The man whose sword had twice passed through my body had called out, “Ha! Ottilie!” Who dare call on a Princess thus save her kinsman or—her lover?
I felt the blood surge through me again, but this time in my anger it brought a sense of courage and strength. I interrupted Madam Lothner as, with a joyful exclamation that I was now quite restored, she was about to issue an order for the summary fetching of a hired coach.
“Let your maid go,” said I authoritatively, “but not for a coach. I have yet much to say to you.”
I was without pity for the distress this demand occasioned, deaf to the hurried whisper:
“For pity’s sake, go now that you can. You are in danger here. Think of yourself, if you will not think of me!”
“I can think of but one person,” said I harshly. “I have come a thousand miles to learn things which I know you can tell me, and here I remain until I have heard them. Any delay on your side will only prolong the danger, since danger there be.”
She looked up in tearful pleading, met my obstinate gaze, and instantly submitted—a woman born to be ruled.
“Go, Trude,” she said faintly, “and warn me if you see your master coming. What will she think of me?” sighed the poor lady as the door closed upon an awe-struck but evidently suspicious Trude. “But no matter, better that just now than the truth. Now, sir, for God’s sake, what is it you would have of me?”
“Let me go back,” said I, “to the beginning. When I married ... my wife at Tollendhal, she was then, for a freak as you say, acting the lady-in-waiting, while you assumed her rôle of Princess?”