“You are young to have completed your apprenticeship,” he said.
“It is expired but two months, sir,” Malcolm said, standing up respectfully.
“Under whom did you learn your trade?” the governor asked; “for I have been in Nuremberg and know most of the guild of clockmakers by name.”
“Under Jans Boerhoff, the syndic of the guild,” Malcolm replied.
“Ah!” the baron said shortly; “and his shop is in—”
“The Cron Strasse,” Malcolm said promptly in answer to the implied question.
Quite satisfied now, the baron turned away and conversed a few minutes with the count, telling him that as the surgeon said he could now be safely removed he would in three days be transferred to an apartment in the fortress.
“Will the countess be permitted to accompany me?” the count asked.
“That I cannot tell you,” the baron replied. “We are expecting a messenger with his majesty's orders on the subject tomorrow or next day. I have already informed you that, in his solicitude for her welfare, his majesty has been good enough to order that the young countess shall be placed in the care of the lady superior of the Convent of St. Catherine.”
A few minutes later he left the room. Not a word was spoken in the room until the sound of horse's hoofs without told that he had ridden off.