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Rh inexpressible. He could not stand any longer on ceremony in a matter which affected his life as much as that of his mistress, and therefore returned home with the speed of lightning. Notwithstanding all his exertion, however, he arrived too late. The Queen, who had foreseen his return, had circulated a report some days previously that Constancia was ill. She placed in her apartments women who knew when to speak and when to be silent according to their instructions. The rumour of Constancia's death was then spread abroad, and a wax figure was finally buried as the body of that unfortunate girl. The Queen, who left no means unemployed to convince the Prince of the truth of this story, released Mirtain from prison, that he might attend the funeral; so that the day for that ceremony being publicly announced, everybody came to lament the loss of that charming girl, and the Queen, who could throw any expression into her features she chose, pretended to feel this loss deeply on her son's account.

He reached the city in the greatest anxiety that can be imagined, and on entering it, could not resist asking the first persons he met, the news about his beloved Constancia. Those who answered him did not know who he was, and without the slightest preparation told him she was dead. At these fatal words he was no longer master of his emotion. He fell from his horse speechless, pulseless. A crowd gathered round him—they discovered that it was the Prince; everybody pressed to assist him, and they carried him almost dead to the palace.

The King was greatly affected by the deplorable state of his son. The Queen had prepared herself for such an event, and thought that time and the extinction of his fond hopes would cure him; but he was too deeply smitten to be so easily consoled. His distress, far from diminishing, increased every minute. He passed two days without seeing or speaking to any one. He then went to the Queen's apartments, his eyes full of tears, his looks wild, his face pale. He told her it was she who had been the death of his dear Constancia; but that she would be speedily punished, as he could not survive the loss of his beloved, and that he desired to be shown the place where they had buried her.

The Queen, not being able to combat this resolution, determined to conduct him herself to a cypress grove, in which she had caused a tomb to be erected. When the Prince fancied