turned his small, keen eyes on me in persistent gravity and
unflinching effrontery.

"A Mr. Rassendyll, a friend of the king's, who with his servant James
was awaiting his Majesty's return from Strelsau. His servant here is
ready to start for England, to tell Mr. Rassendyll's relatives the
news."

The queen had begun to listen before now; her eyes were fixed on Sapt,
and she had stretched out one arm to him, as if imploring him to read
her his riddle. But a few words had in truth declared his device plainly
enough in all its simplicity. Rudolf Rassendyll was dead, his body
burnt to a cinder, and the king was alive, whole, and on his throne in
Strelsau. Thus had Sapt caught from James, the servant, the infection of
his madness, and had fulfilled in action the strange imagination which
the little man had unfolded to him in order to pass their idle hours at
the lodge.

Suddenly Mr. Rassendyll spoke in clear, short tones.

"This is all a lie, Sapt," said he, and his lips curled in contemptuous
amusement.

"It's no lie that the lodge is burnt, and the bodies in it, and that
half a hundred of the peasants know it, and that no man could tell the
body for the king's. As for the rest, it is a lie. But I think the truth
in it is enough to serve."

The two men stood facing one another with defiant eyes. Rudolf had
caught the meaning of the great and audacious trick which Sapt and his
companion had played. It was impossible now to bring the king's body to
Strelsau; it seemed no less impossible to declare that the man burnt in
the lodge was the king. Thus Sapt had forced Rudolf's hand; he had been
inspired by the same vision as we, and endowed with more unshrinking
boldness. But when I saw how Rudolf looked at him, I did not know but
that they would go from the queen's presence set on a deadly quarrel.
Mr. Rassendyll, however, mastered his temper.

"You're all bent on having me a rascal," he said coldly. "Fritz and
Bernenstein here urge me; you, Sapt, try to force me. James, there, is
in the plot, for all I know."

"I suggested it, sir," said James, not defiantly or with disrespect, but
as if in simple dutiful obedience to his master's implied question.

"As I thought--all of you! Well, I won't be forced. I see now that
there's no way out of this affair, save one. That one I'll follow."

We none of us spoke, but waited till he should be pleased to continue.

"Of the queen's letter I need say nothing and will say nothing