"Speak, sire," said Lacy, with a bright and affectionate smile.
"Put me to the test," cried Rosenberg, "and I shall not flinch."
The emperor laid his hands upon the shoulders of his friends, and looked at them with unmistakable affection. "Happy is the man who possesses two such friends. But hear what I exact of you. I stand upon the threshold of a new order of things. I am at last an emperor, free to carry out the designs which for so many long years I have been forced to stifle in my sorrowing heart. I am resolved to enlighten and to elevate my subjects. But if in my zeal to do well. I should lack discretion, it is for you to check and warn me. And if I heed not your warnings, you shall persist, even if your persistence becomes offensive. Will you promise me to do so, dear friends?"
"We promise," said both with one breath.
"God and the emperor have heard the promise. Give me your honest hands, my best and truest friends. You, at least, I shall never doubt; I feel that your friendship will be mine until the day of my death!"
"Your majesty is the youngest of us three," said Lacy, "and you speak as if we would outlive you."
"Age is not reckoned by years," replied the emperor, wearily, "but by wounds; and if I count the sears that disappointment has left upon my heart, you will find that I have lived longer than either of you. Promise, then, to be with me to the last, and to close my eyes for me."
"Your wife and children will do that for you, sire," said Rosenberg.
"I will never marry again. My nephew Francis shall be my heir, and I shall consider him as my son. The Empress of Russia has consented to give him her adopted daughter in marriage, and I trust that Francis may be happier in wedlock than his unfortunate uncle. My heart is no longer susceptible of love."
"And yet it beats with such yearning love toward mankind!" exclaimed
Rosenberg.