e propitious
moment is approaching would fain be sure that no error has been
committed. All seems well, the troops are devoted to me, and will
fight against whomsoever I bid them. By lavish gifts and favours I have
attached all my generals firmly to me, and soon this ungrateful emperor
shall feel how rash and foolish he has been to insult the man to whom
alone he owes it that he was not long ago a fugitive and an exile, with
the Swedes victorious masters of his capital and kingdom.

"Have not I alone saved him? Did not I at my own cost raise an army and
stand between him and the victorious Gustavus? Have not I alone of all
his generals checked the triumphant progress of the invaders? And yet
he evades all his promises, he procrastinates and falters. Not one step
does he take to give me the sovereignty of Bohemia which he so solemnly
promised me, and seems to think that it is honour and reward enough for
me to have spent my treasure and blood in his service. But my turn is at
hand, and when the hand which saved his throne shall cast him from it
he will learn how rash he has been to have deceived and slighted me.
And you say that the stars last night all pointed to a favourable
conjunction, and that the time for striking the great blow is at hand?"

"Nothing could be better," the astrologer said; "Jupiter, your own
planet, and Mars are in the ascendant. Saturn is still too near them to
encourage instant action, but he will shortly remove to another house
and then your time will have come."

"So be it," Wallenstein said, "and the sooner the better. Now I will
leave you to your studies, and will ride out to inspect the troops, and
to see that they have all that they need, for they must be kept in the
best of humours at present."

CHAPTER XXII THE CONSPIRACY

The next day Wallenstein again entered Malcolm's workroom and said
abruptly to him: "What deeds of bravery have you performed?"

Malcolm looked astonished.

"In an idle moment," the duke said, "having an interest in nativities
and seeing that you were born between two years, I asked my astrologer
to work out the calculations. He tells me that it was fated that you
should perform deeds of notable bravery while still young. It seemed
the horoscope of a soldier rather than of a craftsman, and so I told the
sage; but he will have it that he has made no mistake."

Malcolm hesitated for a moment; the blind faith which the otherwise
intelligent and capable gener