ess abruptness. There was no evidence of
Clementina's flight to justify that sudden silence. Then he grew faint,
as it occurred to him that he had made Lady Featherstone's
mistake,--that his boot protruded into the room. He clenched his teeth,
expecting a swift step and the curtain to be torn aside. The window was
shut; he would never have time to open it and leap out and take his
chance with the sentry underneath. He was caught in a trap, and
Clementina waited for him in the avenue, under the fourth tree. All was
lost, it seemed, and by his own folly, his own confidence. Had he only
told her of the tavern under the city wall, where the carriage stood
with its horses harnessed in the shafts, she might still have escaped,
though he was trapped. The sweat passed down his face. Yet no swift step
was taken, nor was the curtain torn aside.

For within the room the magistrate, a kindly citizen of Innspruck who
had no liking for this addition to his duties, stood gazing at the
Princess-mother with a respectful pity. It was the sight of her
tear-stained face which had checked his words. For two days Clementina
had kept her bed, and the mother's tears alarmed him.

"Her Highness, your daughter, suffers so much?" said he.

"Sir, it is little to be wondered at."

The magistrate bowed. That question was not one with which he had a mind
to meddle.

"She still lies in bed?" said he, and he crossed to the door. The mother
flung herself in the way.

"She lies in pain, and you would disturb her; you would flash your
lanterns in her eyes, that if perchance she sleeps, she may wake into a
world of pain. Sir, you will not."

"Your Highness--"

"It is the mother who beseeches you. Sir, would you have me on my
knees?"

Wogan, but this moment recovered from his alarm, became again uneasy.
Her Highness protested too much; she played her part in the comedy too
strenuously. He judged by the ear; the magistrate had the quivering,
terror-stricken face before his eyes, and his pity deepened.

"Your Highness," he said, "I must pray you to let me pass. I have
General Heister's orders to obey."

The Princess-mother now gave Wogan reason to applaud her. She saw that
the magistrate, for all his politeness, was quite inflexible.

"Go, then," she said with a quiet dignity which once before she had
shown that evening. "Since there is no humiliation to be spared us, take
a candle, sir, and count the marks of suffering in my daughter's face;"