said the Prince.

'The Marquis has been foully murdered,' I answered, and a buzz rose up
from the people as I spoke. Many heads were turned, I noticed, towards
the dark men in the cloaks.

'Where are your papers?' asked the Prince.

'I have none.'

A fierce clamour rose instantly around me. 'He is a spy! He plays a
part!' they cried. 'Hang him!' roared a deep voice from the corner, and
a dozen others took up the shout. For my part, I drew out my
handkerchief and nicked the dust from the fur of my pelisse. The Prince
held out his thin hands, and the tumult died away.

'Where, then, are your credentials, and what is your message?'

'My uniform is my credential, and my message is for your private ear.'

He passed his hand over his forehead with the gesture of a weak man who
is at his wits' end what to do. The Princess stood beside him with her
hand upon his throne, and again whispered in his ear.

'We are here in council together, some of my trusty subjects and
myself,' said he. 'I have no secrets from them, and whatever message the
Emperor may send to me at such a time concerns their interests no less
than mine.'

There was a hum of applause at this, and every eye was turned once more
upon me. My faith, it was an awkward position in which I found myself,
for it is one thing to address eight hundred hussars, and another to
speak to such an audience on such a subject. But I fixed my eyes upon
the Prince, and tried to say just what I should have said if we had been
alone, shouting it out, too, as though I had my regiment on parade.

'You have often expressed friendship for the Emperor,' I cried. 'It is
now at last that this friendship is about to be tried. If you will stand
firm, he will reward you as only he can reward. It is an easy thing for
him to turn a Prince into a King and a province into a power. His eyes
are fixed upon you, and though you can do little to harm him, you can
ruin yourself. At this moment he is crossing the Rhine with two hundred
thousand men. Every fortress in the country is in his hands. He will be
upon you in a week, and if you have played him false, God help both you
and your people. You think that he is weakened because a few of us got
the chilblains last winter. Look there!' I cried, pointing to a great
star which blazed through the window above the Prince's head. 'That is
the Emperor's star. When it wanes, he will wane--but not before.'

You would have been proud of me, my friends,