Nobody thought of a spectre; on the other hand extravagant speculations became rife of a conspirator being at work. It was rumored the king had originally intended to wear a sailor costume. Of course, it was him the uncanny visitor had designs upon. In view of the fact that the political horizon was very dark and clouded at that time, the conjecture was perhaps not altogether phantastical, and for this reason the report quickly reached the ears of the king and the royal family. I was promptly summoned before His Majesty, and it gave me a sort of revengeful pleasure to relate the incident to that august person. For I was still fully persuaded that some young member of his family had played this obnoxious trick upon me. The king nodded thoughtfully upon my frank declaration that, according to my researches, the enigmatical female could only have come from the royal apartments. Said his Majesty: “May I ask you, my dear Baron, to show me the cross you found?” I put it into his hand. For a moment the king stared upon it speechless. Then he turned it over, and ejaculated, roughly almost under the emotion of his violent surprise: “Great God--why--it is--!” And he pointed to the small, delicately engraved initials, surmounted by a crown, in the middle of the cross. Very pale and with heaving breast he went on: “A nun, a gray nun, you say? What would the object of such a joke be? and how--how should this cross come back among the living? Baron, come with me, I must request your confidence and secrecy!” We passed through several rooms, and then arrived at a narrow gallery whose walls were hung with portraits of royal personages. The king came abruptly to a halt, and without himself looking up indicated a certain picture: “Observe that painting! Do you see the same Cross there that you have in your hand?” Involuntarily I uttered the loud cry: “Why, that is she! Holy Heavens! It is my nun!” “The cross--compare the cross!” urged the king, his slender, white hand trembling with agitation. A frosty current ran through my veins as I compared the pictured cross with that in my companion’s hand. It was the same--not a doubt of it--and the eyes, too, were the same, as also the dress and the whole figure were unmistakably those of the gray nun I had danced with. Yet in those conspicuously large, deep black eyes lay not an expression of peacefulness and mild resignation, but a world of passionate feeling. Having assured the king of the identity of the cross, and he having informed me that it was an ancient heirloom of which no duplicate existed, he bade me accompany him further. Arrived in the antechamber to his apartments, the king gave an order to one of the attendants on duty there. He walked up and down the room for a few moments in visible excitement, and then, stopping before me, and looking at me searchingly, he asked: “Have you ever, in the course of your life, met with a manifestation of the supernatural?”