Sapt flung himself into a chair and took off his gloves.
“Come, tell me what has happened to-day in Strelsau,” he said.
We gave a short and hurried account. He listened with few signs of approval or disapproval, but I thought I saw a gleam in his eyes when I described how all the city had hailed Rudolf as its king and the queen received him as her husband before the eyes of all. Again the hope and vision, shattered by Rudolf’s calm resolution, inspired me. Sapt said little, but he had the air of a man with some news in reserve. He seemed to be comparing what we told him with something already known to him but unknown to us. The little servant stood all the while in respectful stillness by the door; but I could see by a glance at his alert face that he followed the whole scene with keen attention.
At the end of the story, Rudolf turned to Sapt. “And your secret—is it safe?” he asked.
“Ay, it’s safe enough!”
“Nobody has seen what you had to hide?”
“No; and nobody knows that the king is dead,” answered Sapt.
“Then what brings you here?”
“Why, the same thing that was about to bring you to the lodge: the need of a meeting between yourself and me, sire.”
“But the lodge—is it left unguarded?”