In the year 1634, as spring came, there arrived at Strelsau a French
nobleman, of high rank and great possessions, and endowed with many
accomplishments. He came to visit Prince Rudolf, whose acquaintance he
had made while the prince was at Paris in the course of his travels.
King Henry received Monsieur de Mérosailles--for such was his
name--most graciously, and sent a guard of honor to conduct him to the
Castle of Zenda, where the prince was then staying in company with his
sister Osra. There the marquis on his arrival was greeted with much
joy by Prince Rudolf, who found his sojourn in the country somewhat
irksome, and was glad of the society of a friend with whom he could
talk and sport and play at cards. All these things he did with
Monsieur de Mérosailles, and a great friendship arose between the
young men, so that they spoke very freely to one another at all times,
and most of all when they had drunk their wine and sat together in the
evening in Prince Rudolf's chamber that looked across the moat toward
the gardens; for the new chateau that now stands on the site of these
gardens was not then built. And one night Monsieur de Mérosailles made
bold to ask the prince how it fell out that his sister the princess,
a lady of such great beauty, seemed sad, and showed no pleasure in
the society of any gentleman, but treated all alike with coldness and
disdain. Prince Rudolf, laughing, answered that girls were strange
creatures, and that he had ceased to trouble his head about them--of
his heart he said nothing--and he finished by exclaiming, "On my
honor, I doubt if she so much as knows you are here, for she has not
looked at you once since your arrival!" And he smiled maliciously, for
he knew that the marquis was not accustomed to be neglected by ladies,
and would take it ill that even a princess should be unconscious
of his presence. In this he calculated rightly, for Monsieur de
Mérosailles was greatly vexed, and, twisting his glass in his fingers,
he said:
"If she were not a princess, and your sister, sir, I would engage to
make her look at me."
"I am not hurt by her looking at you," rejoined the prince; for that
evening he was very merry. "A look is no great thing."
And the marquis being also very merry, and knowing that Rudolf had
less regard for his dignity than a prince should have, threw out
carelessly:
"A kiss is more, sir."
"It is a great deal more," laughed the prince, tugging his mustache.
"Are you ready for a wager, sir?" asked Monsieur de Mérosailles,
leaning across the table toward him.
"I'll lay you a thousand crowns to a hundred that you do not gain a
kiss, using what means you will, save force."
"I'll take the wager, sir," cried the marquis; "but it shall be three,
not one."
"Have a care," said the prince. "Don't go too near the flame, my lord.
There are some wings in Strelsau singed at that candle."
"Indeed, the light is very bright," assented the marquis, courteously.
"That risk I must run, though, if I am to win my wager. It is to be
three, then, and by what means I will, save force?"
"Even so," said Rudolf, and he laughed again. For he thought the wager
harmless, since by no means could Monsieur de Mérosailles win so much
as one kiss from the Princess Osra, and the wager stood at three. But
he did not think how he wronged his sister by using her name lightly,
being in all such matters a man of careless mind.
But the marquis, having made his wager, set himself steadily to win
it; for he brought forth the choicest clothes from his wardrobe, and
ornaments and perfumes; and he laid fine presents at the princess's
feet; and he waylaid her wherever she went, and was profuse of
glances, sighs, and hints; and he wrote sonnets, as fine gentlemen
used in those days, and lyrics and pastorals, wherein she figured
under charming names. These he bribed the princess's waiting-women to
leave in their mistress's chamber. Moreover, he looked now sorrowful,
now passionate, and he ate nothing at dinner, but drank his wine in
wild gulps as though he sought to banish sadness. So that, in a word,
there was no device in Cupid's armory that the Marquis de Mérosailles
did not practise in the endeavor to win a look from the Princess Osra.
But no look came, and he got nothing from her but cold civility. Yet
she had looked at him when he looked not--for princesses are much like
other maidens--and thought him a very pretty gentleman, and was highly
amused by his extravagance. Yet she did not believe it to witness any
true devotion to her, but thought it mere gallantry.
