"The noble Herr is for Urach? He will scarcely get there to-night."
He spoke now in a mixture of German and bad French.
"Why, is it so far?" said Harry. "I thought I was nearly there."
"True, Excellency, it is not very far; but the town council has become somewhat timid since the French and Bavarians came prowling along the Danube, and the gates are shut at half-past seven."
"A solitary horseman will not scare them," said Harry with a smile. "They will surely open to me."
"Not so, Excellency. The order is stern. Why, only yesterday a Rittmeister passing to join the forces of the Prince of Baden was refused admittance just after the clock had struck, and had to come back to this very inn. Donner, was he not angry, the noble Herr! But anger cannot pierce stone walls; the gentleman uttered many round oaths, but he came back all the same. Was it not so, Hermann?"
His thickset companion assented with a rough "Jawohl!"
"Well, I can but try," said Harry, thinking of Count Wratislaw's letter as his open sesame. "I shall ride on in a minute or two."
The landlord lifted his eyebrows.
"The noble Herr has perhaps more persuasion than the Herr Rittmeister. But if you find it as I say,—well, there is good accommodation within."