The king was silent--his cheek glowed, and an expression of fervid energy beamed in his countenance, as he turned from the fair spectacle of the rising sun, and looked out upon the fog-enveloped town, the church towers of which glittered in the dawn of morning. He now opened a letter and a small packet, which a skipper from Skanoer had brought him from Drost Aage. He read the letter with attention. It contained an account of the Drost's meeting with the Hanseatic merchants and Thrand Fistlier at Kjoege, and at Skanoer fair, as well as of the disturbance which had been caused by this mountebank, and the Hanseatic forgers; and also how the Drost, partly to save the artist's life, had been under the necessity of sending him prisoner to Helsingborg. In the packet was one of Master Thrand's optic tubes, and some polished glasses, which Aage had bought at Skanoer fair, and which he now presented to the king as extraordinary rarities. In the letter, Aage had not been able to conceal his suspicion of the wonderful mountebank, and the singular uneasiness which this man's operations and expressions had caused him. Count Henrik also, had lately received and read a secret epistle from the Drost, in which Aage conjured him to caution the king respecting the captive Icelander, and above all to keep a watchful eye on whoever approached him. "Trust not the junker!" Aage wrote, "God forgive me if I do him injustice! Kagge is alive and under convoy of the foreign merchants, who threatened the king at Sjoeborg; Helmer and my bravest squire are in their power. The revenge of the outlaws is unwearied. Stir not from the king's side! watch over his life, while I care for his happiness." "Truly! my good Drost Aage is a strange visionary," said the King, shaking his head with a smile, as he tried the glasses with a feeling of wonder at the power of these instruments; "my much-loved Aage is ready to side with the ignorant mob, and regard the fruits of the noble arts and sciences as the work of the evil one." "How! my liege!" asked Count Henrik, in surprise.