hand, and sobbed.

Maurice was helpless; he could offer no consolation. This grief he could
not understand. He stooped and picked up his revolver and waited.

"I am weak," said the other man, dashing his hand from his eyes; "I am
weak and half starved. It would be better for all concerned if I blew
out my brains. The twentieth, the twentieth!" he repeated, dully. "Curse
her!" he burst forth; "as there's a God above us, I'll have revenge.
Aye, I'll return to the chateau, Madame, that I will, but at the head of
ten thousand men!... The twentieth! She will never forgive me; she will
think I, too, deserted her!" He broke down again.

"An army!" cried Maurice.

"Aye, and ten thousand men! Come," taking Maurice by the arm; "come,
they may be seeking us. To the frontier. Every hour is precious. To
a telegraph office! We shall see if I dally with peasant girls, if I
forsake the woman I love!"

"You?" Maurice retreated a step. The silver moonshine became tinged with
red.

"I am Prince Frederick, and I love her Highness. I would sacrifice a
thousand kingdoms to spare her a moment's sorrow. I have always loved
her."

"What a woman!" Maurice murmured, as the scheme of Madame's flashed
through his mind. "What a woman! And she had the audacity to kidnap you,
too!"

"And by the most dishonorable device. I and my suite of gentlemen were
coming to Bleiberg to make the final arrangements. At Ehrenstein I
received a telegram which requested me to visit till the following train
a baron who was formerly a comrade of my father. The telegram advised me
of his sudden illness, and that he had something important to disclose
to me. I bade my gentlemen, save one, proceed to Bleiberg. My aide and
I entered the carriage which was to convey us to the castle. We never
reached it. On the road we fell into an ambush, a contrivance of
Madame's. I was brought to the chateau. Whatever happened to Hofer, my
aide, I do not know. Doubtless he is dead. But Madame shall pay, both in
pride and wealth. I will lay waste this duchy of hers, though in the end
the emperor crush me. Let us be off."

They stumbled on through the forest. So confused was Maurice that he
forgot his usual caution. The supreme confidence of this woman and
the flawlessness of her schemes dazed him. So far she had stopped at
nothing; where would she end? A Napoleon in petticoats, she was about to
appall the confederation. She had suppressed a prince who was heir to
a kingdom trip