He walked away, accompanied by the hermit. When they were alone, he said:
"You! Why?"
"I had to speak to you, Sire. If I had asked for an audience . . . would you have granted my request? I preferred to act directly and I intended to make myself known while Your Imperial Majesty was signing the book, when that stupid accident . . ."
"The letters which I gave Waldemar to hand to you, Sire, are forgeries."
The Emperor made a gesture of keen annoyance:
"Forgeries? Are you sure?"
"Absolutely sure, Sire."
"Yet that Malreich . . ."
"Malreich was not the culprit."