ndow, but neither of them saw her.
Now, when the prince had done laughing, he put his arm through his
friend's, and bade him not be a fool, but come in and toast the
princess's kiss in a draught of wine. "For," he said, "though you will
never get the other two, yet it is a brave exploit to have got one."

But the marquis shook his head, and his air was so resolute and so
full of sorrow that not only was Rudolf alarmed for his reason, but
Princess Osra also, at the window, wondered what ailed him and why he
wore such a long face; and she now noticed, that he was dressed all in
black, and that his horse waited for him across the bridge.

"Not," said she, "that I care what becomes of the impudent rogue!" Yet
she did not leave the window, but watched very intently to see what
Monsieur de Merosailles would do.

For a long while he talked with Rudolf on the bridge, Rudolf seeming
more serious than he was wont to be; and at last the marquis bent to
kiss the prince's hand, and the prince raised him and kissed him on
either cheek; and then the marquis went and mounted his horse and rode
off, slowly and unattended, into the glades of the forest of Zenda.
But the prince, with a shrug of his shoulders and a frown on his brow,
entered under the portcullis, and disappeared from his sister's view.

Upon this the princess, assuming an air of great carelessness, walked
down from the room where she was, and found her brother, sitting still
in his boots, and drinking wine; and she said:

"Monsieur de Merosailles has taken his leave, then?"

"Even so, madam," rejoined Rudolf.

Then she broke into a fierce attack on the marquis, and on her brother
also; for a man, said she, is known by his friends, and what a man
must Rudolf be to have a friend like the Marquis de Merosailles!

"Most brothers," she said, in fiery temper, "would make him answer for
what he has done with his life. But you laugh--nay, I dare say you had
a hand in it."

As to this last charge the prince had the discretion to say nothing;
he chose rather to answer the first part of what she said, and,
shrugging his shoulders again, rejoined, "The fool saves me the
trouble, for he has gone off to kill himself."

"To kill himself?" she said, half-incredulous, but also
half-believing, because of the marquis's gloomy looks and black
clothes.

"To kill himself," repeated Rudolf. "For, in the first place, you are
angry, so he cannot live; and in the second, he has behaved