Minna gave a shrug. “Possibly. We may tell him the risk he runs. I wager if we appoint a meeting he will not stay away for fear of our dear Baron; and if he should, why, let him stay away for ever.”
“He will not stay away,” the Princess asserted. “But if we should lead him into a trap, Minna, it would be terrible. The Chancellor is relentless.”
“At least we are not fools,” Minna declared. “I have outwitted the old tiger-cat once; trust me, dear Highness, not only to do it again, but to deal with that stupid swaggering fellow of his, a great fool who calls himself noble and proves it—by playing the spy.”
So presently Minna was allowed to write a short message, and after dark she slipped out to take it across the park to the appointed post-office. But all her wariness did not hide her from the sharp eyes that were on the watch. The stupid swaggering fellow she chose to despise was an old campaigner; one whose life had too often depended on alertness of eye and ear to be caught napping. Neither was he the fool she was pleased to call him. He had sense enough to guess shrewdly that her daylight walks were a blind, and to expect her appearance on a more purposeful errand in the evening.
If it went against the grain to spy upon a woman, Ompertz gathered some satisfaction from the thought that the disdainful little maid of honour evidently despised him, which sentiment she was by no means given to conceal wherever they chanced to meet. Now, perhaps it was to be his turn, he thought, as he followed the dark, retreating figure that hurried along the great avenue of elms. Von Ompertz was an expert stalker, his trained eye could see in the dark almost as clearly as a cat’s, he had little difficulty in keeping her within observation and himself out of it. She gave him a long chase, but he stuck to it successfully, and was, after much wonderment, rewarded by seeing the note posted beneath the loose slab of the sun-dial.
In half an hour the missive was in the hands of the Chancellor; its purport was noted, and it was restored to its place.
Rollmar was highly pleased at the near prospect of putting an end to what might prove a tiresome impediment to his scheme. He commended Ompertz, and with him concerted a plan of action for the next night for which the assignation was given. The soldier was quite willing to undertake the business single-handed, but at that suggestion the Chancellor shook his head. It was too risky, the thing was to be carried out swiftly, surely, noiselessly. Ompertz would be provided with two assistants; he was to be in command, and the Chancellor’s future favour depended upon the way in which the business would be performed.
The lovers’ place of meeting was to be by the temple on the lake in the park. A romantic spot where the trees grew down to the water’s edge, and arched over till their branches swept the surface. It was a favourite place for summer picnics and fishing parties. The lake was of great depth; being formed in a chalk basin the water was singularly clear, and reflected in almost startling intensity the high wall of foliage which surrounded it.
It was on the outer fringe of this belt of woodland that Ludovic kept watch next evening for the coming of the Princess, and as the two cloaked figures showed themselves against a vista of moonlit sky he, with a delicious sense of anticipation, hurried forward to meet them. After the greeting, Minna dropped behind as the others walked on towards the lake.