[Illustration: THE PHYSICIAN RECEIVING THE PRINCESS IN THE MARQUIS'S
SICKROOM.]
Then one day Monsieur de Mérosailles, having tried all else that he
could think of, took to his bed. He sent for a physician, and paid him
a high fee to find the seeds of a rapid and fatal disease in him; and
he made his body-servant whiten his face and darken the room; and he
groaned very pitifully, saying that he was sick, and that he was glad
of it, for death would be better far than the continued disdain of the
Princess Osra. And all this, being told by the marquis's servants to
the princess's waiting-women, reached Osra's ears, and caused her much
perturbation. For she now perceived that the passion, of the marquis
was real and deep, and she became very sorry for him; and the longer
the face of the rascally physician grew, the more sad the princess
became; and she walked up and down, bewailing the terrible effects
of her beauty, wishing that she were not so fair, and mourning very
tenderly for the sad plight of the unhappy marquis. Through all Prince
Rudolf looked on, but was bound by his wager not to undeceive her;
moreover, he found much entertainment in the matter, and swore that it
was worth three times a thousand crowns.
At last the marquis sent, by the mouth of the physician, a very humble
and pitiful message to the princess, in which he spoke of himself as
near to death, hinted at the cruel cause of his condition, and prayed
her of her compassion to visit him in his chamber and speak a word of
comfort, or at least let him look on her face; for the brightness of
her eyes, he said, might cure even what it had caused.
Deceived by this appeal, Princess Osra agreed to go. Moved by some
strange impulse, she put on her loveliest gown, dressed her hair most
splendidly, and came into his chamber looking like a goddess. There
lay the marquis, white as a ghost and languid, on his pillows; and
they were left, as they thought, alone. Then Osra sat down, and began
to talk very gently and kindly to him, glancing only at the madness
which brought him to his sad state, and imploring him to summon his
resolution and conquer his sickness for his friends' sake at home in
France, and for the sake of her brother, who loved him.
"There is nobody who loves me," said the marquis, petulantly; and when
Osra cried out at this, he went on: "For the love of those whom I do
not love is nothing to me, and the only soul alive I love--" There he
stopped, but his eyes, fixed on Osra's face, ended the sentence for
him. And she blushed, and looked away. Then, thinking the moment
had come, he burst suddenly into a flood of protestations and
self-reproach, cursing himself for a fool and a presumptuous madman,
pitifully craving her pardon, and declaring that he did not deserve
her kindness, and yet that he could not live without it, and that
anyhow he would be dead soon and thus cease to trouble her. But she,
being thus passionately assailed, showed such sweet tenderness and
compassion and pity that Monsieur de Mérosailles came very near to
forgetting that he was playing a comedy, and threw himself into his
part with eagerness, redoubling his vehemence, and feeling now full
half of what he said. For the princess was to his eyes far more
beautiful in her softer mood. Yet he remembered his wager, and at
last, when she was nearly in tears, and ready, as it seemed, to do
anything to give him comfort, he cried desperately:
"Ah, leave me, leave me! Leave me to die alone! Yet for pity's sake,
before you go, and before I die, give me your forgiveness, and let
your lips touch my forehead in token of it! And then I shall die in
peace."
At that the princess blushed still more, and her eyes were dim and
shone; for she was very deeply touched at his misery and at the sad
prospect of the death of so gallant a gentleman for love. Thus she
could scarcely speak for emotion; and the marquis, seeing her emotion,
was himself much affected; and she rose from her chair and bent over
him, and whispered comfort to him. Then she leant down, and very
lightly touched his forehead with her lips; and he felt her eyelashes,
that were wet with her tears, brush the skin of his forehead; and then
she sobbed, and covered her face with her hands. Indeed, his state
seemed to her most pitiful.
