A low tap was here heard at the door, and a page made his appearance. On seeing the minister, the stripling was about to retire. Maria, however, called him in, and bade him deliver his message. "You come," she said to the youth, who still hesitated to speak—"you come from the younger Glinski: speak openly—what is it he has commissioned you to say?"
"This, my lady," answered the page, "that he has ridden in all haste from the camp—that he must quit the city again before nightfall, and craves an audience if only for one minute."
Maria looked towards her father, and thus referred the answer to him.
Count Laski was silent.
"Will you not," said his daughter, "tell this messenger, whether his master may come here or not?"
"My child, he cannot! he is at this moment under my arrest. Return, sir page," and he motioned him from the room—"but return to the fortress of ----; you will find your master there a prisoner, under charge of high treason."
"Oh, spare him! spare him!" cried Maria, as she sank back almost senseless with terror and alarm.
"My child! my child!" exclaimed the minister in heart-breaking anguish, as he bent over his weeping daughter.
Chapter IV.
After having in some measure soothed the terrors of his daughter, the chancellor called to him his trusty Hakem. He briefly explained to him that the Duke of Lithuania was at that moment in open rebellion against his Majesty, and placed in his hands a warrant for his execution. "The law cannot reach him through its usual servants," he said; "it is a bold enterprise I propose to you—to decapitate a general at the head of his troops."