h constraint she had set upon herself. She was
like an ember blown to a flame. "You were stopped in your walk. You have
a message for me. He has come!"

The height of her joy was the depth of Chateaudoux's regret.

"I was stopped in my walk," said he, "but not by the Chevalier Wogan.
Who it was I do not know."

"Can you not guess?" cried Clementina.

"I would not trust a stranger," said her mother.

"Would you not?" asked Clementina, with a smile. "Describe him to me."

"His face was wrinkled," said Chateaudoux.

"It was disguised."

"His figure was slight and not over-tall."

M. Chateaudoux gave a fairly accurate description of Gaydon.

"I know no one whom the portrait fits," said the mother, and again
Clementina cried,--

"Can you not guess? Then, mother, I will punish you. For though I
know--in very truth, I know--I will not tell you." She turned back to
Chateaudoux. "Well, his message? He did fix a time, a day, an hour, for
my escape?"

"The 27th is the day, and at eight o'clock of the night."

"I will be ready."

"He will come here to fetch your Highness. Meanwhile he prays your
Highness to fall sick and keep your bed."

"I can choose my malady," said Clementina. "It will not all be
counterfeit, for indeed I shall fall sick of joy. But why must I fall
sick?"

"He brings a woman to take your place, who, lying in bed with the
curtains drawn, will the later be discovered."

The Princess's mother saw here a hindrance to success and eagerly she
spoke of it.

"How will the woman enter? How, too, will my daughter leave?"

M. Chateaudoux coughed and hemmed in a great confusion. He explained in
delicate hints that he himself was to bribe the sentry at the door to
let her pass for a few moments into the house. The Princess broke into a
laugh.

"Her name is Friederika, I'll warrant," she cried. "My poor Chateaudoux,
they _will_ give you a sweetheart. It is most cruel. Well, Friederika,
thanks to the sentry's fellow-feeling for a burning heart, Friederika
slips in at the door."

"Which I have taken care should stand unlatched. She changes clothes
with your Highness, and your Highness--"

"Slips out in her stead."

"But he is to come for you, he says," exclaimed her mother. "And how
will he do that? Besides, we do not know his name. And there must be a
fitting companion who will travel with you. Has he that companion?"

"Your Highness," said Chateaudoux, "upon all those points he bade me say
you