The Baroness tried to speak to me. I held up my hand. "Not a word from you, or something terrible will happen." _Fraeulein_ von Schoenberg, who is really a sweet girl, offered some respectful advice. I begged her to be silent. If the door had been locked I would have forced it with the dagger I carried in my bosom. Lucretia came and whispered. "I have decided to stay, and stay I will. Let them do their worst if they dare," I told her. I changed the children's _curriculum_. "You can drive every day; you can't have mother every day. Let's have some games." I remained in the nursery till all the children were asleep. They partook of the breakfast, lunch and dinner I ordered for myself. A great treat for them. We were very happy. But I waited in vain for interference. Nothing happened to clear the situation. Those questions were still unanswered when I returned to my apartments. I had just sat down to read the evening papers, when Prince George entered unannounced. "If ever again you dare disobey my commands"--he shouted without preliminaries. I cut him short: "Are the children yours or mine?" "They belong to Saxony, to the Royal House," he bawled, and poured forth a torrent of abuse without giving me a chance to put in a word. "You shall be disciplined to the last extremity. We will imprison you in some lonely tower, without state or attendants. You shall not see your children from one year's end to the other." "Prison for the Crown Princess? Would you dare, Prince George?" "At the Tower of Nossen rooms are in readiness for your Imperial Highness," sneered my father-in-law as he walked out. Nossen! A ruined country-house, flanked by a mediaeval tower in the midst of swamps. The nearest habitation miles away. Neither railway nor post-office, neither telegraph nor telephone--just the place to bury one alive. And I only thirty-one. Augustus the Physical Strong imprisoned Countess Cosel at Nossen six months before he sent her to her prison-grave in Stolpen. After Cosel's departure, another royal mistress was lodged in Nossen, and as she would neither commit suicide, nor succumb to the fever, they starved her to death. And it all happened in the eighteenth century. The word Nossen sent cold shivers down my spine. I am sure I won't sleep a wink. CHAPTER LIII REVOLVER IN HAND, I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION An insolent Grand Mistress, but of wonderful courage--Imprisonment, threats to kill have no effect on her--Disregards my titles--My lover's souvenir and endearing words--How she caused Henry to leave me--My paroxysms of rage--Henry's complete betrayal of me. PILLNITZ, _May 26, 1901_. This morning I awoke a mental and physical wreck, but determined to solve those vexatious questions: "What do the King and Prince George know?" "What have they found out?" I slipped on a dressing-gown, fetched my small revolver from its hiding-place in the boudoir and rang for the Tisch.