Gondremark."

"O, madam, leave Gondremark, and think upon the Prince!" cried von
Rosen.

"You speak once more as a private person," said the Princess; "nor do I
blame you. But my own thoughts are more distracted. However, as I
believe you are truly a friend to my--to the----as I believe," she said,
"you are a friend to Otto, I shall put the order for his release into
your hands this moment. Give me the ink-dish. There!" And she wrote
hastily, steadying her arm upon the table, for she trembled like a reed.
"Remember, madam," she resumed, handing her the order, "this must not be
used nor spoken of at present; till I have seen the Baron, any hurried
step--I lose myself in thinking. The suddenness has shaken me."

"I promise you I will not use it," said the Countess, "till you give me
leave, although I wish the Prince could be informed of it, to comfort
his poor heart. And O, I had forgotten, he has left a letter. Suffer me,
madam; I will bring it you. This is the door, I think?" And she sought
to open it.

"The bolt is pushed," said Seraphina, flushing.

"O! O!" cried the Countess.

A silence fell between them.

"I will get it for myself," said Seraphina; "and in the meanwhile I beg
you to leave me. I thank you, I am sure, but I shall be obliged if you
will leave me."

The Countess deeply curtseyed, and withdrew.

CHAPTER XIV

RELATES THE CAUSE AND OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION

Brave as she was, and brave by intellect, the Princess, when first she
was alone, clung to the table for support. The four corners of her
universe had fallen. She had never liked nor trusted Gondremark
completely; she had still held it possible to find him false to
friendship; but from that to finding him devoid of all those public
virtues for which she had honoured him, a mere commonplace intriguer,
using her for his own ends, the step was wide and the descent giddy.
Light and darkness succeeded each other in her brain; now she believed,
and now she could not. She turned, blindly groping for the note. But von
Rosen, who had not forgotten to take the warrant from the Prince, had
remembered to recover her note from the Princess: von Rosen was an old
campaigner, whose most violent emotion aroused rather than clouded the
vigour of her reason.

The thought recalled to Seraphina the remembrance of the other
letter--Otto's. She rose and went speedily, her brain still wheeling,
and burst into the Prince's armoury. The old chamberlain