In another instant the curtain had fallen into place and the audience chamber remained lonely and silent in the half lights. Suddenly an uproar outside the heavy doors arose and into the room rushed a crowd of white-faced, eager men.
“Gott im Himmel! where is he?” cried a hoarse voice. And behind the curtain the Schwartzburger of other days smiled in the darkness—and remained silent.
CHAPTER VII.
Cousin Fritz led the way through the impenetrable darkness, holding the princess by the arm. Behind them came Bennett, guiding the king by the sound of the dwarf’s harsh, insistent voice. Count von Reibach and Baron Wollenstein, the loyal courtiers, stumbled along in the rear, muttering impatiently now and again as they collided with some obstacle in their course or lost sight in the gloom of the fugitives in front of them.
“Courage, friends,” cried Cousin Fritz, cheerfully, “we’ll find a place of safety and comfort very soon.” He and the princess had paused to await the approach of their companions.
“We go down these stairs,” explained their guide, as the four men grouped themselves behind him. Scratching a match against the stone wall at his right hand, Cousin Fritz showed them a flight of steps that seemed to run downward into the blackness of everlasting gloom. The Princess Hilda trembled as if with cold.
“We didn’t come here for burial, Cousin Fritz,” remarked King Rudolph testily, leaning forward and gazing into the abyss.
“No, your majesty, you came here to escape it,” returned the dwarf sarcastically. He struck another temporary light, and taking the hand of the princess began to descend the steps. It required a good deal of courage to follow this madcap guide into the bowels of the earth, but the men behind him seemed to have no choice in the matter. For some time past they had obeyed his orders, and at this juncture there seemed to be no good reason for rejecting his leadership. Bennett was the only one of the party who harbored the slightest distrust of the dwarf’s loyalty. Circumstances had combined to prove to him that Cousin Fritz was worthy of the trust reposed in him, but the American, suspicious by temperament and habit, crept down the stone steps into the chill blackness with great reluctance. He had grown very weary of the seemingly inexhaustible resources of the old castle in the way of unpleasant surprises, and he hesitated to place himself beyond all possibility of escape from the antique structure.