,"
he pursued. "But I will tell them that I'm not the king, but Rudolf
Rassendyll, and that I played the king only in order to serve the queen
and punish Rupert of Hentzau. That will serve, and it will cut this net
of Sapt's from about my limbs."

He spoke firmly and coldly; so that when I looked at him I was amazed
to see how his lips twitched and that his forehead was moist with sweat.
Then I understood what a sudden, swift, and fearful struggle he had
suffered, and how the great temptation had wrung and tortured him before
he, victorious, had set the thing behind him. I went to him and clasped
his hand: this action of mine seemed to soften him.

"Sapt, Sapt," he said, "you almost made a rogue of me."

Sapt did not respond to his gentler mood. He had been pacing angrily up
and down the room. Now he stopped abruptly before Rudolf, and pointed
with his finger at the queen.

"I make a rogue of you?" he exclaimed. "And what do you make of our
queen, whom we all serve? What does this truth that you'll tell make
of her? Haven't I heard how she greeted you before all Strelsau as
her husband and her love? Will they believe that she didn't know her
husband? Ay, you may show yourself, you may say they didn't know you.
Will they believe she didn't? Was the king's ring on your finger? Where
is it? And how comes Mr. Rassendyll to be at Fritz von Tarlenheim's for
hours with the queen, when the king is at his hunting lodge? A king
has died already, and two men besides, to save a word against her. And
you--you'll be the man to set every tongue in Strelsau talking, and
every finger pointing in suspicion at her?"

Rudolf made no answer. When Sapt had first uttered the queen's name, he
had drawn near and let his hand fall over the back of her chair. She put
hers up to meet it, and so they remained. But I saw that Rudolf's face
had gone very pale.

"And we, your friends?" pursued Sapt. "For we've stood by you as we've
stood by the queen, by God we have--Fritz, and young Bernenstein here,
and I. If this truth's told, who'll believe that we were loyal to the
king, that we didn't know, that we weren't accomplices in the tricking
of the king--maybe, in his murder? Ah, Rudolf Rassendyll, God preserve
me from a conscience that won't let me be true to the woman I love, or
to the friends who love me!"

I had never seen the old fellow so moved; he carried me with him, as he
carried Bernenstein. I know now that we were too ready to be conv