was not to be called into action of any kind."

"Your understanding of our pact is concisely stated, even though my
share in that pact remained unspoken. A truce, did you say? Is it not
more than that? I hoped that my seconding of the nomination you proposed
proved me in complete accord with your views."

"I am not in effect your prisoner, then?"

"Surely not; so contrary to the fact is such an assumption that I
implore you to accept my hospitality. The signal, which I see is now at
the mast-head, calls for one barge only, and that contains no soldier,
merely a captain and his ten stout rowers, whom you may at this moment,
if you turn round, see emerging from the mouth of the Lahn. I present to
you, and to the Countess von Sayn, my Schloss of Martinsburg for as long
as you may require it. It is well furnished, well provisioned, and
attended to by a group of capable servants, who are at your command. I
suggest that you cross in my barge, in company with the Countess and her
kinsman, the Reverend Father. You agree, I take it, to convoy the lady
safely to her temporary restraint in Pfalz. It was her own request, you
remember."

"I shall convoy her thither."

"I am trusting to you entirely. The distance is but thirteen leagues,
and can be accomplished easily in a day. Once on the other side of the
river she may despatch her kinsman, or some more trustworthy messenger,
to her own Castle, and thus summon the two waiting-women who will share
her seclusion."

"Is it your intention, my Lord, that her imprisonment shall--?"

The Archbishop of Mayence held up his thin hand with a gesture of
deprecation.

"I use no word so harsh as 'imprisonment.' The penance, if you wish so
to characterize it, is rather in the nature of a retreat, giving her
needed opportunity for reflection, and, I hope, for regret."

"Nevertheless, my Lord, your action seems to me unnecessarily severe.
How long do you propose to detain her?"

"I am pained to hear you term it severity, for her treatment will be of
the mildest description. I thought you would understand that no other
course was open to me. So far as I am personally concerned, she might
have said what pleased her, with no adverse consequences, but she
flouted the highest Court of the realm, and such contempt cannot be
overlooked. As for the duration of her discipline, it will continue
until the new Emperor is married, after which celebration the Countess
is free to go whither she pleas