and I replied; but I do not know what either of us said. An English attache whispered me not to stay talking to them so long, but to go to the ladies; I placed myself in the ranks accordingly; but scarcely had I done so, when the Mistress of the Robes came hastily up, and, catching my hand, said I must not stand there. She led me inside the folding-doors of the next room, and desired me to stand near the door till she should come to lead me to Her Majesty.

The lady went away, and I was alone; my other acquaintances were in the outer-room. In the centre of that wherein I stood, a number of officers, aides-de-camp, and gentlemen of the Court, were grouped, together with many ladies; they were all talking Swedish, which I could read, but at that time could not readily understand when spoken, especially when many persons spoke together. I was apart from them, yet near to them; and feeling by no means at ease, I continued to work back until I got behind the shelter of the folding door: a marble slab was on one side, the door at the other, and the wall at my back. Thus intrenched, I leaned an arm on the slab of marble, my back to the wall, and turned my face

VOL. II.

P

to the door; so that, seeing nothing else myself, I thought nothing could see me.

It was strange enough to feel alone in the midst of a vast foreign palace, filled with living, moving beings, among whom one had no companionship; an atom, isolated, as it were, from the mass of society; like a bird that had broken its cage-wires and alighted among flocks of its kind, with whom it was connected by nature, but separated by circumstances who wondered where it had come from, and to whom the notes of the others were strange. Poor little wanderer! alone, though among its kindred, it would still preserve the sense of distinctiveness, as much as if it mixed with a different order of creation.

I fell into a long fit of musing. Whether my thoughts were in the past, present, or future, I know not; but I have some recollection that, while I stood thus in that noble palace, surrounded with pomp and splendour, and waiting the honour of being presented to the Queen of Sweden, my thoughts contrived to roll away backward, and trace out the handsome and adventurous youth who, enticed by those seductive instruments, the fife and drum, left the Pyrenean town of Pau to

follow the wonderful career of Napoleon Bonaparte, and to rise by his own merit to be the King of Sweden and Norway. I had been in the house at Pau wherein the soldier of fortune was born; I had seen also the old castle in the same town wherein Henry IV. of France was born; and I might have been thinking how both these brave soldiers exchanged their religion, whatever religion they had, for a crown-Henry IV. becoming a Roman Catholic for that of France, and Carl Johan a Protestant for that of Sweden. And so from that humble dwelling in Pau I was transplanted to the Palace of Stockholm; and I stood in it surrounded with state, and brightness, and pleasure; but he, the soldier and the king, had changed it again for another dwelling, lower still than the first-a tomb in Ridderholmen Church.

Whether my thoughts were most in the town of Pau, in the Palace of Stockholm, or in the Church of the Isle of Knights, where Sweden's kings are entombed, I cannot exactly say; but I know I was thinking of anything in the world but the presentation I had come for, and was quite unconscious that the buzz of voices had ceased, or that any other persons had entered the apartments.

But a low voice spoke quite close beside me; it must speak to me, for its words are English, and they are very sweet, though I believe very strange to itself, so that it could not utter many more in that same speech. It says "There is no one to present you; but I make not ceremony with you, for I know you very well; I have seen you on the promenades."

I see indistinctly a glitter of white satin, spangled with gold, and a crown of diamonds. I start into an upright position, standing at ease most awkwardly, close packed in between the wall and the King and the Queen, who are as close before me as they well can be.

"And this is" I verily believe her most gracious Majesty might have said "Our Oscar, as she extended her hand to her royal partner; but His Majesty cut short the presentation by saying something in French, concluding with a smile sweeter than his words-"Je parle Anglais veree leetle."

"Is it possible," I said to myself afterwards, "that my presentation at Court is over?" I had not made a single reverence; I had not displayed a bit of my train: I verily do believe their Majesties to this day do not know that I had one. But

what was I to do? The only reverence I could make was more like that of an Irish peasant than of a graceful Swede-a perpendicular dip; and as for letting my train drop, as I had been taught, it was just as well tucked under my arm; for unless a wall has eyes, there were no others to see it. My poor old Countess, what trouble she had for nothing!

And before I could move from the wall and the slab and the door, there flocked up a charm

ing group of young Princes and a Princess,

and formed a semicircle round all-a perfect enclosure, of a very charming and most amiable aspect.

Their smiling faces looked as if they bore a greeting to a friend, instead of a formal salutation to a stranger. Sweet and happy family! The stranger you welcomed that night has often thought of you—yes, has given to your griefs a tear, more sincere, perhaps, than the smile she once gave to your joys! One of that happy group has gone; one link in that fair fresh circle has dropped away. The first break in a happy family is caused by the death of the really lovely and most beloved Prince Gustaf, who that night looked so sweet and talked so pleasantly. That mother's heart has felt its first mother's grief; and that