reat woods
that stretch to within ten miles of Strelsau.

"An hour after we are gone," said the man at the table to the other
officer, "go warily, find one of the king's servants, and give him the
letter. Give no account of how you came by it, and say nothing of who
you are. All that is necessary is in the letter. When you have given
it, return here, and remain in close hiding till you hear from me
again."

The second officer bowed. The man at the table rose, and went out into
the street. He took his way to where the palace rose, and then skirted
along the wall of its gardens till he came to the little gate. Here
stood two horses and at their heads a man.

"It is well. You can go," said the student; and he was left alone
with the horses. They were good horses for a student to possess. The
thought perhaps crossed their owner's mind, for he laughed softly as
he looked at them. Then he also fell to thinking that the hours were
long; and a fear came suddenly upon him that she would not come. It
was in these last hours that doubts crept in, and she was not there to
drive them away. Would the great trial fail? Would she shrink at the
last? But he would not think it of her, and he was smiling again, when
the clock of the cathedral struck two, and told him that no more than
one hour now parted her from him. For she would come; the princess
would come to him, the student, led by the vision of that cottage in
the dream.

Would she come? She would come; she had risen from her knees, and
moved to and fro, in cautious silence, making her last preparations.
She had written a word of farewell for the brother she loved--for some
day, of course, Rudolf would forgive her--and she had ready all that
she took with her--the five hundred crowns, one ring that she would
give her lover, some clothes to serve till his loving labor furnished
more. That night she had wept, and she had laughed; but now she
neither wept nor laughed, but there was a great pride in her face and
gait. And she opened the door of her room, and walked down the great
staircase, under the eyes of crowned kings who hung framed upon the
walls. And as she went she seemed indeed their daughter. For her head
was erect and her eye set firm in haughty dignity. Who dared to say
that she did anything that a king's daughter should not do? Should not
a woman love? Love should be her diadem. And so with this proud step
she came through the gardens of the palace, looking neither t