"Really! and is my little granddaughter Helen actually old enough to have a knight of her very own?" "She is eighteen, grandmother." "Eighteen! My age when I married Herr von Beling! It is the age when leaves forsake the tree and are borne away by the wind. If Helen's hour has struck," she continued with a mournful smile, "she must go like the rest." "Never, never, dear grandmother," cried the young girl who had entered unperceived, "never so far but that I can every day kiss the dear hand which gives life to all of us." And she knelt down beside Karl and took the other hand. "Ah!" said Madame von Beling, nodding her head, "so that is why I was invited to come upstairs. I was to be caught in a trap. Well, what am I to do now? How defend myself? To surrender at once is stupid; it is like a scene from Molière." "Very well, grandmamma, don't surrender, or at least not without conditions." "And what are they to be?" "That these young people can be betrothed as soon as they like, but that the marriage, like your own, can only be celebrated when the war is over." "What war?" asked Helen, in anxiety. "We will tell you about it later. Meanwhile, if Karl is your knight, he must wear your colours. What are they?" "I have only one," replied Helen. "It is green." "Then he is wearing them now," said Frederic indicating his friend's coat with green facings, and the hat with its wide band of green velvet. "And in honour of my lady love," said Karl, rising, "a hundred men shall also wear them, with me, and like me." Everything was now settled, and the whole party, Frederic leading the way, Madame von Beling on Karl's arm, went downstairs to convey the good news to the dear invalid. That same evening it was known that the Diet was convoked at Frankfort for June 15th. CHAPTER XV FRANKFORT-ON-MAIN It is time to give some information concerning the town in which the chief events of our history will take place. Frankfort ranks as one of the most important towns in Germany, not merely on account of the number of its inhabitants, nor because of its commercial standing, but by reason of the political position which it occupies as being the seat of the Imperial Diet. One continually hears phrases repeated until they become familiar without the person precisely understanding the exact meaning. Let us in a few words explain what the functions of the Imperial Diet really are. It is the duty of the Diet to watch over the affairs of Germany in general and to smooth down disagreements between the confederate States. The president is always a representative of Austria. The decisions of the assembly are called _Recesses_. The Diet, which has existed since very remote ages, had at first no fixed seat, but was held sometimes at Nuremberg, sometimes at Ratisbon, or at Augsbourg. Finally, June 9th, 1815, the Congress of Vienna established Frankfort as the permanent seat of the Diet of the Germanic Confederation.