the command of a company in the Lichenstein regiment. 1 recommend him to your friendship." And then by a silent gesture he dismissed the circle. Not one solitary token of wonder escaped the well-practiced courtiers, nor could the grand-nephew of Faust have himself suspected by the courtesies and congratulations with which he was overwhelmed on his reappearance in the ante-chamber, that it contained even some who had deemed him too vile for the headsman's axe. Had he known it, however, the heartstricken young man was too fully employed with his own thoughts, and his approaching separation from his sister, to have yielded even a smile of pity to their duplicity; but, hastily returning their compliments with as lofty an air as though such homage were familiar to him, he made his way through the brilliant crowd, and left the palace. In another week his home was desolate, and his sister the inmate of a Benedictine Convent at Gratz; and this struggle over, he gave himself up to the performance of his new duties. Constitutionally acute, he was not long ere he comprehended all that was required of him, and then his only anxiety was to be placed upon active service. The opportunity was not long in presenting itself; the corps to which he belonged was summoned to the field-no matter where, or against what enemy-we are not writing the history of a nation, but that of an individual and among the first who fell bravely, and breast to breast with the foe, was Gottlieb Faust. As he sank to the earth, a voice of authority issued hasty orders that his body should be carried to the rear, and it was no sooner extended upon a cloak beneath a tent, than one of the favorite generals of the Emperor galloped up; and springing from his saddle at the entrance, knelt down beside the dead man, and anxiously pressed his hand upon his heart. It had ceased to beat, and an icy coldness was already spreading over the body, although the countenance was as calm and composed as it had ever been. He is gone!" murmured the officer in a tone of relief; and then, tearing open the breast of the uniform, now defaced with blood, he cautiously passed his fingers over the chest of the corpse, and drew forth a massy chain of gold, to which were suspended the portrait of a lovely girl, whose luxuriant dark hair was crowned with water-lilies, and a small discolored scroll of parchment. He gazed upon the first for a brief instant with flashing eyes, and then carefully securing both that and the writing about his own neck, he once more mounted, and returned to his post as rapidly as he had abandoned it. "It is then useless to persist longer?" said Joseph II., about two months subsequently, as he sat poring over a small scrap of timeworn parchment; "you feel convinced, mynheer, of the impossibility of deciphering this accursed scroll?" "Thoroughly, your imperial majesty," was the reply of a tall, lean, sallow-visaged individual, his sole companion; "I have spared neither time nor study-I have consulted the stars-I have made various intricate combinations, both mineral and elemental; and all have alike failed. If your august majesty could recall to life the illustrious Tullius, the great Faust, and the incomparable Flamel, then, indeed, there might be hope; but I know, from unerring signs, that none of mortal birth now living can read those mystic characters." "There might still have been a chance," exclaimed the Emperor, despondingly, "had the novice of St. Benedict survived her brother's loss. She died strangely-marvelously." Like a bird smitten on the wing, sire, as I have heard," was the reply. "Has your imperial majesty any further commands?" None, mynheer; you may return to your laboratory.' 66 * * That scroll, negative as its merits had become, was carefully preserved among the treasures of the imperial palace, but it is probable that during the recent outbreak in Vienna, it has been lost or stolen. Who is now its owner? And, more important still, who will become its next interpreter ? |