advice, major," the baron observed, with sovereign
disdain.

"You may perhaps repent later that you did not heed it. Your attempts to
escape have angered even the king, and it is impossible to say just how
far his severity toward you may go."

"But, great heavens! when I am deprived of my liberty without cause, have
I not the right to endeavor to regain it?"

"They do not see the matter in that light in Berlin. As a matter of fact
this spirit of revolt against your sovereign only serves to greatly
aggravate your crime."

"My crime!" Trenck exclaimed, trembling with anger.

His glance fell upon the major's sword and the thought came to him to tear
it from his side and pierce his throat with it. But in the same instant it
occurred to him that he might rather profit by the situation. Pale and
trembling as he was, he retained sufficient self-control to modify the
expression of his countenance and the tone of his voice, though his glance
remained fixed upon the sword.

"Major," he said, "no one can be called a criminal until he has been so
adjudged by the courts. Happily a man's honor does not depend upon the
inconsequent, malicious opinion of others. On the contrary blame should
attach to him who condemns the accused without a hearing. No constituted
power, whether that of king or judge, has yet convicted me of any culpable
action. Apart from the courtesy which should be observed between officers
of the same rank, you, out of simple justice, should refrain front such an
accusation."

"Every one knows," retorted Boo, "that you entered into relations with the
enemy."

"I? Great God!"

"Do you not consider the Pandours, then, as such?"

"I visited their chief solely as a relative. A glass of wine shared with
him in his tent can hardly be construed into a dangerous alliance!"

"But you hoped to inherit great riches from this relative. That hope might
well impel you to cross the frontier of Bohemia for all time."

"Why, what egregious folly! What more could I hope for than that which I
already possessed in Berlin? Was I a poor adventurer seeking his fortune
by his sword? Rich in my own right; enjoying to the full the king's favor;
attached to the court by all that satisfied pride could demand, as well as
by ties of the tenderest sentiments. What more was there for me to covet
or to seek elsewhere?"

The major turned his head aside with an air of indifference.

"One single fact suffices to discount everything you