"The arch-priest recognises her," cried others. "The arch-priest dotes; he is mistaken," cried they for the Princess Clothilde. "Let the coffin of the princess be exhumed!" cried the crowd, and they appealed to the priest, who consented that the coffin should be opened in the presence of all the people. "Where is the undertaker?" cried one of the crowd. "Here!" cried a voice. "Let him come forward." Then the crowd made room for the undertaker, and one amongst them asked him if he had placed the late princess in the coffin with his own hands. He replied in the negative. "Who closed the coffin, then?" asked the former questioner. "The Princess Clothilde herself," answered the undertaker. "That seems suspicious," said another; "she also is said to have found the body, which she concealed in her cloak and allowed nobody to see." "Because," answered one of the faction, for Clothilde, "because the body, being already in an advanced state of decay, she was unwilling to make a disgusting exhibition of the remains of her sister, who she so dearly loved. We are witnesses of her emotion upon finding her sister's body." "It is false," cried Hans; "the Princess Clothilde is a hypocrite and an usurper, and has plotted to obtain the crown for herself." "Treason, treason!" cried the faction for Clothilde. But those in favour of the Princess Bertha applauded the words of Hans, and cried out, "We shall see if the remains be in the coffin." After waiting some little time longer, the coffin was exhumed and given into the hands of the arch-priest, who, standing upon the balcony of his palace, opened the coffin with his penknife in the presence of all the crowd, and found therein nothing but cinders, which he emptied into the street below. "I hope now, citizens, you are convinced that foul play is at the bottom of it all," said the old priest. "Ay," cried the crowd, "most vile treachery--down with the Princess Clothilde; we will have none to reign over us but the Princess Bertha." "Stay a moment," shouted the champion for the Princess Clothilde. "What was there in the coffin if not the body of the Princess Bertha?" "Nothing but dust and ashes," answered the arch-priest. "A sign that decomposition has already taken place," responded the former. "That is no proof that the princess Bertha was not buried in the coffin." But the crowd laughed him to scorn, saying that it was scarce a fortnight ago since the princess was missed, and that it was impossible the body should have decomposed so rapidly. The arch-priest then gave his word of honour to all present that he had found nothing in the coffin but cinders from the grate. One of the crowd below picked up a cinder which had fallen from the coffin, and cried out, "The holy father speaks the truth, for the coffin contained nothing but cinders of burnt wood."