killed in Paris--they thought the princess was

"I heard, # said Max. "But Hoffmann got a princess, eh, Rudy?" He laughed.

"A poor princess, I tell you."

"What did you do, Rudy? Were you frightened?"

"Ach, Maxie!

absolutely alone.

You don't know! I was alone in that palace, It echoed with the shooting. If I had known--" But Victor had given me an is told."

he shrugged, "--I would have run away. order and a good guardsman does what he

"You were so young, Rudy.

"That is what saved me, Max. Being young. Victor knew that, that is why he was such a good sergeant-major. I was so young and frightened that I looked more like a young girl than a guardsman. I dressed like the princess."

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"It was a brave thing you did, Rudy. Shadows in the wake of a waning autumn sun crept across the faces of the two friends ob- scuring the vision of each so that each saw the other, quite app- ropriately, as a dim figure that had materialized as though from a moment's idle fancy.

"How alone I was then, Max. Victor left me in the bedroom, her bedroom--I always wondered how Victor knew his way about the palace--and it was just the way she must have left it. What a time I had with that clothing. It was all new to me then. I almost assassinated myself in that corset. And the petticoats! I had no idea how many to wear; I think I put on nearly a dozen of them. There were hundreds of gowns. I could not decide on what to wear they were all so beautiful. The cannon decided for me. I took the first one. Such beautiful jewelry and hairpieces she had, Max- ie! She must have left a fortune behind.

#

"Yes, they wasted more than most people ever have."

"Even as I finished dressing they were breaking down the doors."

"It was all over with us by then."

"I picked up my skirts and swirled down the staircase; I was so frightened I don't know where I was going. Then they burst in upon me. What a shock it was! They came at me in a mad wave--the rabble we had heard about. I thought I would be sliced up on the

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