very first (so I told myself), I should set a guard of the
best troops in Plassenburg about the Red Tower, and carry them
all--Helene, my father, and old Hanne--to a safe place till Prince Karl
and I had made an end. With our stark veterans swarming in Thorn, that
would easily be done. And so the plan abode to be altered, broidered, and
recast in the imagination of my heart.

We were soon out on the darksome, unguarded road, and after that I
steered chiefly by the lights of the palace behind me, Dessauer saying no
word, but riding like a man-at-arms close behind me.

We had reached the crown of the green hill over whose slopes the path to
the Wolf markwinds--the path by which, doubtless, Helene had travelled
the night of the duel.

As I came to the summit, mounting the steepest part slowly, I was aware
of a figure dark against the sky, no more apparent than a blacker patch
of night where all was dark. It was in shape as of a horseman sitting his
steed on the crest of the hill.

Instantly I drew my pistol, in which I had become expert.

"Your name and business?" cried I to the shape on the hill-side. For,
indeed, none had any right to be abroad so near the city of Plassenburg,
armed cap-a-pie, at that time of the night. And for a moment the thought
flashed upon me that the tales we had heard might after all be true, and
the armies of the Wolfmark nearer than we dreamed of.

"Hugo--Von Dessauer!" quoth right jovially to my ear a voice well known
and ever dear to me, the voice of my master, the Prince Karl.

"The Prince!" cried I. "My lord, what do you here? This is stark
madness--you, who should be within the walls of the palace, with the
guards watching three deep about you. What would come to the State of
Plassenburg if it wanted you?"

"Oh," said he, lightly, falling in beside us in the most natural
fashion, "you and Von Dessauer in dual control would be a singular
improvement on the present head of the State. You, Hugo, would keep the
soldiers to their work, and Von Dessauer could look nobly after the
treasury."

"But who would command us and be a gracious and beloved master to us?"
said I. "My Prince, we must instantly return and put you in safety!"

"Indeed, that will you not. By God's truth, if I am not to come all the
way to the city of Thorn with you, I will at least convoy you to the
edges of the Mark. It is so dull, dragging out month by month at ease
within the castle, and not nearly so much fun as