His sisters, Renée and Dorothea, received the guests at the palace gates, "both lovely little maidens," says Hubert, "only that the youngest is lame and cannot walk, for which cause her uncle and aunt embraced her the more tenderly." All the fatigues of the journey were forgotten in the delights of the week which the travellers spent at Nancy. The Duchess prepared a new pastime for each day, and masques, jousts, and dances, followed each other in gay succession. On the last day Christina took her guests to the beautiful grassy vale known as the Ochsenthal. It was a lovely May morning, and a banquet was served in a green bower on the banks of the stream. Suddenly a merry blast of bugles rang out, and, while huntsmen and dogs chased the deer, two parties of horse galloped up, and, charging each other, crossed swords and fired guns. "It might have been an invasion of the Moors!" exclaims Hubert, who enjoyed the surprise as much as anyone. At sunset the warriors returned to the palace, where the fairest maidens of the Duchess's Court crowned the victors with roses, and danced with them till morning. The next day Frederic and Dorothea made the Duchess and her children and servants handsome presents of gold chains and rings and brooches, and Christina, not to be outdone, gave Hubert a massive silver tankard, begging him to keep it in remembrance of her, and continue to serve the Palatine and her sister as well in the future as he had done in the past. After this we need not wonder at the glowing pages in which the honest secretary praises the delicacy of the viands, the choice flavour of the wines set before the guests, and the polished manners of the Court of Nancy. "Indeed," he adds, "some of our Germans complained that there was too little beer, because people here do not sit up drinking all night, and go to bed like pigs, as we do at Heidelberg."[444] The young Duke and his sisters accompanied the guests to Lunéville, where they spent Whitsuntide together and took their leave, the little ladies shedding many tears at parting from their aunt. Even then Christina could not tear herself from her sister, and the next day, as the Palatine and his wife were dining at one of the Duke's country-houses on their route, the Duchess suddenly appeared, riding up the hill. Hubert and his comrades ran out to welcome her, waving green boughs in their hands, and greeted her with ringing cheers, and they all sat down to a merry meal. Dorothea begged her sister to accompany her to Alsace; but the Duchess could not leave home, and the travellers pushed on that night to Strasburg, and on the 1st of June reached Heidelberg, where they were greeted by a gay peal of bells from the new-built tower. It was the last visit that either Frederic or his wife ever paid to Lorraine. When the sisters met again, Christina was an exile and a fugitive, and had lost son and home, together with all that she loved best on earth. FOOTNOTES: