“The Chancellor brought men—soldiers—with him? How many?”
“About eighty.”
“They are near?”
“Hard by, in the forest beyond the valley.”
“That is well,” she said. “I can trust myself to them. I am their Princess. It is only their leaders who are so vilely treacherous.”
Ompertz looked a little dubious. “If they were all like me, Princess, you might trust them to the death.”
“And you think I cannot rely upon them to protect me against the false hearts and lying tongues of the cowards who threaten us? At least I will try them.”
There was a rustling in the wood, and Count Irromar stood before them.
CHAPTER XXVII
AN UNWISE MERCY
“YOU have taken an unfair advantage, Princess, of my willingness to serve you,” he said, with a dark smile.