ere are
few, indeed, into whose hands we would thus confide our daughter; but we
know you to be indeed, as you say, a Scottish gentleman and a Protestant
soldier. Moreover, we know you to be faithful, honourable, and true.
Therefore we will, seeing that there is no other mode of escape from the
fate which awaits her, confide her wholly to you. And now tell us what
are your plans?"

CHAPTER XXI FLIGHT

"I THANK you, count, and you, dear lady," Malcolm said gratefully, "for
the confidence you place in me, and will carry out my trust were it to
cost me my life. My plan is a simple one. The guard will be changed in
half an hour's time. I have brought hither a suit of boy's garments,
which I must pray the Countess Thekla to don, seeing that it will be
impossible for her to sally out in her own garb. I show my pass to
the sentry, who will deem that my companion entered with me, and is my
apprentice, and will suppose that, since the sentry who preceded him
suffered him to enter with me he may well pass him out without question.
In the town I have a wagon in readiness, and shall, disguised as a
peasant, start with it this evening. Thekla will be in the bottom
covered with straw. We shall travel all night.

"Tomorrow, when your attendant discovers that your daughter has escaped,
she will at once take the news to the governor. The sentries will all be
questioned, and it will be found that, whereas but one clockmaker came
in two went out. The city will be searched and the country round scoured
but if the horsemen overtake me they will be looking for a craftsman and
his apprentice, and will not suspect a solitary peasant with a wagon.

"The first danger over I must be guided by circumstances; but in any
case Thekla must travel as a boy to the end of the journey, for in such
troubled times as these it were unsafe indeed for a young girl to travel
through Germany except under a strong escort of men-at-arms. I design
to make my way to Nuremberg, and shall then place her in the hands of
my good friend Jans Boerhoff, whose wife and daughters will, I am sure,
gladly receive and care for her until the time, which I hope is not far
off, that peace be made and you can again rejoin her."

"The plan is a good one," the count said when Malcolm had concluded,
"and offers every prospect of success. `Tis hazardous, but there is no
escape from such a strait as ours without risk. What say you, wife?"

"Assuredly I can think of nothing b