d--have you won her?"

The young man changed color. "Won her, Sire?" he replied. "That I
know not--no word has passed--"

"No word," said the emperor, doubtingly. "A knight-errant and a
castleless maid!"

The duke vouchsafed no answer.

"Humph!" added Charles. "Thus do our plans come to naught. If you got
her, and wore her, what end would be served?"

"No end of state, perhaps, Sire."

"Why," observed the monarch, "the state and the faith--what else is
there? But go your way. How smooth it may be no man can tell."

"Is the road like to be rougher than it has been, Sire?"

"The maid belongs to France," answered Charles, "and France belongs to
the king."

"The king!" exclaimed the duke, fiercely.

Involuntarily had they drawn rein in the shade of a tiny thicket
overlooking the valley. Even from this slight exercise, bowed and
weary appeared the emperor's form. The hand which controlled his steed
trembled, but the lines of his face spoke of unweakened sinew of
spirit, the iron grip of a will that only death might loosen.

"The king!" repeated the young man. "He is no king of mine, nor hers.
To you, Sire, only, I owe allegiance, or my life, at your need."

A gentler expression softened the emperor's features, as a gleam of
sunshine forces itself into the somberest forest depths.

"We have had our need," he said. "Not long since."

His glance swept the outlook below. "Heaven watches over monarchs," he
added, turning a keen, satirical look on the other, "but through the
vigilance of our earthly servitors."

The duke's response was interrupted by the appearance below of a
horseman, covered with dust, riding toward them, and urging his weary
steed up the incline with spur and voice. Deliberately the monarch
surveyed the new-comer.

"What make you of yonder fellow?" he said. "He is not of the guard,
nor of the bastard's following."

"His housings are the color of France, Sire."

"Then can I make a shrewd guess of his purpose," observed the monarch.

As he spoke the horseman drew nearer and a moment later had stopped
before the emperor.

"A message from the king, Sire!" exclaimed the man, dismounting and
kneeling to present a formidable-looking document, with a great disk of
lead through which a silken string was drawn.

Breaking the seal, the emperor opened the missive. "It is well," he
said at length, folding the parchment. "The king was even on his way
to the chateau to await our comi