For a few moments a silence fell between them, and the Princess began to wonder why he had asked her there to meet him.
At last, when they were in a dark and narrower pathway, he turned suddenly to her and said,—
“Princess, I—I hardly know how to speak, for I fear that you may take what I have to say in a wrong sense. I mean,” he faltered, “I mean that I fear you may think it impertinent of me to speak to you, considering the great difference in our stations.”
“Why?” she asked calmly, turning to him with some surprise. “Have you not just told me that you are my friend?”
She noticed at that moment that he still held his hat in his hand, and motioned to him to reassume it.
“Yes. I am your Highness’s friend,” he declared quickly. “If I were not, I would not dare to approach you, or to warn you of what at this moment is in progress.”
“What is in progress?” she exclaimed in surprise. “Tell me.”
She realised that this man had something serious to say, or surely he would never have followed her to Vienna, and obtained entrance to the Imperial Court by subterfuge.
“Your Highness is in peril,” he declared in a low voice, halting and standing before her. “You have enemies, fierce, bitter enemies, on every side; enemies who are doing their utmost to estrange you from your husband; relentless enemies who are conspiring might and main against you and the little Princess Ignatia. They—”
“Against my child?” cried the Princess, amazed. “Do you really mean that there is actually a conspiracy against me?”