Emperor's own hands.

"Now where is that pretty warrant?" said Wogan, as soon as this
important function was accomplished.

"It is signed by the Governor of Trent," said the man.

"Who in those regions is the Emperor's deputy. Hand it over."

The man handed it over reluctantly.

"Now," continued Wogan, "here is paper and ink and a chair. Sit down and
write a full confession of your audacious incursion into a friendly
country, and just write, if you please, how much you paid the landlady
to hear nothing of what was doing."

"You will not force me to that," cried the fellow.

"By no means. The confession must be voluntary and written of your own
free will. So write it, my friend, without any compulsion whatever, or
I'll throw you out of the window."

Then followed a deal of sighing and muttering. But the confession was
written and handed to Wogan, who glanced over it.

"But there's an omission," said he. "You make mention of only five men."

"There were only five men on the staircase."

"But there are six horses in the stables. Will you be good enough to
write down at what hour on what day Mr. Harry Whittington knocked at the
Governor's door in Trent and told the poor gout-ridden man that the
Princess and Mr. Wogan had put up at the Cervo Inn at Ala."

The soldier turned a startled face on Wogan.

"So you knew!" he cried.

"Oh, I knew," answered Wogan, suddenly. "Look at me! Did you ever see
eyes so heavy with want of sleep, a face so worn by it, a body so jerked
upon strings like a showman's puppet? Write, I tell you! We who serve
the King are trained to wakefulness. Write! I am in haste!"

"Yet your King does not reign!" said the man, wonderingly, and he wrote.
He wrote the truth about Harry Whittington; for Wogan was looking over
his shoulder.

"Did he pay you to keep silence as to his share in the business?" asked
Wogan, as the man scattered some sand over the paper. "There is no word
of it in your handwriting."

The man added a sentence and a figure.

"That will do," said Wogan. "I may need it for a particular purpose;"
and he put the letter carefully away in the pocket of his coat. "For a
very particular purpose," he added. "It will be well for you to convey
your party back with all haste to Trent. You are on the wrong side of
the border."

CHAPTER XX

Wogan went from the parlour and climbed out of the house by the
rope-ladder. He left it hanging at the window and walked up the
gli