The Road to Paris: A Story of Adventure

by Robert Neilson Stephens

  CHAPTER XX.

  THE HONOR OF A LADY-IN-WAITING.

  Dick recalled now his collision with the fallen body of Mesmer, and thegeneral tumble that had ensued in the tower, and he remembered havingnoticed previously the bright color of the Count's cloak. "Doubtless theCount got mine or some one's else, in the scramble, and so no one isrobbed," thought Dick.

  He foresaw that he would be speedily pursued towards Melsungen. He hadnot lived in the wilderness of Pennsylvania to be at a disadvantage inthe neighborhood of a German forest, nor had he learned the ways of theAmerican Indians for nothing. So he very soon rode into the woods at theleft, and, having penetrated to some distance from the road,deliberately turned northward towards the ruined tower, deeming that tobe the safest place for him to hide while considering the situation. Thecaptured conspirators once removed from it, the tower would have beenleft unguarded, and yet no one would suppose that he would return atonce to a place where he had recently stood in such great danger.

  Riding on through the forest, he reached an eminence, from which thedescent on the northeastern side was abrupt and steep. Here, over thetops of trees that were rooted where the precipice began to be lesssteep, he got a view of the country lying east and north, small parts ofwhich country were clear of woods. Through one of these open spaces,directly east, a procession of troops, some mounted, some on foot, wasmoving towards the southeast. Dick's heart fell at the sight, althoughhe could have expected nothing better. It was the march of his capturedcomrades, under an escort of remounted horse-guards and of a company offoot, to the prison-fortress of Spangenberg. He counted the prisoners,whom he could easily distinguish from their guards. All who had met inthe tower that afternoon were there but himself. So Gerard must be amongthem. How, Dick asked himself, could their plot have been discovered?

  And now he looked northward, towards the tower, which the prisoners musthave left about two hours before. He could make out its dark, round,stone top in the midst of the thick copse. While he was gazing at it, hesaw two figures on horseback emerge from the copse and proceed across aclear space towards that part of the forest where the hunt had been inprogress. One figure, stout and erect, Dick instantly knew to be theLandgrave's; the other, so completely cloaked as to be unrecognizable byany lines of shape, was that of a woman. The two soon entered thefarther woods by a narrow bridle-path, and were lost to view.

  "An assignation," thought Dick. "No sooner does the Landgrave clear thetower of conspirators than he uses it for a purpose of his own. To-day'shunt is remarkable for the number of people who have slipped away fromit."

  He now pressed on to the tower. At some rods from it, he dismounted andtied his horse. He then advanced cautiously, to make sure that the placewas deserted. Suddenly he stopped, at sound of a furious gallop on theroad from Cassel to Melsungen. While he listened, the horse's footfallscame to an abrupt stop. After a few minutes of silence, there arose thesound of some one treading crisp leaves, and forcing a way throughunderbrush. Dick grasped his sword and waited, knowing he would have toface but one person,--for the galloping had been of a solitary horse.The newcomer soon appeared on foot, among the trees. It was Captain vonRomberg, in great excitement and alarm.

  "You are still here!" he gasped, seizing Dick's hand. "Thank God, I amin time!"

  "In time for what?" asked Dick.

  "In time to save you and our comrades. Come, the others are in thetower, are they not?"

  "The others are on their way, under a guard, to Spangenberg."

  "My God! Then I am too late! I thought I might give a half-hour'swarning! We have been betrayed!"

  "So it is evident. What do you know of it? Come, my dear Count, sit hereon this log, and tell me."

  The two sat down together at one side of the doorway, outside the tower.

  "I got word from--a certain lady," began Von Romberg, in a halfbreathless, heart-broken voice, "to come to her at once, as she wassuddenly at the point of death. This was a short time before I was tohave started for the meeting this afternoon. When I entered her room Ifound her perfectly well, but in great trepidation. She said I must notleave her house till night. When I insisted on going, now that I hadfound she was not ill, she broke down, and told me everything. You mustknow she is the--she is on close terms with the secretary ofRothenstein, minister of police. Through this secretary she had learnedthat we have all been terribly tricked. Our conspiracy was instigatedwith the Landgrave's own authority! It was an idea of old Rothenstein's,and the villain who carried it out was Mesmer!"

