"Is that the plan of the duke, then?"
"Such is my belief. And you alone, Captain Woodville, can defeat it. You will be there?"
"Can you doubt it? If I be living."
"Good! You will have the laugh of these fools," returned Zabern, referring to his colleagues in the ministry. "They will not deny you the hand of the princess then."
And Paul and Zabern parted on an understanding eminently satisfactory to both.
On the following day the ministry learned with relief that Captain Woodville had quitted Czernova, though none knew, not even Barbara, whither he had betaken himself.
The coronation ceremony was now but two months distant, and Zabern ventured to remind the princess that some of its most important details still awaited settlement.
"The great question is who shall have the high honor of crowning your Highness?"
"Abbot Faustus, for he is a good man," replied Barbara; and, noting Zabern's look of surprise, she added, "He, and none other. The cabinet have had their way in the matter of Captain Woodville; I will have my way in this. Let the council meet again to-day. When this point comes to be discussed, do you, marshal, propose Abbot Faustus for the office, and I will assent."
Though wondering much at her choice, Zabern refrained from comment.