of soldiers, walking well-accustomed and unafraid
through palaces.

The man had a letter in his hand, and I saw him deliver it to a maid who
came to the dividing curtain to take it.

So there was later news from the city of Thorn within the Palace of
Plassenburg than we of the Prince's council of three possessed. Should I
tell our Karl of this encounter? I thought it might be safer not. Because
the Prince was the last man to attempt to obtain aught from his wife by
compulsion, and any question, direct or indirect, might only put her upon
her guard.

If I let him into the secret, the Prince would be most likely to stride
straight into the Princess's rooms with the brusque words: "Gottfried has
seen a letter come to you from your father--what were its contents?"

And that would not suit us at all.

So, rightly or wrongly, I kept the matter from my master, speaking of it
only to Dessauer. And if aught befel from my reticence, it was at least I
myself who bore the burden, and, in the final event, paid the penalty.

CHAPTER XXXVI

YSOLINDE'S FAREWELL

The next morning early, as I went about making my dispositions, and
putting men of trust in positions fit for them--for the Prince has given
me the command of all the soldiers within the city--the Lady Ysolinde
came to me upon the terrace.

"Walk with me a while," she said, "in the lower garden. It is a quiet
place, and I would speak with you."

It was a command that I dared not refuse to obey, yet my greatest enemy
would not accuse me that I went lightly or willingly to such a tryst.

The Lady Ysolinde passed on daintily and proudly before me, and I
followed, more like a condemned criminal lamping heavily to the scaffold
than a lad of mettle accompanying a fair lady to a rendezvous of her own
asking under the greenwood-tree.

But I need not have feared. The Princess's mood was mild, and I saw her
in a humor in which I had never seen her before.

She moved before me over the grass, with her head a little turned up to
the skies, as though appealing out of her innocence to the Beings who sat
behind and sorted out the hearts of men and women.

At a great weeping-elm, under which was a seat, she turned. It formed a
wide canopy of shade, grateful and cool. For the breezes stirred under
the leaves, and the river moved beneath with a pleasant, meditative
hush of sound.

"Hugo Gottfried, once you were my friend," she began; "what have I done
that you should b