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Remember, not a word of your errand, not a word of this gentleman! At a word, a sign, a hint, a gesture, a motion, as God lives, I'll put a bullet through your head, and a thousand kings sha'n't stop me. Rudolf, get behind the curtain. If there's an alarm you must jump through the window into the moat and swim for it." "All right," said Rudolf Rassendyll. "I can read my letter there."
There were moments when he saw, in the mirror of another's face or words, the estimation in which honorable men held him; and I believe that he hated Mr. Rassendyll most fiercely, not for thwarting his enterprise, but because he had more power than any other man to show him that picture. His brows knit in a frown, and his lips shut tight.
But the queen cried: "Are you sending Rudolf alone, then alone against two?" "Yes, madam, if I may command the campaign," said Sapt. "I take it he should be equal to the task." He could not know the feelings of the queen's heart. She dashed her hand across her eyes, and turned in mute entreaty to Rudolf Rassendyll. "I must go," he said softly. "We can't spare Bernenstein, and I mustn't stay here."
Unquestionably there was a secret, a new secret, hidden behind the curt words and brusque manner. I could restrain myself no longer, and sprang forward, saying: "What is it? Tell us, Constable!" He looked at me, then glanced at Mr. Rassendyll. "I should like to hear your plan first," he said to Rudolf.
He could offer again to Rudolf Rassendyll what he had offered once before, three years ago a partnership in crime and the profits of crime or if this advance were refused, then he declared that he would himself descend openly into the streets of Strelsau and proclaim the death of the king from the steps of the cathedral.
I carried the queen's letter, and well, I would have given much to have old Sapt or Rudolf Rassendyll by my side. Now, when a man suspects danger, let him not spend his time in asking whether there be really danger or in upbraiding himself for timidity, but let him face his cowardice, and act as though the danger were real.
Rassendyll for happening on a plan which the course of events had turned into a trap for ourselves and not for Rupert of Hentzau. Suddenly Sapt, turning his head for the first time, pointed in front of him. The lodge was before us; we saw it looming dimly a quarter of a mile off. Sapt reined in his horse, and we followed his example.
As he looked up, there was a slight movement in the curtains by him; it died away when the count gave no further signs of suspicion, but Rudolf had noticed his surprise: the voice, when it next spoke, was subdued. "Most delighted," pursued Mr. Rassendyll. "For I am pestered beyond endurance about those dogs. I can't get the coats right, I've tried everything, but they won't come as I wish.
Yet when I observe thus calmly and with good sense on the matter to the Constable of Zenda, he shakes his head and answers, "But Rudolf Rassendyll knew from the first that he would come again to Strelsau and engage young Rupert point to point. Else why did he practise with the foils so as to be a better swordsman the second time than he was the first?
Rassendyll with those few who knew him, her only hope that she may some day be with him again. In great pomp we laid him to his rest in the vault of the kings of Ruritania in the Cathedral of Strelsau. There he lies among the princes of the House of Elphberg.
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