“In your own time, or his. Now, hurry; or you will go in mine.”
With the rope still round his bull neck, the man was led off in haste to the rock gallery, his conductors intending to play the same game with him on their own account when the Captain should have done with him.
From a receptacle at the entrance of the gallery the man took a small winch. This, when they had arrived at the place where Ludwig’s voice had been heard, he fitted into a cunningly concealed hole in the stone. With a few turns, a portion of what seemed the solid rock began to recede; it evidently revolved slowly on a pivot till it left an opening wide enough for a man to pass through. Within was utter darkness, and from this veritable living tomb Ludwig staggered out, having the face of a man who had never thought to see the light of day again.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE COUSINS MEET
HIS great object having been so luckily obtained, having found and reassured Countess Minna, Ompertz judged it well to tell Rollmar the truth about Princess Ruperta, although he did not venture to add that he had known of her flight all along. The Chancellor fell into a fury of annoyance at this new turn of events, which promised to render the hushing-up of her escapade all the more difficult. Ludwig, whose first enquiries had naturally been for Ruperta, was, while overwhelmed at the thought of her devotion, rendered desperately anxious as to the result of the step she had taken.
“It is my own fault,” he exclaimed, miserably, “in keeping my secret. Ignorant as to who I am, how could she know the double danger she was running in appealing to the last man she should have sought?”
“Neither does he know her lover’s identity,” Ompertz suggested, hopefully.
“What does that matter?” Ludwig returned. “Ferdinand is evil-minded and treacherous, and she is the most beautiful woman in the world. Thank Heaven, at least, that I am free.”
So, burning with the desire to reach his kingdom, which every hour now must render his the less, and to put his fortunes upon a desperate cast, he addressed himself to the wrathful and discomfited Rollmar, in whose plans he seemed no longer an appreciable factor.
“I am setting out for Beroldstein within the hour, Excellency.”