CHAPTER I.
THE DEATHBED OF A PRINCESS.
Elizabeth Stuyvesant, widow of Duke Oswald, Burgrave of Ghent, (likewise Prince of Aremburg and Count Van Home,) lay dying. A great lady was she, princess, duchess and countess; yet death, that despotic tyrant, had dared to summon her hence. In a gorgeous palace in Brussels, surrounded by all the pageant and ceremony which wealth affords, the soul of this titled lady was passing to judgment.
The Princess Elizabeth was a good woman as the world counts goodness. She was benevolent, just, a loyal adherent and a zealous partisan of the Roman Catholic Church, and upright in all her dealings with those about her; in a word, her moral character was considered unimpeachable. Her faith taught her that such virtues as those enumerated would count for much at that Higher Tribunal to which she was hastening.
Strange as it may seem, these excellencies did not serve as a quietus for a troubled conscience.
