Then the Prime Minister called the Great Council together, from
which, of course, the Duchess could not be absent, and during the time
that she presided over the Councillors' meeting, she lost sight of George
for the first time for many weeks.
The naughty boy was delighted. He slipped out of the castle, whence his
older brother would not move, on account of the bad weather, went down to
the shore of the lake, and finding that it was unusually rough, he,
together with the son of the head-gondolier, sprang into a small boat,
and drove it with powerful strokes out among the waves. The wind lifted
the brown curls of the boy, and whenever a large wave bore the skiff
aloft on its crest, he shouted with joy. Hitherto he had only been
allowed to go on the lake in a well manned, safe boat, and then the
sailors were under orders to keep to the southern half of the lake.
Consequently an excursion on the water had seemed but a mild amusement;
but to be his own master, and to fight thus untrammelled against the
winds and waves was pleasure such as he had never before experienced.
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