  "But,--I don't understand. Why should the Landgrave authorize aconspiracy against himself?"

  "In order to have a reason, in the eyes of his subjects and of otherpowers, for removing certain objectionable persons from his way. You arean Englishman, St. Valier a Frenchman. Without a good pretext he wouldnot dare have you two imprisoned, lest your governments might call himto account. Moreover, if he took any arbitrary step against yourself,the people might think he was secretly angry at you for having saved theLandgravine's life. And then, this woman told me, there is a lady whosehatred the Landgrave does not wish to incur, and he would incur it bycausing your destruction; but now it will appear that you have broughtdestruction on yourself by plotting high treason."

  "What a diabolical scheme!"

  "You see, my dear Wetheral, we, who have supposed ourselves to beconspirators, are the ones who have really been conspired against. Allwas perfectly arranged. Even the choice of officers by lot was somanaged by Mesmer, who conducted the drawing, that you and St. Valierwere designated."

  "The base-hearted Landgrave would remove both her protectors! But whatproof will there be against us, beyond Mesmer's testimony? And will notMesmer's testimony betray the Landgrave's whole design?"

  "Mesmer will give no testimony. They have proof sufficient, of the kindthey desire. This very afternoon they found the signed compact in yourroom; they knew from Mesmer exactly where it was hidden. Mesmer will noteven appear among the accused. It was part of the plan that he should beallowed to escape, and to stay out of the country till the others weredisposed of. To that escape and absence, the rest of us would attributehis not being punished with us,--and not to his having sold us to theLandgrave. Thus the world was to be kept from knowing the despicablepart this wretch had played. And now mark how little these villainstrust one another. Fearful, I suppose, lest the Landgrave would afterall let him suffer, in order to make sure of his silence, Mesmerstipulated that he should be allowed to escape at the moment of arrest.Mesmer once inside a prison, he doubtless thought, the Landgrave mightconsider a dungeon--or a grave--the safest place for a man who possessedthe secret of so detestable a transaction. And, to keep his treacherythe more hidden, he provided that the arrest and his apparent escapeshould be entrusted to an officer not acquainted with him."

  "But how then could the officer know which man was to escape?"

  "Mesmer was to be distinguished by a cloak of a particular color," saidRomberg.

  "The devil!" cried Dick, smiling despite all circumstances. "And thecloak happened to be on me at the time of the escape."

  "Listen!" said Romberg, abruptly. "Some one is coming."

  The sounds of an approach were indeed heard from the side towards thedepths of the forest. The two gentlemen rose, and grasped their swords.A moment later a man stepped into view, whom they both recognized bysight. He was a French valet of the Landgrave's.

  "Pardon, messieurs!" he exclaimed, after a start of fright at sosuddenly coming upon the two threatening-looking gentlemen. "I have comehere merely to look for a riding-whip dropped by Mademoiselle de St.Valier a short time ago." And he stepped into the tower, where he beganto search with his feet the paving, which was in comparative darkness.

  For a moment Dick's heart was stilled. The blood left his cheeks; powerleft his voice. He followed the valet in. "Do you mean to say thatMademoiselle de St. Valier was here in this tower a short while ago?" heasked, in a forced voice, when he could speak at all. He remembered t
hecloaked lady riding from the copse with the Landgrave.

  "Yes, monsieur," replied the lackey, adding in a significant tone, "andin very excellent company. Ah, here is the whip, and very far back inthe tower, too."

  "You rascal!" cried Dick, his energy returning with vehemence, andseized the valet by arm and neck. "Do you dare say that Mademoiselle deSt. Valier was in this tower alone with the Landgrave? Come into thelight, you miserable cur, that I may see the lie on your villainousface!" And Dick dragged the fellow from the tower.

