“You can keep it from the king,” he urged. “I couldn’t help it. I can settle with Rupert and disappear.”
The three were standing round me, surprised at my great and terrible agitation. Looking back now, I wonder that I could speak to them at all.
Rudolf tried again to reassure me. He little knew the cause of what he saw.
“It won’t take long to settle affairs with Rupert,” said he. “And we must have the letter, or it will get to the king after all.”
“The king will never see the letter,” I blurted out, as I sank back in a chair.
They said nothing. I looked round on their faces. I had a strange feeling of helplessness, and seemed to be able to do nothing but throw the truth at them in blunt plainness. Let them make what they could of it, I could make nothing.
“The king will never see the letter,” I repeated. “Rupert himself has insured that.”
“What do you mean? You’ve not met Rupert? You’ve not got the letter?”
“No, no; but the king can never read it.”
Then Rudolf seized me by the shoulder and fairly shook me; indeed I must have seemed like a man in a dream or a torpor.