"I agree with you, Herr Baron, that the King, in his wisdom, cannot do wrong. But it is because you have betrayed the service of your master that I am unhappy."
The Herr Baron lowered his eyes.
"Please God," he said humbly, "the least of the King's servants will never betray the service of him to whom he owes everything."
The Princess laughed, a little cruelly.
"Speeches, Baron," said she.
"Will your Royal Highness deign to explain in what manner I have betrayed the service of my master?"
"If you press the question, I will answer it. At the command of the King, you take me by force and you imprison me in your house until that hour in which I can be removed to the castle at Blaenau. And then, in an unlucky moment, you open the door of my cage, and I am once again a free person in the company of my friends."
The Princess rose abruptly, and with a disdain that was like a rapier suffered Fitz to place the cloak about her shoulders.
The Ambassador retained his self-possession. In his bearing, in the cold lustre of his eyes, in the rigidity of the jaw, were the evidence of an inflexible will.
"The orders, madam, of the King, my master, are explicit," he said in a low voice. "It grieves me bitterly that I cannot suffer them to be set aside."