"You will go?"
He replied to her tone more than to her words.
"Nay, I must." He pressed the fingers lying cold under his. "Do thou forgive me, but I must."
"Oh, God pity me!" cried Mary.
The Prince flushed.
"There is no other way to preserve Christendom," he said; "if I do not take this step there is a life's work wasted, and we are no better than we were in '72."
"I know," she answered hastily. "I know—but—oh, that our duty had lain another way! Yet I will not be weak; if I cannot help I will not hinder."
She bit her lip to keep back tears, it seemed, and smiled valiantly.
"Tell me all that Mr. Herbert said," she asked.
He broke out at that.