"I am more selfish than you think. It is for my own sake that I come."
And again he proved the truth of his statement, although the girl forbore to chide him for his levity of conduct.
"Have you seen my Lady? How is she?" asked Hilda.
"I see her but seldom, though she is well, I know."
The two were so absorbed in their converse that neither noticed gathering round them, stealthily enclosing them, a group of a dozen men led by an officer. They were therefore startled when the officer cried:
"Stand! Make no resistance. You are prisoner."
The men instantly closed in on Conrad and had him pinioned before he could think of escape.
"Why do you seize him?" said Hilda to the leader, hiding her agitation the better because of the darkness that surrounded them.
"He is a spy, gentle nurse," answered the officer in kindly tone, "and shall be hanged as one ere morning. His story of a wound is doubtless false. He gave the boy a coin with the effigy of the Count Heinrich on it, and one to whom the lad showed the coin sent warning to us. If this man can tell us how he came by such a silver piece, and can show us a wound got in honourable service under the Archbishop, then he will save his neck, but not otherwise. What questions did he ask you, nurse? I heard you talking together."
"None but those I might answer with perfect safety to both Archbishops."