f me twice in one night.' I sprang forward and, stooping down, caught
up the hem of her dress. 'You would have done well to change it after
you had ridden so far and so fast,' said I.

It was like the dawn upon a snow-peak to see her ivory cheeks flush
suddenly to crimson.

'Insolent!' she cried. 'Call the foresters and have him thrust from the
palace'

'I will see the Prince first.'

'You will never see the Prince. Ah! Hold him, Von Rosen, hold him.'

She had forgotten the man with whom she had to deal--was it likely that
I would wait until they could bring their rascals? She had shown me her
cards too soon. Her game was to stand between me and her husband. Mine
was to speak face to face with him at any cost. One spring took me out
of the chamber. In another I had crossed the hall. An instant later I
had burst into the great room from which the murmur of the meeting had
come. At the far end I saw a figure upon a high chair under a dais.
Beneath him was a line of high dignitaries, and then on every side I saw
vaguely the heads of a vast assembly. Into the centre of the room I
strode, my sabre clanking, my shako under my arm.

'I am the messenger of the Emperor,' I shouted. 'I bear his message to
His Highness the Prince of Saxe-Felstein.'

The man beneath the dais raised his head, and I saw that his face was
thin and wan, and that his back was bowed as though some huge burden was
balanced between his shoulders.

'Your name, sir?' he asked.

'Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Third Hussars.'

Every face in the gathering was turned upon me, and I heard the rustle
of the innumerable necks and saw countless eyes without meeting one
friendly one amongst them. The woman had swept past me, and was
whispering, with many shakes of her head and dartings of her hands, into
the Prince's ear. For my own part I threw out my chest and curled my
moustache, glancing round in my own debonair fashion at the assembly.
They were men, all of them, professors from the college, a sprinkling of
their students, soldiers, gentlemen, artisans, all very silent and
serious. In one corner there sat a group of men in black, with
riding-coats drawn over their shoulders. They leaned their heads to each
other, whispering under their breath, and with every movement I caught
the clank of their sabres or the clink of their spurs.

'The Emperor's private letter to me informs me that it is the Marquis
Chateau St Arnaud who is bearing his despatches,'