f from my own
book. He may have it in mind to snatch your Highness out of Italy even
as I did out of Austria; and of a truth it would be the easier
undertaking. Here are we five miles from the border and in a small
tavern set apart from a small village, instead of in the thick of an
armed town."

"But we might start now," she said. "We might leave a message behind for
Mrs. Misset and wait for her in Verona."

"I had thought of that. But if my mere suspicion is the truth, the six
men will not be so far from their six horses that we could drive away
unnoticed by any one of them. Nor could we hope to outpace them and six
men upon an open road; indeed, I would sooner face them at the head of
my staircase here. And while I hold them back your Highness can creep
down that ladder."

"And hide in the thicket," she interrupted. "Yet--yet--that leaves you
alone. I could give you some help;" and her face coloured. "You were so
kind as to tell me I had courage. I could at the least load your
pistols."

"You would do that?" cried Wogan. "Aye, but you would, you would!"

For the first time that day he forgot to address her with the ceremony
of her title. All that day he had schooled his tongue to the use of it.
They were not man and woman, though his heart would have it so; they
were princess and servant, and every minute he must remember it. But he
forgot it now. Delicate she was to look upon as any princess who had
ever adorned a court, delicate and fresh, rich-voiced and young, but
here was the rare woman flashing out like a light over stormy seas, the
spirit of her and her courage!

"You would load my pistols!" he repeated, his whole face alight. "To be
sure, you would do that. But I ask you, I think, for a higher courage. I
ask you to climb down that ladder, to run alone, taking shelter when
there's need, back to that narrow gorge we saw where the path leads
upwards to the bluff. There was a hut; two hours would take you to it,
and there you should be safe. I will keep the enemy back till you are
gone. If I can, when all is over here I'll follow you. If I do not come,
why, you must--"

"Ah, but you will come," said she, with a smile. "I have no fears but
that you will come;" and she added, "Else would you never persuade me
to go."

"Well, then, I will come. At all events, Captain Misset and his wife
will surely come down the road to-morrow. If I rap twice upon your door,
you will take that for my signal. But it is ver