h a question," resumed the Prince, "for high
treason can relate only to the monarch. In what measure has her ladyship
encroached upon the prerogative of the Emperor?"

"Your Highness forgets that there is such a thing as treason against the
State."

"Are not members of the nobility privileged in this matter?"

"They cannot be, for the State is greater than any individual."

"I shall make a note of that, my Lord of Cologne. I believe you are in
the right, and I hope so. During my lonely incarceration," the Prince
laughed a little, "I have studied the condition of the State, arriving
at the conclusion that the greatest traitors in our land are the three
Archbishops, who, arrogating to themselves power that should belong to
the Crown, did not use that power for suppressing those other
treason-mongers, the Barons of the Rhine."

"What would you have us do with them?"

"You should disarm them. You should exact restitution of their
illegally-won wealth. You should open the Rhine to honest commerce."

"That is easy to enunciate, and difficult to perform. If the Castles
were disarmed, especially those on the left bank, a great injustice
would be done that might lead to the extinction of many noble families.
Why, the forests of Germany are filled with desperate outlaws, who
respect neither life nor property. I myself have suffered but recently
from their depredations. In broad daylight an irresistible band of these
ruffians descended upon and captured the supposed impregnable Castle of
Rheinstein, shamefully maltreating Baron Hugo von Hohenfels, tying him
motionless, and nearly strangling him with stout ropes, after which the
scoundrels robbed him of every stiver he possessed. The following
midnight but one they descended on Furstenberg, a fief of my own, and
not contenting themselves with robbery, brought red ruin on the Margrave
by burning his Castle to the ground."

"My Lord, red ruin and the Red Margrave were made for each other. It was
the justice of God that they should meet." The young man raised aloft
his swordarm, shaking his clenched fist at the sky. "That hand held the
torch that fired Furstenberg. The Castle was taken and burned by three
sword makers from Frankfort, who never saw the Hunsruck or the outlaws
thereof."

The Archbishop reined in his horse, and looked at the excited young man
with amazement.

"_You_ fired Furstenberg?"

"Yes; and effectively, my Lord. I shall rebuild it for you, but the Red