e, and the lives of men and the honour of
women...." His voice appeared to fail him; in an instant he had
conquered his emotion and resumed: "But you, madam, conceive more
worthily of your responsibilities. I am with you in the thought; and in
the face of the horrors that I see impending, I say, and your heart
repeats it--we have gone too far to pause. Honour, duty, ay, and the
care of our own lives, demand we should proceed."

She was looking at him, her brow thoughtfully knitted. "I feel it," she
said. "But how? He has the power."

"The power, madam? The power is in the army," he replied; and then
hastily, ere she could intevene, "we have to save ourselves," he went
on; "I have to save my Princess, she has to save her minister; we have
both of us to save this infatuated youth from his own madness. He in the
outbreak would be the earliest victim; I see him," he cried, "torn in
pieces; and Gruenewald, unhappy Gruenewald! Nay, madam, you who have the
power must use it; it lies hard upon your conscience."

"Show me how!" she cried. "Suppose I were to place him under some
constraint, the revolution would break upon us instantly."

The Baron feigned defeat. "It is true," he said. "You see more clearly
than I do. Yet there should, there must be, some way." And he waited for
his chance.

"No," she said; "I told you from the first there is no remedy. Our hopes
are lost: lost by one miserable trifler, ignorant, fretful, fitful--who
will have disappeared to-morrow, who knows? to his boorish pleasures!"

Any peg would do for Gondremark. "The thing!" he cried, striking his
brow. "Fool, not to have thought of it! Madam, without perhaps knowing
it, you have solved our problem."

"What do you mean? Speak!" she said.

He appeared to collect himself, and then, with a smile, "The Prince," he
said, "must go once more a-hunting."

"Ay, if he would!" cried she, "and stay there!"

"And stay there," echoed the Baron. It was so significantly said, that
her face changed; and the schemer, fearful of the sinister ambiguity of
his expressions, hastened to explain. "This time he shall go hunting in
a carriage, with a good escort of our foreign lancers. His destination
shall be the Felsenburg; it is healthy, the rock is high, the windows
are small and barred; it might have been built on purpose. We shall
entrust the captaincy to the Scotsman Gordon; he at least will have no
scruple. Who will miss the sovereign? He is gone hunting; he cam