"And the Emperor?"
"Would console himself for the loss of glory in finding a son-in-law who would adventure the care of his rebellious Stephanie."
The Elector's brow had cleared. He was enraptured to find her in so winning a mood that he proposed a pavane. And in a few minutes dancing was the order of the evening.
The Jesuit watched and noticed how the Elector surrendered to his passion, confident at last that he had virtually won the hand of the princess. At last he left the court circle alone and quietly, and went to the lodging he shared with Nigel. There another surprise awaited him, for Nigel lay asleep in his bed. The Jesuit examined the bandages, saw that they had been freshly put on, and that tied in the final knot was a single long black hair.
[CHAPTER XLII.]
IN THE ABBEY CHURCH.
It was as the clock at the cathedral boomed out eight on the next night but one that the old abbey church of St Jacob, which by some is called the Scots church, by reason that the Benedictines to whom it once belonged were mostly of Scottish or Irish parentage, was dimly lit as to a chapel on the left side of the choir.
Nigel groped his way up the nave towards it. Another shadow crept out of the darkness of a side door on the northern side, and as it came into the dim circle of light from the single swinging lamp depending from the arch of the chapel, Nigel made out that it was a woman, and that woman the Archduchess Stephanie.