"It is impossible just now," said Zaklika; "at least it requires a great deal of time. You must rely upon me--I will do my best. Drop a cord from the window in the tower, and I will attach a paper with the news to it, for it will be impossible for us to see one another."
The steward began to grow impatient. Zaklika slipped into the Countess's hand a bag of money, and whispered,--
"You must bribe one of the servants. I am at the inn called 'The Golden Horse Shoe.'"
The door was shut, for the women might come at any moment, but the Countess grew hopeful.
Zaklika, that poor servant, on whom she hardly deigned to look from the height of her majesty, had not betrayed her.
The steward took the fifty thalers with unconcealed joy. He was glad of the opportunity of making some money, and from that time it was he that ran after Zaklika, who had already conceived a plan to free the Countess.
The next day the steward showed him the castle, and during this visit Zaklika noticed that there was a door in the wall near the road; it was encumbered with stones, but they could easily be cleared out.
But it was not enough to leave the castle, it was necessary to have the means of gaining the frontier and finding a hiding-place that could not be easily discovered by Augustus' spies. Zaklika thought that if he could cross Silesia and reach Poland, they could hide there, for he knew that the Saxon, as they called Augustus in Poland, had many enemies.
To purchase horses and hire people for the flight was a difficult task in Saxony, where the King had many spies.
The next day Zaklika attached a paper to a string, telling the Countess that he was going away to make preparations for her escape. Before going away, he had a conversation with the steward, hinting to him that there might come an opportunity for him to earn not fifty, but a thousand thalers.