The Count, having no answer at hand, made none, being troubled in his mind whether or no he should kneel, but if this neglect to bend the knee was a breach of Court etiquette, he was pleased to note that the Emperor was little likely to take heed of it. His Majesty had eyes for none but the Countess Tekla, who appeared indeed a queen in the stately robes that became her so well. Rodolph seemed suddenly stricken dumb by her beauty, for all the colour had fled from her face, leaving it like chiselled marble, as she stood demurely with her eyes bent on the ground.
"Tekla," he murmured, taking her hand with deep reverence, and raising it to his lips, "is the Prince who returns as welcome as the unknown Lord would have been?"
"Yes——your Majesty," whispered Tekla, casting a swift glance at him, the colour again touching her cheeks.
"And is Countess Tekla willing to become Empress Tekla?"
"The delight of a loyal subject is to obey the imperial command," she said, a smile coming at last to her lips.
Again the Emperor raised her hand and kissed it.
"I suppose," growled the Black Count, gruffly, "there is no further need of my standing here like a fool."
The Emperor laughed heartily, and the Countess Tekla joined him. The tensity of the situation was at once relieved by the unmannerly remark of the master of Thuron.
"No, my Lord, no. What the Countess and I have to say to each other may be very well said without listeners, and it is a pity a man should not enter his own house without asking permission. Ah, Hilda," he continued on seeing the girl, "I have made Conrad a Lord, and he tells me that in spite of his nobility, he loves a maid of low degree, and so we shall soon all be noble who once ventured our for tunes in a slight skiff on the Moselle Tekla," he whispered, as they entered the castle together, "you have now no guardian, for his Lordship of Treves willingly resigns control over so rebellious a vassal. Peace reigneth in the land, and there will be no fewer than three Archbishops at our marriage."