eling that he was back in the Middle Ages was overpowering.
Here was the baron, and here was he, untitled and unknown.

Auersperg glanced at Julie, disappearing up the stairway, and then
glanced back at John. Over his heavy face passed the same slow cruel
smile that set all John's nerves to jumping.

"Why have you, an American, come so far to fight against us?" he asked.

"I didn't come for that purpose. I was here, visiting, and I was caught
in the whirl of the war, an accident, perhaps. But my sympathies are
wholly with France. I fight in her ranks from choice."

Auersperg laughed unpleasantly.

"A republic!" he said. "Millions of the ignorant, led by demagogues!
Bah! The Hohenzollerns will scatter them like chaff!"

"I can't positively say that I saw any Hohenzollern, but I did see their
armies turned back from Paris by those ignorant people, led by their
demagogues. I'm not even sure of the name of the French general who did
it, but God gave him a better brain for war, though he may have been
born a peasant for all I know, than he did to your Kaiser, or any king,
prince, grand duke or duke in all the German armies!"

John had been tried beyond endurance and he knew that he had spoken with
impulsive passion, but he knew also that he had spoken with truth. The
face of Auersperg darkened. The medieval baron, full of power, without
responsibility, believing implicitly in what he chose to call his order,
but which was merely the chance of birth, was here. And while the Middle
Ages in reality had passed, war could hide many a dark tale. John was
unable to read the intent in the cruel eyes, but they heard the
footsteps of von Arnheim on the stairs, and the clenched hand that had
been raised fell back by Auersperg's side. Nevertheless medievalism did
not relax its gaze.

"What to you is this girl who seems to have charmed von Arnheim?" he
asked.

"Her brother has become my best friend. She has charmed me as she has
charmed von Arnheim, and as she charms all others whom she meets. And I
am pleased to tell Your Highness that the spell she casts is not alone
her beauty, but even more her pure soul."

Auersperg laughed in an ugly fashion.

"Youth! Youth!" he exclaimed. "I see that the spell is upon you, even
more than it is upon von Arnheim. But dismiss her from your thoughts.
You go a prisoner into Germany, and it's not likely that you'll ever see
her again."

Young Scott felt a sinking of the heart, but he was n