  "Let me go, monsieur!" whimpered the lackey, wriggling in terror. "_MonDieu_, is it the fault of a poor servant if a lady-in-waiting allowsherself to be seduced by the Landgrave? Don't make an honest man pay forthe sins of a prince's harlot!"

  "My God, Romberg, do you hear that?" cried Dick, throwing the valet tothe ground. "And do you _see_ that?" he added, picking up the whip, ofwhich he now recognized the curiously formed handle, though his lastsight of it had been on that New Jersey road where, three years and ahalf ago, he had volunteered to recover her stolen miniature.

  Von Romberg, who had begun to understand the situation in a general way,shook his head sadly, and said, with quiet tenderness, "We must notexpect too much of the sex, my friend."

  Dick sank down on the log, dropping the whip, and began to weep like achild. The wild suspicion had seized him that Catherine might havefavored the prospective marriage to himself either as a cloak for aliaison with the Landgrave or as a refuge on the possible termination ofsuch liaison. The valet, making no attempt to recover the whip, now usedhis opportunity to rise and dash off through the woods.

  Suddenly Dick started up, and faced his kindly, pitying friend.

  "I will find out!" he cried. "The thing is too damnable for belief. I'llnot hold a woman guilty till I've seen with my own eyes, or heard fromher own lips. I will go to her as fast as my horse can carry me!"

  "But," said Romberg, in great alarm, grasping him with strong armsaround the body, "is she in Cassel?"

  "She is in the palace. Don't delay me, Romberg, for God's sake!"

  "But they will arrest you. You are guilty of high treason, man. They aredoubtless searching for you now. It is madness and suicide to go to thepalace. My friend, would you throw yourself into the Landgrave's hands?"For Dick, exerting all his strength, was violently getting the better ofRomberg's hindering embrace.

  "I would learn the truth!" he cried. "If that lackey lied, I shalleither escape again or be content to die. I would rather die and knowher pure, than live forever and doubt her honor." And, hurling Rombergaway from him, he was free.

  "And what if you find the story true?" called Romberg after him, in avoice of sympathetic dismay.

  "I will kill the Landgrave!" cried Dick, and bounded through the bushes,towards his horse.

  * * * * *

  Late that night Catherine de St. Valier sat in her apartment in thepalace, accompanied only by one of the inferior attendants, a girl namedGretel, who was devoted to her. At one side of the chamber a pair ofcurtains concealed the alcove in which the bed was. At the other sidewas a door communicating with a corridor. The chamber window overlooked,at some height, an open space--a kind of small park--at the rear of thepalace. Outside the window was a little balcony, and not far away wasone of a few tall trees that grew in the small park. On a dressing-tablewas a candelabrum, with but one of its branches lighted, so that theinterior of the room was dim to the sight. The night had recentlyclouded over, and only at intervals could the moon be seen through thedark window.

  Catherine sat on a small couch, her face as pale as death, gazing at theopposite wall with wide-open eyes, in which grief and horror had givenway to a kind of trance-like stupor. Now and then she would give aslight start, and a tremor would pass through her body, which wasattired in a loose white gown lightly confined at the waist. At suchmoments she would turn her eyes furtively towards the door leading fromthe corridor. Near this door sat the maid, Gretel, silently watchingwith pitying eyes the half dead lady-in-waiting.

  Suddenly the window, which was made of two casements running each fromtop to bottom, was flung rudely open, and in from the balcony stepped aman, who immediately stood still and looked around until his eyes fellon Catherine.

  She rose quickly to her feet, and, with bowed head, said, in a low andlifeless voice:

  "You find me waiting, your highness."

  "Highness!" echoed the intruder. "Then you did expect him. It is true.My God!"

  She gazed at him like a woman struck dumb with astonishment, thenstaggered to the dressing-table, took up the candle, and moved swiftlytowards him, holding the light so as to illumine his face.

