ad the door been built, long ago, when attacking forces,
battering in the doors below, might swarm through the lower floors, held
back on staircases by fighting men who retreated, step by step, until,
driven at last to the very top, they were apparently lost. More than
once; in bygone times the royal family had escaped by that upper door,
and the guard after them. It was known to few.

The staircase in the wall had passed into legend, and the underground
passage with it. But they still existed, and had recently been put in
order. The Chancellor had given the command; and because there were few
to be trusted, two monks from the monastery attached to the cathedral
had done the work.

So the gardeners set out their potted evergreens, and covered the
primroses on the balustrade against frost, and went away. And the roof
had become by magic a garden, the walls were miniature forests, but the
door remained--a door.

On a desperate morning Hedwig threw caution to the winds and went to the
riding-school. She wore her old habit, and was in the ring, but riding
listlessly, when Nikky and Otto appeared.

"And eat." Nikky was saying. "He always eats. And when I take him for
a walk in the park, he digs up bones that other dogs have buried, and
carries them home with him. We look very disreputable." The Crown Prince
laughed with delight, but just then Nikky saw Hedwig, and his own smile
died.

"There's Hedwig!" said Prince Ferdinand William Otto. "I'm rather glad
to see her. Aren't you?"

"Very glad, indeed."

"You don't look glad."

"I'm feeling very glad inside."

They rode together, around and around the long oval, with its
whitewashed railing, its attendant grooms, its watchful eyes overhead.
Between Nikky and Hedwig Prince Ferdinand William Otto laughed and
chattered, and Hedwig talked a great deal about nothing, with bright
spots of red burning in her face.

Nikky was very silent. He rode with his eyes set ahead; and had to be
spoken to twice before he heard.

"You are not having a very good time, are you?" Prince Ferdinand William
Otto inquired anxiously. To tell the truth, he had been worried about
Nikky for some days. Nikky had been his one gleam of cheerfulness in a
Palace where all was bustle and excitement and every one seemed uneasy.
But Nikky's cheerfulness had been forced lately. His smile never reached
his eyes. "I haven't done anything, have I?" he persisted.

"Bless you, no!" said Nikky heartily. "I-