His hand held a
true red rose, fresh and fragrant; Flavia herself had set it
there, that even in death he might not miss the chosen token of
her love. I had not spoken to her, nor she to me, since. we came
there. We watched the pomp round him, and the circles of people
that came to bring a wreath for him or to look upon his face. I
saw a girl come and kneel long at the bier's foot. She rose and
went away sobbing, leaving a little circlet of flowers. It was
Rosa Holf. I saw women come and go weeping, and men bite their
lips as they passed by. Rischenheim came, pale-faced and
troubled; and while all came and went, there, immovable, with
drawn sword, in military stiffness, old Sapt stood at the head of
the bier, his eyes set steadily in front of him, and his body
never stirring from hour to hour through the long day.
A distant faint hum of voices reached us. The queen laid her hand
on my arm.
"It is the dream, Fritz," she said. "Hark! They speak of the
king; they speak in low voices and with grief, but they call him
king. It's what I saw in the dream. But he does not hear nor
heed. No, he can't hear nor heed even when I call him my king."
A sudden impulse came on me, and I turned to her, asking:
"What had he decided, madam? Would he have been king?" She
started a little.
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