"So would most mooncalves of your age!" growled Werner; "but they do not usually bring their commanding officers up to the housetops to do it!"
"I mean our lady, the Duchess Joan!"
"Ah," said Werner, with the persiflage gone out of his tone, "that is altogether another matter!"
And the two men were silent for a minute, both looking out into the blackness where no stars shone or any light twinkled beyond the walls of the little fortified hill town.
At last Maurice von Lynar spoke.
"How long can we hold out if they besiege us?"
"Two months, certainly—with luck, three!"
"And then?"
Werner von Orseln shrugged his shoulders, but only said, "A soldier never anticipates disaster!"
"And what of the Duchess Joan?" persisted the young man.