'Yes,' he answered. 'The King has arrived at Nuremberg, and expects shortly to be attacked by Wallenstein, who is on the march from Egra.'
'But shall you be in time for the battle?' she asked, her eyes shining.
'I hope so,' he replied, smiling. 'Or my part may be less glorious--to cut off the enemy's convoys.'
'I should not like that!' she exclaimed.
'Nevertheless, it is a very necessary function,' he said. 'As the Waldgrave Rupert will tell your excellency.'
The young lord agreed, and a moment later the general with his jingling attendants took his leave and clattered out and mounted before the door. My lady went to the window and waved adieu to him, and he lowered his great plumed hat to his stirrup.
'At noon?' he cried, making his horse curvet in the roadway.
'Without fail!' my lady answered gaily, and she stood at the window looking out until the last gleam of steel sank in a cloud of dust and the beggars closed in before the door.
The Waldgrave leaned against the wall behind her with his lips set and a grave face. But he said nothing, and when she turned he had a smile for her. It seemed to me that these two had changed places; the Waldgrave had grown older and my lady younger.
A few minutes before noon, Captain Ludwig and a sub-officer of the same rank, a Pole with long hair, came to conduct my lady to the scene of the match. They were arrayed in all their finery, and made a show of such etiquette as they knew. For our part we did not keep them waiting; five minutes saw us mounted and riding through the camp. This wore, to-day, a more martial and less disorderly appearance. The part we traversed was clear of women and gamesters, while sentries stationed at the gate, and a guard of honour which fell in behind us at the same spot, proved that the eye of the master could even here turn chaos into order. I do not know that the change pleased me much, for if it lessened my dread of the cutthroats by whom we were surrounded, it increased the awe in which I held their chief.