"Your Majesty, I regret that your father is not alive to accept my apologies for so baselessly misjudging him. Arnsberg, nothing that I can do will restore these wasted years. But I offer you the portfolio."
"I am only a broken man, your Highness; too old."
"It is my will."
Arnsberg bent his head in submission.
"As for you," said the duke to the Gipsy, "go, and if you ever step this side the frontier again you will be shot out of hand." He stopped again in front of Grumbach. "I promised to have you shot in the morning. That promise holds. But a train leaves for Paris a little after midnight. My advice is for you not to miss it."
"And my father, your Highness?" said Hildegarde bravely.
"Herbeck, your estates are confiscated, your name is struck from the civic and military lists. Have you any ready funds?"
"A little, your Highness."
"Enough to take you for ever out of this part of the world?"
"Yes, your Highness."