t the officer, gaining a moment's
time by the king's dismounting, at this very instant come galloping
up; and, there being no time for any explanation, he leaned from his
saddle as he dashed by, and, putting out his hand, snatched the king's
sword away from him, just as the king was about to thrust it through
his sister's lover.

But the officer's horse was going so furiously that he could not stop
it for hard on forty yards, and he narrowly escaped splitting his head
against a great bough that hung low across the grassy path; and
he dropped first his own sword and then the king's; but at last he
brought the horse to a standstill, and, leaping down, ran back towards
where the swords lay. But at the moment the king also ran towards
them; for the fury that he had been in before was as nothing to that
which now possessed him. After his sword was snatched from him he
stood in speechless anger for a full minute, but then had turned to
pursue the man who had dared to treat him with such insult. And
now, in his desire to be at the officer, he had come very near to
forgetting the student. Just as the officer came to where the king's
sword lay, and picked it up, the king, in his turn, reached the
officer's sword and picked up that. The king came with a rush at the
officer, who, seeing that the king was likely to kill him, or he the
king, if he stood his ground, turned tail and sped away at the top of
his speed through the forest. But as he went, thinking that the time
had come for plain speaking, he looked back over his shoulder and
shouted:

"Sire, it's the Grand Duke himself!"

The king stopped short in sudden amazement.

"Is the man mad?" he asked. "Who is the Grand Duke?"

"It's the Grand Duke, sir, who is with the princess. And you would
have killed him if I had not snatched your sword," said the officer;
and he also came to a halt, but he kept a very wary eye on King
Rudolf.

"I should certainly have killed him, let him be who he will," said the
king. "But why do you call him the Grand Duke?"

The officer very cautiously approached the king, and, seeing that the
king made no threatening motion, he at last trusted himself so close
that he could speak to the king in a very low voice; and what he
said seemed to astonish, please, and amuse the king immensely. For he
clapped the officer on the back, laughed heartily, and cried:

"A pretty trick! On my life, a pretty trick!"

Now Osra and her lover had not heard what