'Wilhelmine, you must not come here now,' he said in an ungentle voice.
'It is my place! let me pass,' she returned; and, waving her brother away, she moved swiftly round to the other side of the bed. She knelt down close to the Duke, and taking his right hand she raised it gently to her lips. The sufferer moved slightly for the first time since he had fallen fainting from his horse.
'Stem the blood, he is returning to consciousness,' whispered the chief surgeon; and the first physician twisted a linen band above the open vein, while the second doctor stanched the blood with a cloth, and then bound up the wound.
'His Highness must have entire quiet, Madame,' the court doctor said, bowing respectfully to the Landhofmeisterin. 'It were well if all retired and left him to my care alone, if you will permit me.'
'As Prime Minister, I consider it my duty to remain——' began Friedrich Grävenitz in a louder tone.
'As chief physician, I consider it my duty to order you to retire! Madame, will you assist me in this matter?' he said quietly to the Grävenitz.
'I will assist you, Herr Medicinalrath, by retiring myself. I am sure the gentlemen will do likewise. Count Grävenitz, I hold the first court charge, and I command you to depart.' It was true; at Ludwigsburg the Landhofmeisterin was entitled to command even the ministers, by reason of her high official capacity. She rose from her knees and looked yearningly at the lover of her youth.
'Will Serenissimus recover?' she whispered.
'Without a doubt now, your Excellency,' returned the physician.
She was passing out when her eye caught sight of the red-stained cloth with which they had stanched the blood from Eberhard Ludwig's arm. Tenderly she lifted it; it seemed to her that it was heavy with her beloved's lifeblood—a precious relic. She carried it away through the quiet, sunlit gardens. It was partly a despairing woman's whim, an absurdity, and partly she was prompted by her magic practices to take the cloth. There was an infallible life elixir and a powerful love potion, one of whose ingredients was the blood of the loved one. She would brew this mixture, Eberhard Ludwig should drink it, then the old happiness would return. He would be strong and well again, and with health would come love and happiness.