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MARIA FELICIA

onet, when a stranger suddenly appeared from behind a rock where unnoticed he had been watching the Brethren, and stopped him.

“Can I believe my eyes?” he exclaimed. “Dare I believe it is you, Countess Felsenburk?”

It was Emperor Joseph II. Being in Prague at the time on account of the building of Fort Joseph, and urged by a spirit of curiosity, he decided to go to the frontier to see the heretics moving out of Bohemia, and to have an interview with the Brethren, unrecognized by them. As they were coming from the valley, there suddenly appeared before his eyes a face long unseen but not forgotten. At first he thought it was only the result of a momentary recollection, for, seeing the Brethren, the Emperor thought of the beautiful Maria Felicia who had been such an ardent admirer of them that for them she gave up her wealth, his friendship, and her position, and had mysteriously disappeared when he made known to her his plans of centralization. It was rumored that she had fled