"What more?" asked Oberntraut, who stood before him with a stern but calm brow. "There must be other news at the back of that; and if you have not yet got it, few days will pass ere it comes."
"There is plenty more," said Herbert, sadly; "Frederic, the Queen, and all the court fled, no one knows whither, and Prague surrendered on the following day."
"I thought so," answered Oberntraut, without any change of tone, "one could see it coming as plain as the Neckar from the bridge. But who is the letter from, your niece? Where is she?--How fares she?"
"I know not," answered the old officer, laying the paper down upon the table and clasping his hands together.
"The letter is from Lodun--but he says no word of Agnes--God help us! But I will not be apprehensive; where her royal mistress could pass, she could pass too. Besides, even if she remained in Prague, these men would never hurt a woman."
"I do not know," replied Oberntraut, with a very gloomy brow. "Tilly is not tender, and such as he have done strange things in the Palatinate lately, as witness Bensheim, Heppenheim, and Otterberg. Herbert, I love your niece too well to rest satisfied so. I must have further news, and I go to seek it."
Herbert rose and grasped his hand, gazing sadly in his face, "Alas! Oberntraut," he said, after a moment's silence, "I fear you are preparing disappointment for yourself.--Woman's heart is a wayward thing, and--"
Oberntraut waved his hand, "You mistake me, my friend," he said; "any disappointment that could be felt has been drunk to the dregs already. Agnes loves me not, as I should require to be loved; and I seek no heart that cannot be entirely mine. I have had my lesson, and have learned it well. I love her still, but with a different love to that of former times; cold, but not less strong; and in return she shall give me esteem and regard. This she cannot refuse; for it depends upon myself, not her--but let us talk of other things. I will have news of her, ere many days be over. I cannot leave my post, 'tis true; nor can you quit yours; but still, neither of us can rest satisfied without some tidings of her fate--you have no indication of which way her steps are turned?--none of where the Queen has gone to?"
"None," answered Herbert. "Lodun says nought that can give the slightest clue. He feared, it would seem, that his letter might fall into the enemy's hands, and wrote most guardedly in consequence.--Yet stay, I recollect that when she left me, the Queen made a solemn promise to send her back hither, if by the chances of war Frederic's court should be driven out of Prague--nor is she one to forget such a promise."
"Hither!" said Oberntraut; "it is an unsafe place of refuge. Here, with war at our very gates; Heidelberg itself menaced daily; weak, vacillating princes, ruining the noblest cause and the finest army ever men had, the Spanish force, daily gaining ground against us; and the whole valley of the Rhine a prey to a foreign enemy.--But it cannot be helped. Even now, most likely, she is on the road; and we must try to shield her from peril, when she comes into the midst of this scene of carnage."