"Not a whit—not a whit!" cried Boris, who, having finished his composition, was wholly satisfied with himself, after the manner of the beginner in letters. "Our desire to promote peace needs to be put strongly, in order to carry persuasion to their Highnesses in Plassenburg. In fact, I am not sure that it has been put strongly enough!"
"I am troubled with some few doubts myself!" said Jorian, under his breath.
And as the secretary jerked the ink from his pen he smiled.
CHAPTER XIX
JOAN STANDS WITHIN HER DANGER
So soon as Werner von Orseln returned to Castle Kernsberg with news of the forcing of the Alla and the overwhelming numbers of the Muscovite hordes, the sad-eyed Duchess of Hohenstein became once more Joan of the Sword Hand.
Hitherto she had doubted and feared. But now the thought of Prince Wasp and his Muscovite savages steadied her, and she was here and there, in every bastion of the Castle, looking especially to the gates which commanded the roads to Courtland and Plassenburg.
Her one thought was, "Will he be here?"
And again she saw the knight of the white plume storm through the lists of Courtland, and the enemy go down before him. Ah, if only——!