hour or two in the fair? Had I stopped a moment to think, I should never have done anything half so wrong, but I would not stop. I crept to my bedroom on tiptoe, made my escape downstairs by a little staircase that we often used, crossed the grand corridor as quick as lightning, and in another moment was in the park. I took one of the narrow paths, as papa's dining saloon looked on to the grand avenue, and the servant, whose business it was to walk up and down before the windows in purple livery, and with a gold staff in his hand, would have recognised me.

How strange I felt as I walked through the park! Had I come out by permission, I should have enjoyed the feeling of going about on my own account, like any shopkeeper's little girl, but I was a thief, and my pleasure, being stolen, was spoiled. Still I was determined to see all that I could, and hastened my steps towards the fair. I found it harder work, however, to push one's way through a crowd, than riding it in a carriage. Stout men and servantgirls pushed rudely by me, and it was a long time before I could get a sight of anything that was going on. The tempting peepshows, too, were full of countrymen, soldiers, and boys, among whom I felt afraid to venture, though they looked good-tempered enough. Oh! what a crowded place the fair was now! One long meadow was entirely covered with pedlars' stalls; some old women held red or blue umbrellas over their heads instead of tents, whilst their crockery, or ironmongery, or boots and shoes, or ready-made clothes, were spread, out on the grass. No one seemed to want customers, and having two or three florins in my pocket, I laid them out in slippers and gloves, which I threw away on my way home.

I soon grew tired of the confusion, and thinking I should

like to catch a peep at Ottilie in the tea-gardens before leaving, I found my way thither. Hermann's Garden looked very pretty. Under every group of trees were numbers of small tables, spread with coffee, cakes, and wine, and around which were seated merry family parties, who chatted whilst listening to the music. Though the garden was large and crowded, it was easy to find the Catarienstift girls by their dresses, which made them look like a cluster of snowdrops. Ottilie was busily occupied in pouring out coffee at one end of the table, another girl was cutting up a large fruit-cake, another spreading bread-and-butter, and all looked as happy as could be. I would have given worlds to have joined this dear little party, but dared not. How could I present myself? How should I have been received by the lady-superintendent?

I drew near, but screened myself carefully from observation.

"I dare say," said one of the girls, laughingly, "that we enjoy this day quite as much as her Royal Highness the Princess Sophie-Mathilde."

"Dear Princess !" cried Ottilie, warmly; "I love her as if she were one of ourselves. I am sure she never thinks we are at all the worse for being Catarienstift girls, and not princes' daughters."

66

"Princes' daughters," said an elder girl, rather bluntly, are no better than any one else. Why should they be?"

Ottilie's affectionate remark had drawn the tears to my eyes, but this girl's rather unpleasant truth made my cheeks grow red. I felt quite guilty, and turned my steps homeward with dread and repentance. Never shall I forget how I crept into the palace like a

little frightened mouse; how the sentinel questioned me, and called the house-steward; how I trembled before the tall dignified man when he told me that poor Mademoiselle Boufflers had been angrily dismissed-Mademoiselle Boufflers, whom I loved so dearly; that the King and Queen were both under great anxiety, and had sent no less than twenty servants to look after me.

Then papa's severe reproof before my royal aunts and uncles, and mamma's tears of sorrow at my naughtiness. All this was very dreadful to bear. I shall never run away to a Volk's Fest again.

My punishment was six weeks of exile to the Catarienstift, where I rose at five, learned lessons from morning till night, ate black-bread soup and sour-kraut, wore a green frock, and was treated exactly like any other pupil.

After all, a princess can be very happy if she likes. This is the wisdom that six weeks of Ottilie's hard life taught

me.

Poor dear Ottilie!

You will be glad to hear that my papa, the King, has promised to give her a little pension, or dowry, in case she marries.

SOPHIE-MATHILDE,

Princess Royal of

Isn't this a pretty story?

I hope I have not made many mistakes.

Please excuse

them, kind people, for I am too frightened to remember the

long words.

JESSIE.

CHAPTER XXII.

WORMS, AND MARTIN LUTHER.

ROM Mannheim to Worms, the Rhine flows between willow-banks and tobacco-fields, with hardly a rise or dimple in the fruitful country, excepting at Nierstein. This village is cele. brated for an excellent wine, and no wonder, when we observe how every hill has its face turned towards the sun. The vines grow on low trellises, so formed as to make lovely little green boweries, just high enough for fairy folks and toddling babies to walk under. We could see bare-headed boys and girls at work among the beetroot-fields, and now and then a rude cart, drawn by patient-looking cows, rattled on the road. Otherwise there was no life and no noise.

Worms cannot but interest all travellers-firstly, on account of its connexion with Luther's great work; and secondly, for its curious old Synagogue and Jewish legends. The first thing to catch our attention on leaving the train was a notice in the waiting-room to this effect :

"MONUMENT TO LUTHER!

:

"All strangers wishing to contribute to the Luther monument in contemplation at Worms, can put down their names here or at the printer's."

We were not rich enough to put down our names with large sums affixed, but all gave a trifle, even to little Jessie, who receives twopence a week as pocket-money.

"I don't think I know who Luther was, exactly, papa," said the little girl, as we walked through a pretty public garden into the town; "will you tell me?"

"Why, Jess, he was the great Reformer," Midsie answered; " and here, in Worms, declared his new doctrines, fearless of the Emperor, the Pope, and all the Catholic sovereigns of Germany. Wasn't that a brave thing

to do?"

"But you shall hear still more, dearie," said her papa; "and open both your ears, for the story is worth listening to. Martin Luther was a poor boy of very great understanding and very deep religious feeling. Perhaps he would have been less earnest, had he not lost his dearest schoolfriend just in the prime of their happy school days in the High School at Erfurt. This led him to reflection upon God, and eternity, and serious subjects. You must know that the Bibles were forbidden to be read in those days, as they still are by the Roman Catholic priesthood, and when Luther found one by chance in the University library, a sudden light, as it were, filled his soul.

"Is it right,' he said, 'that all these divine laws, all these heavenly comforts, all these sweet lessons of patience, resignation, and forgiveness, all these precepts of love and purity-is it right that these should be kept from us? Do we not need such daily? Do we not need charity, faith, love, hope, guidance, at all hours?'

"In those days the Pope absolved all kinds of crimes by bribes called Indulgences, and Luther's first crusade against Popery was his preaching in the Hofcapelle or royal chapel of Wittenberg against them. Pope Leo X. called Luther to Rome to answer for such a dreadful crime as any faultfinding with the Papal power was then held to be. Luther's