r examiner could not guess what you overheard
in the other tent. He let you go thinking you had seen and learned
nothing, and in doing so warded off a search party to-morrow."

XXI

A SECRET MARRIAGE

Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.
Roland walked with Greusel across the bridge and through the streets to
the entrance of the Rheingold, and there stopped.

"I shall not go down with you," he said. "You have given me much to
think of, and I am in no mood for a hilarious meeting. Indeed, I fear I
should but damp the enthusiasm of the lads. Continue your good work
to-morrow, and report to me at my room."

With this Roland bade Greusel good-night and turned away. He walked very
slowly as far as the bridge, and there, resting his arms on the parapet,
looked down at the dark water. He was astonished to realize how little
he cared about giving up the Emperorship, and he recalled, with a glow
of delight, his recent talk in the garden with Hildegunde, and her
assurance that she lacked all ambition to become the first lady in the
land so long as they two spent their lives together.

The bells of Frankfort tolling the hour of ten aroused him from his
reverie, and brought down his thoughts from delicious dreams of romance
to realms of reality. The precious minutes were passing over his head
swiftly as the drops of water beneath his feet. There was little use of
feeding Frankfort if it must be given over to fire and slaughter.

With a chill of apprehension he reviewed the cold treachery of Mayence,
willing to levy the horrors of civil war upon an already stricken city
so long as his own selfish purposes were attained.

"And yet," he said to himself, "there must be good in the man. I wish I
knew his history. Perhaps he had to fight for every step he has risen in
the world. Perhaps he has been baffled and defeated by deception;
overcome by chicanery until his faith died within him. My faith would
die within me were it not that when I meet a Mayence I encounter also
the virtue of a Cologne, and the bluff honesty of a Count Palatine. How
marvelous is this world, where the trickery of a Kurzbold and a Gensbein
is canceled by the faithfulness unto death of a Greusel and an
Ebearhard! Thus doth good balance evil, and then--and then, how Heaven
beams upon earth in the angel glance of a good woman. God guide me
aright! God guide me aright!" he repeated fervently, "and suppress in me
all ange