Thus Monsieur de Mérosailles had won one of his three kisses; yet,
strange to tell, there was no triumph in him, but he now perceived
the baseness of his device; and the sweet kindness of the princess,
working together with the great beauty of her softened manner, so
affected him that he thought no more of his wager, and could not
endure to carry on his deception. And nothing would serve his turn but
to confess to the princess what he had done, and humble himself in
the dust before her, and entreat her to pardon him and let him find
forgiveness. Therefore, impelled by these feelings, after he had lain
still a few moments listening to the princess's weeping, he leapt
suddenly out of the bed, showing himself fully clothed under the
bedgown which he now eagerly tore off, and he rubbed all the white
he could from his cheeks; and then he fell on his knees before the
princess, crying to her that he had played the meanest trick on her,
and that he was a scoundrel and no gentleman, and yet that, unless she
forgave him, he should in very truth die. Nay, he would not consent to
live, unless he could win from her pardon for his deceit. And in all
this he was now most absolutely in earnest, wondering only how he had
not been as passionately enamoured of her from the first as he had
feigned himself to be. For a man in love can never conceive himself
out of it; nor he that is out of it, in it: for, if he can, he is
halfway to the one or the other, however little he may know it.
At first the princess sat as though she were turned to stone. But when
he had finished his confession, and she understood the trick that had
been played upon her, and how not only her kiss but also her tears had
been won from her by fraud; and when she thought, as she did, that the
marquis was playing another trick upon her, and that there was no more
truth nor honesty in his present protestations than in those which
went before--she fell into great shame and into a great rage; and her
eyes flashed like the eyes of her father himself, as she rose to her
feet and looked down on Monsieur de Mérosailles as he knelt imploring
her. Now her face turned pale from red, and she set her lips, and she
drew her gown close round her lest his touch should defile it (so the
unhappy gentleman understood the gesture), and she daintily picked her
steps round him lest by chance she should happen to come in contact
with so foul a thing. Thus she walked toward the door, and, having
reached it, she turned and said to him:
"Your death may blot out the insult--nothing less;" and with her head
held high, and her whole air full of scorn, she swept out of the room,
leaving the marquis on his knees. Then he started up to follow her,
but dared not; and he flung himself on the bed in a paroxysm of shame
and vexation, and now of love, and he cried out loud:
"Then my death shall blot it out, since nothing else will serve!"
For he was in a very desperate mood. For a long while he lay there,
and then, having risen, dressed himself in a sombre suit of black,
and buckled his sword by his side, and put on his riding-boots, and,
summoning his servant, bade him saddle his horse. "For," said he to
himself, "I will ride into the forest, and there kill myself; and
perhaps when I am dead, the princess will forgive, and will believe in
my love, and grieve a little for me."
Now, as he went from his chamber to cross the moat by the drawbridge,
he encountered Prince Rudolf returning from hawking. They met full
in the centre of the bridge, and the prince, seeing Monsieur de
Mérosailles dressed all in black from the feather in his cap to his
boots, called out mockingly, "Who is to be buried to-day, my lord, and
whither do you ride to the funeral? It cannot be yourself, for I see
that you are marvellously recovered of your sickness."
"But it is myself," answered the marquis, coming near and speaking low
that the servants and the falconers might not overhear. "And I ride,
sir, to my own funeral."
"The jest is still afoot, then?" asked the prince. "Yet I do not see
my sister at the window to watch you go, and I warrant you have made
no way with your wager yet."
"A thousand curses on my wager!" cried the marquis. "Yes, I have made
way with the accursed thing, and that is why I now go to my death."
"What, has she kissed you?" cried the prince, with a merry, astonished
laugh.
"Yes, sir, she has kissed me once, and therefore I go to die."
"I have heard many a better reason, then," answered the prince.
By now the prince had dismounted, and he stood by Monsieur de
Mérosailles in the middle of the bridge, and heard from him how the
trick had prospered. At this he was much tickled; and, alas! he was
even more diverted when the penitence of the marquis was revealed to
him, and was most of all moved to merriment when it appeared that
the marquis, having gone too near the candle, had been caught by its
flame, and was so terribly singed and scorched that he could not bear
to live. And while they talked on the bridge, the princess looked out
on them from a lofty narrow window, but neither of them saw her.
