t minded to kill the King
unless he can, before or soon after, kill you also, sir. Now, sir, I
have spoken the truth, as God is my witness, and I pray you to shield me
from the vengeance of Duke Michael; for if, after he knows what I have
done, I fall into his hands, I shall pray for one thing out of all the
world--a speedy death, and that I shall not obtain from him!"

The fellow's story was rudely told, but our questions supplemented
his narrative. What he had told us applied to an armed attack; but if
suspicions were aroused, and there came overwhelming force--such, for
instance, as I, the King, could bring--the idea of resistance would be
abandoned; the King would be quietly murdered and slid down the pipe.
And--here comes an ingenious touch--one of the Six would take his
place in the cell, and, on the entrance of the searchers, loudly demand
release and redress; and Michael, being summoned, would confess to hasty
action, but he would say the man had angered him by seeking the favour
of a lady in the Castle (this was Antoinette de Mauban) and he had
confined him there, as he conceived he, as Lord of Zenda, had right to
do. But he was now, on receiving his apology, content to let him go,
and so end the gossip which, to his Highness's annoyance, had arisen
concerning a prisoner in Zenda, and had given his visitors the trouble
of this enquiry. The visitors, baffled, would retire, and Michael could,
at his leisure, dispose of the body of the King.

Sapt, Fritz, and I in my bed, looked round on one another in horror and
bewilderment at the cruelty and cunning of the plan. Whether I went
in peace or in war, openly at the head of a corps, or secretly by a
stealthy assault, the King would be dead before I could come near him.
If Michael were stronger and overcame my party, there would be an end.
But if I were stronger, I should have no way to punish him, no means of
proving any guilt in him without proving my own guilt also. On the other
hand, I should be left as King (ah! for a moment my pulse quickened) and
it would be for the future to witness the final struggle between him and
me. He seemed to have made triumph possible and ruin impossible. At
the worst, he would stand as well as he had stood before I crossed
his path--with but one man between him and the throne, and that man an
impostor; at best, there would be none left to stand against him. I had
begun to think that Black Michael was over fond of leaving the fighting