But the soldier was busy with his plan of action. “You are not there yet,” he said; “and, if I might lay a plan, never should be. The sooner I carry this news to our friend the better. If he is of my mind he will not let his lady-love suffer imprisonment for his sake. Pfui! It is worse than cowardly to coerce a woman with fortresses and dungeons. I am more than ever ashamed to think I ever took service under that old dastard. Now, you will keep a sharp eye for one or both of us to-day? We may not come till night-fall, but you shall hear of us before many hours are past, and our Lieutenant’s family affairs may go to limbo. Now, am I to have the honour of bearing the letter?”
She could not but hold it out to him. He took it with a bow which had perhaps a touch of mockery in it, at any rate there was a look of amused satisfaction in his face. “I thank you, gracious Countess,” he said, “not only for the letter but for the token that your confidence in this poor soldier is established.”
“I hope it may be,” she said. Ompertz bowed again and they parted.
The soldier was somewhat surprised on joining von Bertheim and delivering his message to find that the lieutenant did not fall in as eagerly as he had anticipated with a certain heroic plan he had formed on his way to the city. His manifest hesitation was a puzzle to the honest soldier. “Surely, my friend,” he remonstrated, “you are never, after all the lady and you have gone through for one another, you are never going to allow that scheming old wretch to pack her off to a forsaken billet like the fortress of Krell? I have seen the place; the sight is enough to make a sexton shudder. To a warm-hearted girl like Princess Ruperta it would mean the devil’s own torture. And, once inside those walls, I doubt if you would have so much as a chance of getting sight of her, much less speech with her again till this pitiful laggard, Prince Ludwig, chooses to come and fetch her out.”
“I do not propose,” Ludovic replied, “to leave the Princess in Krell fortress. I am only considering whether I have not a better, or at least a less risky, plan than yours for getting her out.”
“By my faith,” said Ompertz, “I have no plan for getting her Highness out of Krell once she is in. That would be beyond my powers of strategy. But she is not there yet, and if we are men she need never be. I tell you, my young friend, there is only one man who, without an army at his back, would get the lady out of Krell; and that is he who would come with an order for release signed, ‘Rollmar.’”
“You scarcely understand the situation, my good friend,” Von Bertheim said thoughtfully. “But you will soon. Captain Anton de Gayl has gone to make preparations for our journey to-night.”
Ompertz was looking at him uneasily. But he forebore to ask the question which his face and manner suggested. Perhaps the other comprehended this, for he said, “I am going now to the Chancellor.”
“To the Chancellor?” the soldier echoed in surprise. “Then the horses your friend is ordering will have a lighter load to-night than he bargains for.”
Ludovic put a friendly hand on his shoulder. “I think not, captain. I can take care of myself, even with Chancellor Rollmar.”