"Captain, yesterday I asked you for a discreet and safe man to serve me as escort."
"You did."
"Do you know the name of the soldier whom you picked out for me?"
"It was not I who chose him—I do not know his name."
"And who chose him?" asked Victoria.
"My friend Eustace is better acquainted with the soldiers than I am. I commissioned him to find me a safe man, and to order him to repair after dark to the town gate, where he was to wait for the rider whom he was to accompany on the journey."
"And after that," I asked the captain, "did you see your friend Eustace again?"
"No; he has been mounting guard at the outposts of the camp since last evening, and he was not to be relieved until this morning."
"But at any rate we could learn from him the name of the rider who escorted Schanvoch," observed Victoria. "I shall let you know later, Tetrik, the importance that I attach to that information, and you will be able to counsel me."
"You must excuse me, Victoria, if I do not acceed to your wishes," the governor replied with a sigh. "Within an hour, at earliest dawn, I shall leave Mayence—the sight of this place is too harrowing to me. I have a humble retreat in Gascony; I shall bury my life there in the company of my son; he is to-day the only consolation left to me."