But before Joan could reply the representative of the Prince had come forward to conduct the bride-elect to her rooms, and the Princess gave place to him.
But all the same she kept her eyes keenly about her, and presently they rested with a sudden brightness upon the young Dane, Maurice von Lynar, at the head of his troop of horse. He was near enough for her to see his face, and it was with a curious sense of strangeness that she saw his eyes fixed upon herself.
"He is different—he is changed," she said to herself; "but how—wait till we get to the palace, and I shall soon find out!"
And immediately she caused it to be intimated that all the captains of troops and the superior officers of the escort of the Duchess Joan were to be entertained at the palace of the Princess Margaret.
So that at the moment when Joan was taking a first survey of her chambers, which occupied one entire wing of the Palace of the Princes of Courtland, Margaret the impetuous had already commanded the presence of the Count von Löen, one of the commanders of the bridal escort.
The young officer entrusted with the message returned almost immediately, to find his mistress impatiently pacing up and down.
"Well?" she said, halting at the upper end of the reception-room and looking at him.
"Your Highness," he said, "there is no Count von Löen among the officers of Kernsberg!"
Margaret of Courtland stamped her foot.
"I expected as much," she said. "He shall pay for this. Why, man, I saw him with my own eyes an hour ago—a young man, slender, sits erect in his saddle, of a dark allure, and with eyes like those of an eagle."