The Princess rose to her feet and approached the priest.
"My Father," she said swiftly, "this is not the Lady Joan, my brother's wife, but a youth marvellously like her, who hath offered himself in her place that she might escape——"
"Nay," said the Sparhawk, "it was to see you once again, Lady Margaret, that I came to Courtland!"
"Hush! you must not interrupt," she went on, putting him aside with her hand. "He is the Count von Löen, a lord of Kernsberg. And I love him. We want you to marry us now, dear Father—now, without a moment's delay; for if you do not, they will kill him, and I shall have to marry Prince Wasp!"
She clasped her hands about his arm.
"Will you?" she said, looking up beseechingly at him.
The Princess Margaret was a lady who knew her mind and so bent other minds to her own.
The Father stood smiling a little down upon her, more with his eyes than with his lips.
"They will kill him and marry you, if I do. And, moreover, pray tell me, little one, what will they do to me?" he said.
"Father, they would not dare to meddle with you. Your office—your sanctity—Holy Mother Church herself would protect you. If Conrad were here, he would do it for me. I am sure he would marry us. I could tell him everything. But he is far, far away, on his knees at the shrine of Holy Saint Peter, most like."