  "It is his spirit," she whispered, having made sure that the featureswere those of Wetheral. The girl, Gretel, now gently took the light fromCatherine's hand, lest Catherine might, in her half swooning condition,drop it, and replaced it on the dressing-table.

  "It is no spirit, mademoiselle," said Dick, in a broken voice, "but aliving man who might better be dead, for his last hope is killed, hisfaith crushed, his heart torn with misery! Oh, my God, my God! Oh,Catherine, Catherine!" And he fell prostrate on the couch, hiding hisweeping eyes upon his arm, and yielding his body to be shaken by sobs.

  Catherine stood looking at him, while her bewildered ideas approached adefinite shape. But, before she could speak, he sprang to his feet, hisgrief having been succeeded by a wave of fierce and bitter reproach.

  "So I was right when I called you faithless before the whole assemblythat night!" he cried. "So you have fooled me from the first! Oh, wasthere ever such cunning? How I have been deceived by your guileless air,your innocent face, the truthful look of your eyes! Great God, isanything to be trusted in this world, when a woman who seems so pure andnoble proves to be not only the harlot of a prince but the lyingbetrayer of an honest man, who loves her with all his soul? Why have younothing to say?" he demanded, with a fresh access of rage. "Haven't youthe grace to defend yourself? Oh, for God's sake, deceive me again! Lieto me, and I will believe you. Let me have any reason, even thesmallest, to delude myself with the fancy that you are still mine. Denythese accusations! Deny that you expected the Landgrave here to-night."

  "I cannot deny what is true," she said, quietly and sadly.

  "Oh, you admit it!" he cried, wounded and enraged beyond all control."You brazen Jezebel, I will kill you!" He grasped her by the neck, and,as she yielded instantly to his movement, forced her to her knees. As hemade to clutch her throat she threw back her head, disclosing the whiteand delicate skin on which he formerly would not have inflicted thetiniest scratch for the world. "Oh, I cannot," he sobbed, pressing hislips against the tender throat, and breaking down completely. "Oh,Catherine, Catherine!" He raised her, and stood with his arms enfoldingher. But, after a moment, he released her and stepped back, saying,plaintively, "To think that you are not mine to embrace! To think thatyou are the Landgrave's!"

  "The Landgrave's!" she echoed. "No, not yet the Landgrave's, for you arenot dead, and I am still a living woman."

  "What do you mean?" asked Dick, startled into a kind of wild hope.

  "He told me you were dead,--that you had been shot while trying toescape--"

  "Who told you, Catherine? What do you mean? Tell me, quickly." He tookher hand, and made her sit beside him on the couch.

  "The Landgrave told me,--and Von Rothenstein, and others who werethere. You see, I was at the hunt, with the Landgravine. We all heard ofthe terrible conspiracy, and of the arrests; and, while we were talkingabout it in the forest, the prisoners were taken by, where we could seethem all,--the conspirators, arrested for high treason. And one of themwas Gerard, my brother Gerard."

  "And the whole court saw them led past?"

  "Yes, with Gerard, my dear brother. When I was told that these men weregoing to prison and would surely be put to death--oh, it was terrible tothink of,--my brother, little Gerard, as we used to call him, my motherand I. _Mon Dieu_, I would give my life to save
him, and so I rode insearch of the Landgrave, to beg that he would save Gerard. Some of theofficers told me where to find him,--in the tower where the conspiratorshad been caught. I went there, and begged him on my knees for Gerard'slife. He sent away the Count von Rothenstein and the others who werethere, and listened to me. At last he said there was a way in which Imight save Gerard, though my brother was one of the officers of the bandand deserved death even more than the others did. I said I would give mylife to save Gerard's,--for I knew that you, my love, would not blame mefor that. But the Landgrave said it was not my life he wished, it was--"

  "I understand!"

