"He tells me that he has as his lieutenant a Frenchman whom I know. Do you know of whom he is speaking?"
"Yes; he met him at the King of Hanover's, where he went to pay his respects; a young Frenchman called Benedict Turpin."
"Ah! yes," said Helen smiling, "he whom my brother-in-law wished me to marry in gratitude for the sabre-cut he received from him."
"Fräulein," said Count Monte Nuovo, "these things are riddles to me."
"And a little to me also," said Helen; "I will explain to you." And she told him what she knew of Frederic's duel with Benedict. She had scarcely finished when some one simultaneously knocked and rang at the door. Hans went to open it, and a voice asking for Madame von Beling, and reaching her ears through all the closed doors between, made her start.
"What is the matter, Fräulein?" asked Count Monte Nuovo. "You are quite pale!"
"I recognize that voice!" exclaimed Helen.
At the same moment the door opened, and Hans appeared.
"Fräulein," said he, "it is Count Karl von Freyberg."
"Ah!" cried Helen, "I knew it! Where is he? What is he doing?"