“Is this your handwriting?”
“It is.”
It was the rough draft of the letter which he had written in Naples to the Prelates and Senators, beseeching them not to abandon him.
“Did you write this of your own free will?”
“No, I was forced to write it by Count Schönborn’s secretary, Kühl, ‘because,’ said he, ‘it is rumoured that you are dead: if you refuse to write, the Emperor, in his turn, will refuse to keep you;’ and he did not leave me until I had written it.”
Peter pointed with his finger to the following passage in the letter:—
“I beseech you now not to abandon me now.” The word now had been repeated and both times had been crossed out.
“Why have you written ‘now’ and why have you drawn your pen through the word?”
“I can no longer remember,” answered Alexis, growing yet more pale.
He knew that this crossed out now was the sole key to his most secret thoughts with regard to the rebellion, his father’s death, and his possible murder.