  "I would not consent to that, even to save my brother. When theLandgrave became more urgent, and began to speak of my duty as a sister,I said that what he asked was not mine to give, that I was pledged toanother. And then he told me you were dead, that you had been shot whiletrying to escape when the conspirators were captured. For a time I couldnot speak. He called back the minister of police and the others, andasked them to assure me that you had been killed. When I could no longerdoubt, something seemed to have died within me. I felt that I was nolonger a living woman, that my life had gone out at the news that youwere dead."

  "My poor beloved!"

  "Then the Landgrave sent away the others, and spoke again of Gerard,saying that one of whose treason there was so much proof would certainlybe condemned, and that only an arbitrary order of the sovereign couldcause him to be released. The thought came to me that it was no longer aliving woman that the Landgrave demanded for my brother's life, that Iwas no more Catherine de St. Valier, and that if I should consent tosave Gerard it would be giving the Landgrave not myself but a soullesscorpse. Oh, do you not understand?"

  "Yes, yes, _I_ understand. _I_ can imagine all you felt!"

  "It was agreed that a messenger of the Landgrave should go with Antoineto Spangenberg, with everything necessary for Gerard's release and hisflight to France. The Landgrave was not to present himself before meuntil he could bring proofs, with Antoine as an eye-witness, of Gerard'sdeparture from Spangenberg. I was waiting for him when you came in bythe window. So distracted I was, that, for the moment, I supposed theLandgrave had taken that way of entrance for the sake of greatersecrecy."

  "It was I, who, for the sake of secrecy, chose that way," said Dick. "Iwas shot at in escaping from the tower, but they were not my countrymenbehind the muskets! I went back to the tower, and saw the Landgraveriding away, alone with a lady. While I was at the tower, a lackey cameto seek the lady's riding-whip. When he said the lady was you, and whenI saw it was your whip he found, I was mad with jealousy and doubt,grief and fear, and I should have died had I not come to find out thetruth. A friend, who had tried to hold me back, followed and overtook meoutside the city, persuaded me to enter Cassel with caution, and offeredme his aid. We left our horses in the woods outside the city, obtained aboat from a peasant, rowed down the Fulda after dark, and thus got intoCassel without crossing the bridge or meeting the guard. Romberg waitedat the river while I hastened to the palace. I had learned from Gerardwhich was your window,--and, thank God, one can approach it withoutpassing near the guards at the palace doors. I climbed yonder tree--as Ihave climbed many a tree in America--and swung by a branch to thebalcony." He had risen to point out the tree, and she had followed him.

  "Thank God you came in time,--that I knew before it was too late!" shesaid, turning her eyes up to his with a grave and tender gaze.

  "Thank God you still are mine!" he replied, clasping her again in hisarms, and pressing a kiss upon her lips.

  There came a cautious knock on the door. Catherine gave a start.

  "The Landgrave," she whispered, "coming to the appointment!"

  She gazed up at Dick, in questioning silence. Gretel, who evidentlyunderstood the situation, cast an inquiring look at Catherine, and stoodas, if awaiting orders. No one in the room moved.

  The knock was repeated. Dick had now made up his mind. "He brings proofof Gerard's safety?" he whispered, interrogatively.

  "Yes, or he would not be here," replied Catherine, under her breath.

  Dick motioned Gretel to come close to him. "Open the door, in a moment,"he said to the girl, "but do it in a fumbling way, so as to delay himas long as possible." Dick then led Catherine quickly into the alcove,the curtains closing behind them.

  There was a third knock, a little louder and more insistent. But Gretelcould now be heard at the door, which she first locked and thenunlocked, in order to carry out Dick's instructions. When she finallyopened it, the Landgrave stepped swiftly in, retaining the noiselesstread he had used in the corridor. His triumphant, expectant face, whenhe saw only Gretel in the room, took on a look of sharp disappointment.

  "The devil!" he said, in a kind of quick growl. "No one here?"

