o bring a calm even to my wrung heart. "If love were the only thing, I
would follow you--in rags, if need be--to the world's end; for you hold
my heart in the hollow of your hand! But is love the only thing?"

I made no answer. It gives me shame now to think that I would not help
her.

She came near me and laid her hand on my shoulder. I put my hand up and
held hers.

"I know people write and talk as if it were. Perhaps, for some, Fate
lets it be. Ah, if I were one of them! But if love had been the only
thing, you would have let the King die in his cell."

I kissed her hand.

"Honour binds a woman too, Rudolf. My honour lies in being true to my
country and my House. I don't know why God has let me love you; but I
know that I must stay."

Still I said nothing; and she, pausing a while, then went on:

"Your ring will always be on my finger, your heart in my heart, the
touch of your lips on mine. But you must go and I must stay. Perhaps I
must do what it kills me to think of doing."

I knew what she meant, and a shiver ran through me. But I could not
utterly fail her. I rose and took her hand.

"Do what you will, or what you must," I said. "I think God shows His
purposes to such as you. My part is lighter; for your ring shall be on
my finger and your heart in mine, and no touch save of your lips will
ever be on mine. So, may God comfort you, my darling!"

There struck on our ears the sound of singing. The priests in the chapel
were singing masses for the souls of those who lay dead. They seemed to
chant a requiem over our buried joy, to pray forgiveness for our love
that would not die. The soft, sweet, pitiful music rose and fell as we
stood opposite one another, her hands in mine.

"My queen and my beauty!" said I.

"My lover and true knight!" she said. "Perhaps we shall never see one
another again. Kiss me, my dear, and go!"

I kissed her as she bade me; but at the last she clung to me, whispering
nothing but my name, and that over and over again--and again--and again;
and then I left her.

Rapidly I walked down to the bridge. Sapt and Fritz were waiting for me.
Under their directions I changed my dress, and muffling my face, as I
had done more than once before, I mounted with them at the door of the
Castle, and we three rode through the night and on to the breaking day,
and found ourselves at a little roadside station just over the border
of Ruritania. The train was not quite due, and I walked with them