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A minute later his horse's hoofs clattered through the streets. Perhaps he also had a bag of gold, for the gate-warden opened the western gate for him, and he rode at a gallop along the river banks, till he reached the great woods that stretch to within ten miles of Strelsau.
By Sapt's devices and my own ungoverned passion I had been forced on, and the way back had closed behind me; and the passion still drove me in the same direction as the devices seduced me. I faced all Strelsau that night as the King and the accepted suitor of the Princess Flavia.
What we were doing has been told; by now Rupert himself was on his way back to the city, and the queen was meditating, in her restless vigil, on the resolve that in a few hours was to bring her also to Strelsau. Even in the dead of night both sides were active.
Even as I swallowed the last drop of my cup of coffee, the bells throughout all the city broke out into a joyful peal, and the sound of a military band and of men cheering smote upon my ear. King Rudolf the Fifth was in his good city of Strelsau! And they shouted outside "God save the King!" Old Sapt's mouth wrinkled into a smile. "God save 'em both!" he whispered.
The part was played as completely and triumphantly as in the old days when he ran the gauntlet of every eye in Strelsau. Yet if he had not taken such pains to conciliate old Helsing, but had let him depart, he might not have found himself driven to a greater and even more hazardous deception. They were conversing together alone.
A slow, cunning smile spread over his face. "The king?" he asked. "Well, he's in Strelsau, isn't he? Who gave you the wound on your head?" Bauer moved his arm as though he meant to withdraw it from my grasp. He found himself tightly held. "Where's that bag of mine?" I asked. I do not know what he would have answered, for at this instant there came a sound from behind the closed door of the house.
"Why would you not mourn, sir, if you were a prince?" said she. "For princes and princesses have their share of sighs." And with a very plaintive sigh Osra looked at the rapid-running river, as she waited for the answer. "Because I would then go to Strelsau, and so forget her." "But you are at Strelsau now!" she cried with wonderful surprise. "Ah, but I am no prince, madam!" said he.
And in the afternoon of to-morrow, you and Bernenstein will set out for Strelsau, bringing with you the body of the king." And Rudolf, after a pause, whispered, "You must shave his face. And if the doctors want to talk about how long he's been dead, why, they have, as I say, palms." Sapt sat silent for a while, apparently considering the scheme.
It was an hour later when the whole of the two companies, that of the king and that of the ambassador, were all gathered together again, and had heard the story; so that when the king went to where Osra and the Grand Duke walked together among the trees, and, taking each by a hand, led them out, they were greeted with a great cheer; and they mounted their horses, which the Grand Duke now found without any difficulty although when the need of them seemed far greater the student could not contrive to come upon them and the whole company rode together out of the wood and along the road towards Strelsau, the king being full of jokes and hugely delighted with a trick that suited his merry fancy.
"Ah, yes. The King, sir, is now at the duke's hunting-lodge in the forest here; from here he goes to Strelsau to be crowned on Wednesday morning." I was interested to hear this, and made up my mind to walk next day in the direction of the lodge, on the chance of coming across the King. That I wish, and I don't care who knows it." "Hush, mother!" urged the daughters.
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