'In that resembling me,' my lord murmured.

My lady repressed him with a look. 'Yes,' she said pleasantly. 'And what then, Anna?'

'And that he might be wrong in this, as in other matters. He asked me what other matters,' Fraulein Max continued, growing voluble, and almost confident, as she reviewed the scene. 'I said, the inferiority of women to men. He said, yes, he maintained that, following Peter Martyr. Well, I said he was wrong, and so was Peter Martyr. "But you do not convince me," he answered. "You say that I am wrong on this as on other points. Cite a point, then, on which I am wrong." "You know no Greek, you know no Oriental tongue, you know no Hebrew!" I retorted. "All pagan learning," he said. "Cite a point on which I am wrong. I am not often wrong. Cite a point on which I am confessedly wrong." So'--Fraulein Anna laughed a little, excited laugh of pleasure--'I thought I would take him at his word, and I said, "Will you abide by that? If I show you that you have been wrong, that you have been deceived only to-day, will you acknowledge that Peter Martyr was wrong?" He said, oh yes, he would, if I could convince him. I said, "Exemplum! You came here because you were afraid of our cannon. Granted? Yes. Well, our cannon are cracked. They are brutum fulmen--an empty threat. We could not fire them, if we would. So there, you see, you were wrong." Well, on that----'

But what Master Dietz said on that, and what she answered, we never knew, for the Waldgrave, bounding from the table, with a crash which shook the room, swore a very pagan oath.

'Himmel!' he cried in a voice of passion. 'The woman has ruined us! Do you understand, Countess? She has told them! And they have taken the news to the town!'

'I do understand,' my lady said softly, but with a paling face. 'By this time it is known.'

'Known! Yes; and our shutting up that poisonous little snake will only make him the more bitter!' my lord answered, striking the table a great blow in his wrath. 'We are undone! Oh, you idiot, you idiot!' and breaking off suddenly he turned to Fraulein Max, who stood weeping and trembling by the table. 'Why did you do it?'

'Hush!' my lady said nobly; and she put her arm round Fraulein Anna. 'She is so absent. It was my fault. I should not have let her see them. Besides, she did not know that they were going to be released. And it is done now, and cannot be undone. The question is, what ought we to do?'

'Yes, what?' my lord cried bitterly, with a glance at the culprit, which showed that he was very far from forgiving her. 'I am sure I do not know, any more than the dog there!'

My lady looked at me anxiously.