Page:Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field.djvu/163

 a dose of aqua toffana, but his wife, who expected her first baby, had to remain in Brunswick. What does Charles do? He forbids all physicians, surgeons and midwives, on pain of imprisonment and loss of license, to attend her Ladyship. And he set spies about her house to be informed of the time of travail. And when she was in agony, he had a huge mass of powder, said Bamberger, five thousand pounds, exploded in the neighborhood of her residence. There are a hundred more stories like that. After he fled from Brunswick, the Duke's mediicine [sic] chest was found to be crammed full of poison bottles and powders, the label of each container showing how often employed and how long it took for the poison to work.

"This Diamond Duke got away with eleven million thalers of the people's money; he left one million thalers behind because he couldn't get at them. And that notwithstanding, this murderer and thief was allowed to live the life of a distinguished prince in London and Paris. Wait till I get through with him and his namesakes in the royalty business." 159