  The maid, not knowing what to say, pretended to be absorbed in fasteningthe door, which she had promptly closed.

  Noticing the curtained alcove, the Landgrave started towards it; but hehad not crossed the room when Catherine appeared, instantly letting thecurtains fall to behind her.

  "At last, mademoiselle," said the Landgrave, joyfully, putting forth hishand to grasp her own.

  But she stood back aloof, and said, "The proofs of my brother's release,your highness?"

  His highness received this temporary rebuff with resignation. "Be sure,I have brought them," he said. "Have the maid call your man-servant, whois in the corridor, arrived this minute from Spangenberg."

  "FREDERICK II. RECOILED A STEP OR TWO."]

  Gretel opened the door and called softly, "Antoine!" Immediately theold servant entered, bowing with a grave deference that was full ofdignity. He wore riding-boots, and carried in one hand his hat and whip,in the other a folded piece of paper, which he now held out toCatherine. She took it to the candle-light, and read the few lineshastily scribbled in pencil. It was a message from Gerard, and told ofhis release.

  "You saw him safe out of the prison?" she then asked Antoine.

  "Yes, mademoiselle."

  "On a good horse, and provided with money?" she continued, quoting fromthe letter.

  "Yes, mademoiselle, with my own eyes; and well out of the town, with apassport to assure his not being stopped anywhere on the road."

  "Then wait in the corridor, Antoine. Will you, too, Gretel, wait there?"

  The Landgrave looked surprised at these orders, but, before he could puthis disapprobation into more than a frown, the two servants had left theroom. Catherine stepped at once to the door, locked it, withdrew thekey, and started towards the alcove. The Landgrave's frown gave way to asmile of eager gratification, and he made to grasp her in his arms asshe passed him. But she eluded his embrace, and ran towards the alcove.With a look of amused enlightenment, as if he thought her flight a meretrick of coquetry, he ran after her; but his arms, again extended in thehope of clasping her, closed on nothing as the curtains fell behind her.His highness laughed, and, pressing forward, opened the curtains tofollow her.

  And, instead of the woman he had thought himself about to possess, hesaw, standing where the curtains met, that woman's lover, the man he hadtried to destroy, the man he had reported dead, the man for whom hissoldiers were even now scouring the roads in the vicinity of hiscapital.

  The look on that man's face added nothing to the Landgrave's pleasure atthe unexpected meeting.

  Frederick II. recoiled a step or two, and stood for a moment as ifpetrified, his jaw moving spasmodically without producing any speech.

  Dick stepped out from between the curtains, keeping his eyes fixed onthe Landgrave's. Catherine now stood looking forth from the alcove,affrightedly watching for what terrible thing might next occur.

  The Landgrave recovered himself, and made for the door.

  "You forget it is locked," said Dick. "It is true, you might call forhelp, but if you did I should kill you. Do not look incredulous. I knowthat ordinarily you are a sovereign prince, with a people and an armybehind you, and that I am a hunted man, the le
ast powerful in yourdominion. But at this moment we are on fairer terms, with just whatpowers nature gave us, except that I have a sword and you have not. Sonow it is the weaker man that is my subject, the stronger man that isyour prince!"

  The Landgrave looked at the door, Dick's sword, then at Catherine.

  "Treachery!" he said, in a voice deprived of strength by his feelings."For this I freed your brother, mademoiselle, trusting you implicitly.It seems one needs more assurance than the honor of a lady-in-waiting!"

  "Your highness may recall," said Dick, "that her promise was made onyour assurance that a certain person was dead. Did that lie, and theplot by which her brother was tricked into his peril, comport with thehonor of a sovereign prince? But this is wasting time and talk.Mademoiselle de St. Valier and I intend to leave this palace unhinderedand unpursued. It rests with you as to the state in which you shall beleft behind."

  The Landgrave looked bewildered. It seemed incredible that a rulingprince should be so helplessly placed, in his own palace, but a secondglance assured him that this was no dream,--that the locked door, thesword in Dick's hand, and the expression on Dick's face, were veryactual facts.

