"Exactly. All kinds of rumours are afloat concerning this young man, who is, indeed, about the Crown Prince's age; he has been lodging with a baker at Aue, and there blowing the horn." "I'll go with you and see him. I will stand bail for him. Let him come to me. Hah-hah! George von Günther, hah-hah!" So Volkmar, already more than half disposed to believe that the horn-blower was a prince in disguise, rode over to the place where he was in confinement, saw him, and lost what little doubt he had. The upright carriage, the aristocratic cast of features, the stand-off manners, all betokened the purest of blue blood--all were glimmerings of that halo which surrounds sovereignty. The Crown Prince of Saxony was away--it was alleged, in France--making the grand tour, but, was it not more likely that he was going the round of the duchy of Saxony, inquiring into the wants and wrongs of the people? If so, who could better assist him to the knowledge of these things, than he, Volkmar, and who could better open his eyes to the delinquencies of high-placed, high-salaried officials--notably of the fisheries and forests? "There is one thing shakes my faith," said Pöckel: "our Crown Prince is not small-pox marked." "That is nothing," answered Volkmar eagerly. "His Serenity has caught the infection in making his studies among the people." "And then--he is so shabbily dressed." "That is nothing--it is the perfection of disguise." Volkmar carried off the young man to his house, and showed him the greatest respect, insisted on his sitting in the carriage facing the horses, and would on no account take a place at his side, but seated himself deferentially opposite him. On reaching Hetzdorf, Volkmar introduced his wife and his daughter Joanna to the distinguished prince, who behaved to them very graciously, and with the most courtly air expressed himself charmed with the room prepared for him. Dinner was served, and politics were discussed; the reserve with which the guest treated such subjects, the caution with which he expressed an opinion, served to deepen in Volkmar's mind the conviction that he had caught the Crown Prince travelling incog. After the servants had withdrawn, and when a good deal of wine--the best in the cellar--had been drunk, the host said confidentially in a whisper, "I see clearly enough what you are." "Indeed," answered the guest, "I can tell you what I am--by trade an armourer." "Ah, ha! but by birth--what?" said Volkmar, slyly, holding up his glass and winking over it. "Well," answered the guest, "I will admit this--I am not what I appear." "And may I further ask your--I mean you--where you are at home?" "I am a child of Saxony," was the answer. Afterwards, at the trial, the defendant insisted that this was exactly the reply made, whereas Volkmar asserted that the words were, "I am a child of the House of Saxony." But there can be no doubt that his imagination supplemented the actual words used with those he wished to hear.