as the most base of impudent tricks.

Was Kaiserina also a betrayer? He did not believe that.

Each horseman had a pistol as well as a sword drawn, and, besides, the
two inferiors were armed with carbines. This had the air of an
assassination, and, infuriated by the treachery, Claudius resolved to
begin the attack. It mattered little whether Fraulein von Vieradlers was
in the conspiracy or not. Once she had saved his life, and he was bound
not to molest her now, so long as she remained neutral. She had cowered
down, from fear or because her guilt oppressed her. Perhaps his contempt
would punish her sufficiently.

The old mare bore the unusual exertion bravely and charged down the
incline against the odds like a war-stallion.

"Take him alive!" shouted the major, beating down the pistols with his
sword flat, as a second thought changed his first intention.

He had spied the young singer in the shadow of the hood, and he had no
wish to injure her.

"That's not as you decide!" retorted Claudius, and he fired both shots
at the same time.

But he had not allowed for the steep descent. One bullet stung the
major in the thigh, the other so cruelly lacerated the horse of the
gendarme on his right that it screamed, reared and fell sidewise with a
crash into the brook. The man, although encumbered by his heavy boots,
contrived to disengage himself and stood up, furious at being unhorsed.

At the same moment, out of the reeds, much as though the disappeared
horse had suffered a transformation, an old woman leaped up into the
lane. Her grey hair was disheveled and her pelisse was shredded by the
brambles. She ran to place herself before the horse in the chaise and
the gendarmes, and screamed, with her eyes fastened on the girl in the
vehicle:

"Hold! do not shoot! God is not willing!" But the major alone obeyed the
injunction; the others, in the saddle and dismounted, were wild with
rage and pain. Their two firearms rang out as one, and the old woman had
only time to cover the mark by drawing herself to her full height, with
an effort unknown for thirty years. Both bullets entered her chest, for
she fell under the horse's feet, as it stumbled and went down beside
her.

As the vehicle abruptly came to a stop, quivering in every portion,
Claudius clung to the frame of the hood to save himself from being cast
out. The girl was hurled against him, but she did not think of herself.
She thrust into his hand a revolver and whi