At the same moment the servant re-entered the room, deadly pale, and cried, breathlessly:
"Oh, ma'am! come quickly! The baron is dying!"
"Oh, mon Dieu!" exclaimed the baroness, and seemed on the point of fainting.
"Compose yourself madame! compose yourself!" said the prince. "Bear what has to be borne. Will you take my arm? Ho, there! show us the way!"
CHAPTER III.
About the same hour--perhaps a little earlier two gentlemen displayed at the billiard-table, in the restaurant near the main guard-house on the square, that industry which is so becoming to busy idlers. The two gentlemen who met at this favorite lounging place of the jeunesse dorée of Grunwald, were Cloten and Barnewitz. The former, who excelled in all the arts which required a sure eye and a steady hand, and no head work, had beaten his adversary in every game, and hence the young man was in excellent humor, while the other was nearly angry.
"Another game, Barnewitz?" asked Cloten, triumphantly, after having finished the twelfth with a brilliant carom.
"Thank you; no!" said Barnewitz, throwing his cue on the billiard-table; "am not in the right humor for it to-day. I cannot play well anyhow in this miserable twilight!"
"We can have the lamps lit."
"No, thank you! Another day! We can play quits to-morrow."