rchbishop smiled at her vehemence.

"I shall make no attempt to defend my astute predecessor. A
money-lender's soul tenanted his austere body, but what would you say if
his implication of the Countess Matilda's good faith was justified?"

"You mean that the copy which she sent of the Archbishop's letter was
fraudulent? I cannot believe it."

"Not fraudulent. So far as it went her copy was word perfect. She
neglected to add, however, a final sentence, and rather than make it
public forfeited her rightful claim to great possessions. Of the
Archbishop's communications to her there remains in our archives a copy
of this last epistle written in his own hand. I cannot imagine why he
added the final clauses to what was in essence an important business
communication. The premonition he admits may have set his thoughts upon
things not of this world, but undoubtedly he believed that he would live
long enough to conquer the rebels of Linz, and restore to the Countess
her property. This is what he wrote, and she refused to publish:

"'Matilda, I feel that my days are numbered, and that their number is
scant. To all the world my life seems to have been successful beyond the
wishes of mortal man, but to me it is a dismal failure, in that I die
bachelor Archbishop of Cologne, and you are the spinster Countess von
Sayn.'"

VI

TO BE KEPT SECRET FROM THE COUNTESS

There are few favored spots occupied by blue water and greensward over
which a greater splendor is cast by the rising sun on a midsummer
morning than that portion of the Rhine near Coblentz, and as our little
procession emerged from the valley of the Saynbach every member of it
was struck with the beauty of the flat country across the Rhine,
ripening toward a yellow harvest, flooded by the golden glory of the
rising sun.

Their route led to the left by the foot of the eastern hills, and not
yet along the margin of the great river. Gradually, however, as they
journeyed in a southerly direction, the highlands deflected them
westward until at last there was but scant room for the road between
rock and water. Always they were in the shade, a comforting feature of a
midsummer journey, an advantage, however, soon to be lost when they
crossed the Rhine by the ferry to Coblentz. The distance from Sayn
Castle to Schloss Stolzenfels was a little less than four leagues, so
their early start permitted a leisurely journey.

The Archbishop and the Countess rode side by si