"From Wallenstein!" She repeated it with eyes again seeking the pine-clothed hill-tops.
"Yes! From that cold seeker after power who would use the Habsburgs for a stepping-stone and play the Cæsar, as you said at Erfurt. I have not forgotten your saying, Ottilie!"
"You are strangely familiar, sir, to a ..." she faltered.
"To a cousin of the Habsburgs," he put in.
"Who told you I was cousin to the Habsburgs?" she asked promptly.
"The Archduchess Stephanie! And in truth did I not know you to be the Lady Ottilie von Thüringen, I could believe Her Highness was here."
"Her Highness is very gracious to acknowledge me of kin. My interests and the Habsburgs lie far apart."
"And I," said Nigel, "eat the bread of the Habsburgs, and what I do must and shall be right in your eyes, if it be right in mine!"
The Lady Ottilie's eyes blazed with scorn and resentment.