was graciously
pleased to give her a cousinly kiss. Come though, we must ride."

"Is all safe here?"

"Nothing's safe anywhere," said Sapt, "but we can make it no safer."

Fritz now rejoined us in the uniform of a captain in the same regiment
as that to which my dress belonged. In four minutes Sapt had arrayed
himself in his uniform. Josef called that the horses were ready. We
jumped on their backs and started at a rapid trot. The game had begun.
What would the issue of it be?

The cool morning air cleared my head, and I was able to take in all
Sapt said to me. He was wonderful. Fritz hardly spoke, riding like a man
asleep, but Sapt, without another word for the King, began at once to
instruct me most minutely in the history of my past life, of my family,
of my tastes, pursuits, weaknesses, friends, companions, and servants.
He told me the etiquette of the Ruritanian Court, promising to be
constantly at my elbow to point out everybody whom I ought to know, and
give me hints with what degree of favour to greet them.

"By the way," he said, "you're a Catholic, I suppose?"

"Not I," I answered.

"Lord, he's a heretic!" groaned Sapt, and forthwith he fell to a
rudimentary lesson in the practices and observances of the Romish faith.

"Luckily," said he, "you won't be expected to know much, for the King's
notoriously lax and careless about such matters. But you must be as
civil as butter to the Cardinal. We hope to win him over, because he and
Michael have a standing quarrel about their precedence."

We were by now at the station. Fritz had recovered nerve enough to
explain to the astonished station master that the King had changed his
plans. The train steamed up. We got into a first-class carriage, and
Sapt, leaning back on the cushions, went on with his lesson. I looked at
my watch--the King's watch it was, of course. It was just eight.

"I wonder if they've gone to look for us," I said.

"I hope they won't find the King," said Fritz nervously, and this time
it was Sapt who shrugged his shoulders.

The train travelled well, and at half-past nine, looking out of the
window, I saw the towers and spires of a great city.

"Your capital, my liege," grinned old Sapt, with a wave of his hand,
and, leaning forward, he laid his finger on my pulse. "A little too
quick," said he, in his grumbling tone.

"I'm not made of stone!" I exclaimed.

"You'll do," said he, with a nod. "We must say Fritz here has caught the
agu