  "Mademoiselle de St. Valier shall never go," his highness said at last."As for you, I will let you pass out free. I cannot forget the serviceyou rendered the Landgravine."

  Dick gave a short laugh of derision. "Can I not get it through yourthick skull," he said, "that I am the one in position to offer terms?You sovereign princes of Germany, we are told, have absolute power, butyou seem to be very stupid. In my country, we are quicker to grasp asituation. It is a country, too, that has recently declared all men tobe, in their rights, created equal. So you see that, to me, the blood ofa prince is no more sacred than another man's!"

  At this moment there came from the door one of those creaking orstraining sounds that seem to occur unaccountably.

  The Landgrave gave a start of elation, as if this sound betokened aninterruption. But Dick instantly flashed his sword before theLandgrave's eyes, and said:

  "If any one breaks in while I am here, he will find something stretchedon the floor, and to-morrow the people will cry 'Long live theLandgrave!' for your son. You see that each moment we lose is asdangerous to you as to me, because it brings the possibility ofinterruption."

  The noise at the door proved to signify nothing; whereupon theLandgrave, who had given a shudder at Dick's picture of the possiblemorrow, now showed as much relief as he had first shown pleasure.

  "Then what do you request?" asked the Landgrave, trying to conceal, byhis best pretence of dignity, his inward rage and chagrin.

  "I request nothing," said Dick. "I demand nothing. I merely offer toleave without harming you, on condition that you will not give any alarmof our departure, or orders for our pursuit."

  "Very well, I agree," said the Landgrave, with a readiness that madeDick laugh again.

  "Of course you do, for you think you can break the condition, and haveus stopped by your guards before we are out of the city, or even out ofthe palace. I must provide against that."

  "I give you my word of honor, neither to leave this room nor to make anyalarm, till daybreak."

  "It seems, one needs better assurance than the honor of a sovereignprince," said Dick, imitating the Landgrave's own words with a slightalteration. He then took from his pocket a phial given him at theriverside by Romberg, who had provided himself, on hearing of the trickplayed on the conspirators, with means of self-destruction in case ofcapture. Dick quickly took up a pitcher of water from the table, pouredsome of it into a glass, uncorked the phial with his teeth, and droppeda small portion of the liquid into the water. Meanwhile, Catherine,foreseeing Dick's plans, put on a hooded cloak, and gathered up herpurse and what small things of value she desired to retain.

  "Drink this," said Dick to the Landgrave, from whom he had not for aninstant taken his eyes.

  "What do you mean?" said the Landgrave, turning pale.

  "To make it easier for you to keep your princely word, your highness!Don't be afraid. It takes more than this quantity to kill a man. What ishere will merely enable you to pass the few hours till daybreak insleep. It would be a pity so great a prince should suffer from insomniaor ennui during that length of time! Drink, man! I am becoming a littlebored with this place, myself."

  An impatient movement of the sword--which weapon Dick had so managed asto check every one of his highness's numerous impulses to rush uponhim--ended Frederick's hesitation. He petulantly drank the contents ofthe glass, and handed it back to Dick, who motioned him to put it on thetable and to go to the couch.

  "Call Antoine," said Dick to Catherine, following the Landgrave close tothe couch on which the latter dropped.

  Noiselessly Catherine unlocked the door and let in the two servants.Gretel, as soon as she saw what was up, begged to be taken along, andfound a cloak for herself in the room. Antoine, at Dick's whispereddirection, took coverings from the bed in the alcove, and knotted themtogether so as to form a means of descent from the balcony. Meanwhile,Catherine had relocked the door and possessed herself of the phial,which Dick had placed on the table.

  "Come," said Dick, taking Catherine's hand and leading the way towardsthe open window, when at last the Landgrave slept. "Put out the light,Antoine, and let us hasten. In a few hours, that old snoring rascal willbe a prince again!"