Chapter 1. A Pious Hyperbole
_ CHAPTER I. A PIOUS HYPERBOLE
Before my coronation there was no event in childhood that impressed itself on my memory with marked or singular distinction. My father‘s death, the result of a chill contracted during a hunting excursion, meant no more to me than a week of rooms gloomy and games forbidden； the decease of King Augustin, my uncle, appeared at the first instant of even less importance. I recollect the news coming. The King, having been always in frail health, had never married； seeing clearly but not far, he was a sad man: the fate that struck down his brother increased his natural melancholy； he became almost a recluse, withdrew himself from the capital to a retired residence, and henceforward was little more than a name in which Prince von Hammerfeldt conducted the business of the country. Now and then my mother visited him； once she brought back to me a letter from him, little of which I understood then, although I have since read ofte

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