Now, when the prince had done laughing, he put his arm through his
friend's, and bade him not be a fool, but come in and toast the
princess's kiss in a draught of wine. "For," he said, "though you will
never get the other two, yet it is a brave exploit to have got one."
But the marquis shook his head, and his air was so resolute and so
full of sorrow that not only was Rudolf alarmed for his reason, but
Princess Osra also, at the window, wondered what ailed him and why he
wore such a long face; and she now noticed, that he was dressed all in
black, and that his horse waited for him across the bridge.
"Not," said she, "that I care what becomes of the impudent rogue!" Yet
she did not leave the window, but watched very intently to see what
Monsieur de Mérosailles would do.
For a long while he talked with Rudolf on the bridge, Rudolf seeming
more serious than he was wont to be; and at last the marquis bent to
kiss the prince's hand, and the prince raised him and kissed him on
either cheek; and then the marquis went and mounted his horse and rode
off, slowly and unattended, into the glades of the forest of Zenda.
But the prince, with a shrug of his shoulders and a frown on his brow,
entered under the portcullis, and disappeared from his sister's view.
Upon this the princess, assuming an air of great carelessness, walked
down from the room where she was, and found her brother, sitting still
in his boots, and drinking wine; and she said:
"Monsieur de Mérosailles has taken his leave, then?"
"Even so, madam," rejoined Rudolf.
Then she broke into a fierce attack on the marquis, and on her brother
also; for a man, said she, is known by his friends, and what a man
must Rudolf be to have a friend like the Marquis de Mérosailles!
"Most brothers," she said, in fiery temper, "would make him answer for
what he has done with his life. But you laugh--nay, I dare say you had
a hand in it."
As to this last charge the prince had the discretion to say nothing;
he chose rather to answer the first part of what she said, and,
shrugging his shoulders again, rejoined, "The fool saves me the
trouble, for he has gone off to kill himself."
"To kill himself?" she said, half-incredulous, but also
half-believing, because of the marquis's gloomy looks and black
clothes.
"To kill himself," repeated Rudolf. "For, in the first place, you are
angry, so he cannot live; and in the second, he has behaved like a
rogue, so he cannot live; and in the third place, you are so lovely,
sister, that he cannot live; and in the first, second, and third
places, he is a fool, so he cannot live." And the prince finished his
flagon of wine with every sign of ill-humor in his manner.
"He is well dead," she cried.
"Oh, as you please!" said he. "He is not the first brave man who has
died on your account;" and he rose and strode out of the room very
surlily, for he had a great friendship for Monsieur de Mérosailles,
and had no patience with men who let love make dead bones of them.
The Princess Osra, being thus left alone, sat for a little while in
deep thought. There rose before her mind the picture of Monsieur de
Mérosailles riding mournfully through the gloom of the forest to his
death; and although his conduct had been all, and more than all,
that she had called it, yet it seemed hard that he should die for
it. Moreover, if he now in truth felt what he had before feigned, the
present truth was an atonement for the past treachery; and she said
to herself that she could not sleep quietly that night if the marquis
killed himself in the forest. Presently she wandered slowly up to her
chamber, and looked in the mirror, and murmured low, "Poor fellow!"
And then with sudden speed she attired herself for riding, and
commanded her horse to be saddled, and darted down the stairs and
across the bridge, and mounted, and, forbidding any one to accompany
her, rode away into the forest, following the tracks of the hoofs of
Monsieur de Mérosailles's horse. It was then late afternoon, and the
slanting rays of the sun, striking through the tree-trunks, reddened
her face as she rode along, spurring her horse and following hard on
the track of the forlorn gentleman. But what she intended to do if she
came up with him, she did not think.
