Closer and closer came the tramp of mailed feet.
Terror struck, Stephania gazed into Otto's face. The fiercest denunciation would not have so completely unnerved her as the simple words of the youth. She almost succumbed under the weight of her anguish.
"Fly,—King Otto,—fly,—save yourself," she gasped, staggering toward him in the endeavour to shake off the fatal torpor which had seized his limbs. But he saw her not, he heard not her warning. Listlessly he gazed into space.
But had those who rushed down the avenue been his enemies and death his certain lot, there would not have been time for flight.
Stephania heaved a sigh of relief as in their leader she recognized the Margrave of Meissen, followed by a score or more of the Saxon guard.
Her own fate she never gave a thought.
"Do you hear those sounds?" thundered the gaunt German leader, rushing with drawn sword upon the scene and pausing breathlessly before Stephania's victim. "Do you hear the great bell of the Capitol, King Otto? All Rome is in revolt! Did I not warn you against the wiles of the accursed sorceress, who, like a vampire fed on your heart's blood? But by the Almighty God, she shall not live to enjoy the fruits of her hellish treason."
And suiting the action to the word, Eckhardt rushed upon Stephania, who stood calmly awaiting his onslaught and seemed to invite the stroke which threatened her life, for her lips curled in haughty disdain and her gaze met Eckhardt's in lofty scorn.
The sight of her peril accomplished what Stephania's efforts had failed to do. Swift as thought Otto had hurled himself between Eckhardt and his intended victim.
"Back," he thundered with flaming eyes. "Only over my dead body lies the way to her!"