"Because, if you were going northward, we might find you an escort.
Luigi and I met a courier who was going to the next station to order
post-horses for a traveller who is to leave for Vienna this morning.
The man stopped to ask us the way."
"For Vienna!" cried Laura. "Who is going to Vienna?"
"The physician of the Duke of Savoy, whom his highness is sending to see a kinsman of his who is very ill in Vienna."
Laura uttered a cry of joy. "O God! my God, I thank thee!—Come, Marcella: I know the duke's physician, and he, of all other men, is the one I prefer for an escort."
"But your poor, bleeding feet, signora," cried Marcella, piteously.
"Never mind them. May they bleed anew, so I but reach the station in time to meet the physician I God has sent him to my deliverance. Come—let us away!"
BOOK VI.
CHAPTER I.
SISTER ANGELICA.
Two months had passed away since the fall of Belgrade, and Prince Eugene of Savoy was still suffering from his wound. Nothing had been spared that could contribute to his recovery; ho was attended by the surgeon-in-chief of Max Emmanuel, visited daily by the physicians of the emperor, and nursed by his untiring secretary, Conrad. More than once the report of his death had been spread throughout Vienna, and then contradicted.