"Oh, this hound, this hound, your Highness!" moaned the poor woman. "I have tried my utmost to keep him out of the way of your Highness and out of the bedchamber of your Highness! My boys and my husband, they will have every kind of an animal about, but for me I hate them all--I mean the animals, your Highness, and not my husband and my sons. And this hound, your Highness, he has been determined to go into your bedchamber at any cost, though I have driven him away from it again and again. He seems to have had nothing else on his mind since your Highness has honored this poor place with your presence. And when I went in your room this morning to put it in order, he slipped in unseen by me and remained under a chair, occupied in chewing this valuable glove just as if it had been the object of his life to feed upon pearls." "Never mind," said the Lady Marguerite soothingly. "They are too small to injure him, even if he has swallowed any of them." "Injure him! What should I care for him?" cried the woman. "It is the loss of the glove belonging to your Highness that distresses me." "Oh, do not trouble yourself about the glove; I have plenty more. But what a pretty puppy, and a fine breed, too." "Yes, your Highness, the breed is well enough," replied the woman sadly, as if she wished that the puppy had striven more faithfully to live up to the traditions of his race. "I should like to have him," said the princess, "and you shall be paid whatever you think that he is worth." "Does your Highness want a dog that has just wrought such destruction?" asked the good woman, in amazement. "Of course, why not?" said Marguerite, taking the dog in her own arms. "You did not know that it was my glove, did you, doggie?" "Your Highness is perfectly welcome to him for nothing at all," was the reply, but the princess insisted upon paying her a price for the small animal, which the landlady considered sufficient to purchase all the dogs in the Tyrol. And his new mistress named him Brutus, which was a very grown-up and dignified name for so small and mischievous a member of the dog family, and as he was very intelligent he became the most favored of Marguerite's pets. When they returned to the palace at Innsbruck Le Glorieux said, "Little Cousin, we each have a souvenir of the trip; you have the puppy, your father has some fine chamois horns, Philibert has a cut temple, Antoine sore ribs, while I have a scratched face, owing to my passion for climbing." CHAPTER X A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE The following year Maximilian found it necessary to take his troops to Italy. The cities of that fair land, instead of being friendly, as they are to-day, were constantly quarreling with each other, and Pisa, the city of the leaning tower, implored the aid of the Emperor of Austria against the pretentions of Florence, the city of flowers.