da, sinking back upon a
settle. After a long silence she continued: "Two weeks ago! That was a
few days after the trouble at the bridge."

"What trouble?" asked Castleman.

"I'll tell you, uncle, and you, tante. Twonette already knows of it,"
answered Yolanda. "Less than three weeks ago I was with Sir Max near the
moat bridge. It was dark--after night--"

"Yolanda!" exclaimed Castleman, reproachfully.

"Yes, uncle, I know I ought not to have been there, but I was," said
Yolanda.

"Alone with Sir Max after dark?" asked the astonished burgher.

"Yes, alone with him, after it was _very_ dark," answered Yolanda. "I
had met him several times before."

Castleman tried to speak, but Yolanda interrupted him:--

"Uncle, I know and admit the truth of all you would say, so don't say
it. While I was standing very near to Sir Max, uncle, very near, Count
Calli came upon us and offered me gross insult. Sir Max, being unarmed,
knocked the fellow down, and in the struggle that ensued Count Calli's
arm was broken. I heard the bone snap, then Calli, swearing vengeance,
left us. Why Sir Max went out unarmed that night I do not know. Had he
been armed he might have killed Calli; that would have prevented
this trouble."

"I, too, wonder that Sir Max went out unarmed," said Castleman musingly.
"Why do you suppose he was so incautious?"

"Perhaps that is the custom in Styria. There may be less danger, less
treachery, there than in Burgundy," suggested Yolanda.

"In Styria!" exclaimed Castleman. "Sir Karl said that he was from Italy.
He did not tell me of Sir Max's home, but I supposed he also was from
Italy, or perhaps from Wuertemberg--there are many Guelphs in
that country."

"Yes, I will tell you of that later, uncle," said Yolanda. "When Calli
left us, Sir Max returned safely to the inn, having promised me not to
leave Peronne within a month. This trouble has come from Calli and
Campo-Basso."

"But you say this young man is from Styria?" asked Castleman, anxiously.

"Yes," replied Yolanda, drooping her head, "he is Maximilian, Count of
Hapsburg."

"Great God!" exclaimed Castleman, starting to his feet excitedly. "If I
have brought these men here to be murdered, I shall die of grief; all
Europe will turn upon Burgundy."

Yolanda buried her face in Mother Kate's breast; Castleman walked to and
fro, and sympathetic Twonette wept gently. It was not in Twonette's
nature to do anything violently. Yolanda, on the contrary, w