, and that meanwhile messengers should ride at full speed to
Tarlenheim, to tell Marshall Strakencz to assure the princess of the
King's safety and to come himself with all speed to greet the King.
The princess was enjoined to remain at Tarlenheim, and there await her
cousin's coming or his further injunctions. Thus the King would come
to his own again, having wrought brave deeds, and escaped, almost by a
miracle, the treacherous assault of his unnatural brother.

This ingenious arrangement of my long-headed old friend prospered in
every way, save where it encountered a force that often defeats the most
cunning schemes. I mean nothing else than the pleasure of a woman. For,
let her cousin and sovereign send what command he chose (or Colonel
Sapt chose for him), and let Marshal Strakencz insist as he would, the
Princess Flavia was in no way minded to rest at Tarlenheim while her
lover lay wounded at Zenda; and when the Marshal, with a small suite,
rode forth from Tarlenheim on the way to Zenda, the princess's carriage
followed immediately behind, and in this order they passed through the
town, where the report was already rife that the King, going the night
before to remonstrate with his brother, in all friendliness, for that
he held one of the King's friends in confinement in the Castle, had been
most traitorously set upon; that there had been a desperate conflict;
that the duke was slain with several of his gentlemen; and that the
King, wounded as he was, had seized and held the Castle of Zenda. All of
which talk made, as may be supposed, a mighty excitement: and the wires
were set in motion, and the tidings came to Strelsau only just after
orders had been sent thither to parade the troops and overawe the
dissatisfied quarters of the town with a display of force.

Thus the Princess Flavia came to Zenda. And as she drove up the hill,
with the Marshal riding by the wheel and still imploring her to return
in obedience to the King's orders, Fritz von Tarlenheim, with the
prisoner of Zenda, came to the edge of the forest. I had revived from
my swoon, and walked, resting on Fritz's arm; and looking out from the
cover of the trees, I saw the princess. Suddenly understanding from a
glance at my companion's face that we must not meet her, I sank on my
knees behind a clump of bushes. But there was one whom we had forgotten,
but who followed us, and was not disposed to let slip the chance of
earning a smile and maybe a crown or t