“If I satisfy you not as to that, Excellency,” Ompertz said sturdily, “I will tear up this paper and go back to my cage. I am an honest man, noble if I cared——”
“Go on, tell me. I have no time for your family history,” Rollmar interrupted.
“This, then, it is, Excellency. I have said that a foolish impulse brought me back here into the net which was spread for me. I thought I might lie perdu in a snug place I know of, but to get there unrecognised proved not so easy as I imagined. Chut! When once a man has a price on his head there is a hue and cry ready for him at every corner. So it was that I found myself in the city unable to go forward or retreat for fear of detection. But I contrived to climb unseen into the royal park, and lay hidden there all the afternoon. Then as dusk came on I heard the baying of hounds, and suddenly bethought me of the patrol with their dogs that I had been told made the tour of the park every evening. Here was a pretty predicament; after all my trouble, to be run down like a rat in a trench; so I came out of my lair and looked round for a line of escape. I felt fairly certain the patrol would confine their attentions to the outer belt of the park where the covert was thickest.”
“So?” The Chancellor took a mental note of the shortcoming.
“I had plenty of time,” Ompertz continued, “to make a bolt to avoid them, since, from the sound, the dogs were still at a good distance off. To climb the outer wall was risky, as I might thereby slip as it were out of the rain into the gutter. The other alternative was to make for the palace buildings and lurk there till the patrol had passed, trusting to my native wit and acquired impudence to carry me through if challenged. At least I was not likely to be recognised in those high quarters.
“It would not do to run, as I might pass into view, so I walked soberly across the park, boldly, as though coming from the gate on business at the Palace. My plan appeared to succeed; I got under cover of the buildings without exciting any serious notice, and ensconced myself in the porch of the royal chapel. Scarcely, however, had I taken my stand there when I heard voices on the other side of the door. In a second I had slipped away and was behind one of the buttresses. The owners of the voices came out and went off. Then it occurred to me that while the patrol was on its rounds I might best be hidden in the chapel. I went in softly and for better security—I hope the sacrilege may be forgiven me, but reverence must give place to necessity—I crept under the altar and lay there snug and safe from observation. As soon as I judged it was safe to get back to the plantation, I was preparing to creep out, when I heard a heavy footstep, and then, to my dismay, the locking of the door. Well, as I found myself a prisoner I resolved to make the best of the situation. A church is not, I must confess, the place I would choose to pass a night in; I prefer livelier quarters. But I am used to the fortune of war, and my billet was dry, if somewhat dusty. So I crept back under the altar where I found some cloths, and made myself so comfortable a bed that being dog-tired, Excellency, I went off to sleep as in any four-poster.
“When I woke and had occupied some moments in realising where the devil, or rather, in the name of the saints, I was, I peeped out under the altar-cloth and saw it was night, although the moonlight enabled me to see round the place pretty clearly. I was just crawling out to stretch my limbs which were aching somewhat from the penitential hardness of the holy floor, when I became aware that I was not alone in the chapel. I am coming now, Excellency, to the kernel of my secret.” Von Ompertz had by this acquired an easy confidence from the intense interest with which the fierce eyes were fastened on him.
“Go on,” Rollmar said curtly.
“The shadow,” he resumed, “of a human figure crossed one of the pillars, then the figure itself came into my view. A lady.”
“Ah!” The exclamation was involuntary, but it told that the disclosure had been half anticipated.