The governor plenipotentiary was suffering with a splitting headache, which at times made him inclined to believe that all the bullets he had sent through his victims' heads were holding a rendezvous in his own. On such occasions it was dangerous to approach the great man. In the frenzy of his pain he was wont to rage even against those he loved best, and to find fault with all who were under his authority, as if determined to make others feel some small fraction of the discomfort he was forced to endure. To ask a favour of him in such moments, or even to demand simple justice, was worse than useless. Did he find favour with his torturer, he wanted to know, or was there any justice in his undeserved suffering? This was the sort of man that was set as judge over a vanquished people. In the midst of one of these attacks the governor sat alone one evening in his room when his servant opened the door. "Some one here to speak with your Excellency," he announced. "Send him away." "But it is a lady." "The devil take all these hysterical women! I don't want any woebegone faces around me now. I can't see the lady." Many women, most of them in mourning, crossed his threshold in those days. "It is the Baroness Alfonsine Plankenhorst who asks to see you," the servant ventured to add. "Can't she stay at home, I'd like to know? Is this time of night my hour for receiving callers?" "She says she must see your Excellency--it is important." "A young person of strong character. Well, show her in. Besides," he added to himself, "she isn't a woman; she is a devil." Then resuming his chair, and without removing the bandage that adorned his head, he awaited his caller. Alfonsine entered in travelling costume, and closed the door carefully behind her. "My dear Baroness," began the governor, "I must beg you to be as brief as possible, for I have a fearful headache." "I will do my errand in a very few words," was the reply. "I learned to-day of your removal from the governorship of Hungary." "Ha! Is that so? And why am I removed?" The sufferer felt as if a cannon-ball had crashed through his head. "Because there is an outcry against the present severe measures, and the public is to be told that the government is not responsible for them, but you personally in your excess of zeal." The sick man pressed both hands to his temples, as if to keep his head from bursting. "Beginning to-morrow, a new system is to be inaugurated," resumed Alfonsine, "and imprisonment is to take the place of the death penalty." "Ah, I am very grateful to you for this information--very grateful." "I made all haste to bring you warning, for to-morrow morning you will receive official notification of your retirement. But you still have a night before you for action." "And I will use it, I assure you!" exclaimed the governor. He rang his bell and summoned his adjutant. The latter soon appeared.