He looked at her in silence, striving to learn what were her feelings towards him. She gave no token of recognition. Love on her part, if it existed, was veiled at present in sorrowful reproach. In the light of that look how ignoble seemed his desire for vengeance. His glance fell even as his sword had fallen. He had acted, and knowingly acted, in a way calculated to forfeit her esteem.
A death-like stillness fell upon the circle as they perceived that the fair princess of Czernova, sternly hostile to duelling, was present, a spectator of their misdeed. True, she was but one maiden, but that maiden symbolized in her own person all the power of a state.
"Who first proposed this duel? Who issued the challenge?"
"I did, and with reason."
And stalking up to the princess, the Duke of Bora bent his head, and said in a fierce, jealous whisper,—
"Cousin Natalie, how comes yon fellow to be in possession of the seal I gave you?"
The princess stepped backward, and drawing her robe around her with a stately grace, she exclaimed,—
"It ill becomes one of my ministers to be found setting himself above the law. Marshal, conduct your prisoner to the Citadel."
Paul, following the wave of her arm, perceived that she had not come without an escort.
On the Czernovese side of the frontier-stone stood Marshal Zabern with folded arms, outwardly as inscrutable as the sphinx, inwardly delighted at the course taken by events.