in my
despair.

But one thing was certain--all this affair of the fracas in the hall and
the persecution of the so-called Countess was a piece of acting from the
beginning. This villainous innkeeper must be in the plot. From him I
might learn who she was and where my papers had gone. I snatched my
sabre from the table and rushed out in search of him. But the scoundrel
had guessed what I would do, and had made his preparations for me. It
was in the corner of the yard that I found him, a blunderbuss in his
hands and a mastiff held upon a leash by his son. The two stable-hands,
with pitchforks, stood upon either side, and the wife held a great
lantern behind him, so as to guide his aim.

'Ride away, sir, ride away!' he cried, with a crackling voice. 'Your
horse is at the door, and no one will meddle with you if you go your
way; but if you come against us, you are alone against three brave men.'

I had only the dog to fear, for the two forks and the blunderbuss were
shaking about like branches in a wind. Still, I considered that, though
I might force an answer with my sword-point at the throat of this fat
rascal, still I should have no means of knowing whether that answer was
the truth. It would be a struggle, then, with much to lose and nothing
certain to gain. I looked them up and down, therefore, in a way that
set their foolish weapons shaking worse than ever, and then, throwing
myself upon my mare, I galloped away with the shrill laughter of the
landlady jarring upon my ears.

I had already formed my resolution. Although I had lost my papers, I
could make a very good guess as to what their contents would be, and
this I would say from my own lips to the Prince of Saxe-Felstein, as
though the Emperor had commissioned me to convey it in that way. It was
a bold stroke and a dangerous one, but if I went too far I could
afterwards be disavowed. It was that or nothing, and when all Germany
hung on the balance the game should not be lost if the nerve of one man
could save it.

It was midnight when I rode into Hof, but every window was blazing,
which was enough it itself, in that sleepy country, to tell the ferment
of excitement in which the people were. There was hooting and jeering as
I rode through the crowded streets, and once a stone sang past my head,
but I kept upon my way, neither slowing nor quickening my pace, until I
came to the palace. It was lit from base to battlement, and the dark
shadows, coming and going