When she had ridden an hour or more, she saw his horse tethered to a
trunk; and there was a ring of trees and bushes near, encircling an
open grassy spot. Herself dismounting and fastening her horse by the
marquis's horse, she stole up, and saw Monsieur de Mérosailles sitting
on the ground, his drawn sword lying beside him; and his back was
towards her. She held her breath, and waited for a few moments. Then
he took up the sword, and felt the point and also the edge of it,
and sighed deeply; and the princess thought that this sorrowful mood
became him better than any she had seen him in before. Then he rose to
his feet, and took his sword by the blade beneath the hilt, and turned
the point of it towards his heart. And Osra, fearing that the deed
would be done immediately, called out eagerly, "My lord, my lord!" and
Monsieur de Mérosailles turned round with a great start. When he saw
her, he stood in astonishment, his hand still holding the blade of the
sword. And, standing just on the other side of the trees, she said:
"Is your offence against me to be cured by adding an offence against
Heaven and the Church?" And she looked on him with great severity; yet
her cheek was flushed, and after a while she did not meet his glance.
"How came you here, madam?" he asked in wonder.
"I heard," she said, "that you meditated this great sin, and I rode
after you to forbid it."
"Can you forbid what you cause?" he asked.
"I am not the cause of it," she said, "but your own trickery."
"It is true. I am not worthy to live," cried the marquis, smiting the
hilt of his sword to the ground. "I pray you, madam, leave me alone
to die, for I cannot tear myself from the world so long as I see your
face." And as he spoke he knelt on one knee, as though he were doing
homage to her.
The princess caught at a bough of the tree under which she stood, and
pulled the bough down so that its leaves half hid her face, and the
marquis saw little more than her eyes from among the foliage. And,
thus being better able to speak to him, she said, softly:
"And dare you die, unforgiven?"
"I had prayed for forgiveness before you found me, madam," said he.
"Of Heaven, my lord?"
"Of Heaven, madam. For of Heaven I dare to ask it."
[Illustration: SHE STOLE UP AND SAW MONSIEUR DE MÉROSAILLES SITTING ON
THE GROUND.]
The bough swayed up and down; and now Osra's gleaming hair, and now
her cheek, and always her eyes, were seen through the leaves. And
presently the marquis heard a voice asking:
"Does Heaven forgive unasked?"
"Indeed, no," said he, wondering.
"And," said she, "are we poor mortals kinder than Heaven?"
The marquis rose, and took a step or two towards where the bough
swayed up and down, and then knelt again.
"A great sinner," said he, "cannot believe himself forgiven."
"Then he wrongs the power of whom he seeks forgiveness; for
forgiveness is divine."
"Then I will ask it, and, if I obtain it, I shall die happy."
Again the bough swayed, and Osra said:
"Nay, if you will die, you may die unforgiven."
Monsieur de Mérosailles, hearing these words, sprang to his feet, and
came towards the bough until he was so close that he touched the green
leaves; and through them the eyes of Osra gleamed; and the sun's rays
struck on her eyes, and they danced in the sun, and her cheeks were
reddened by the same or some other cause. And the evening was very
still, and there seemed no sounds in the forest.
"I cannot believe that you forgive. The crime is so great," said he.
"It was great; yet I forgive."
"I cannot believe it," said he again, and he looked at the point of
his sword, and then he looked through the leaves at the princess.
"I can do no more than say that if you will live, I will forgive. And
we will forget."
"By Heaven, no!" he whispered. "If I must forget to be forgiven, then
I will remember and be unforgiven."
The faintest laugh reached him from among the foliage.
"Then I will forget, and you shall be forgiven," said she.
The marquis put up his hand and held a leaf aside, and he said again:
"I cannot believe myself forgiven. Is there no other token of
forgiveness?"
"Pray, my lord, do not put the leaves aside."
"I still must die, unless I have sure warrant of forgiveness."
"Ah, you try to make me think that!"
"By Heavens, it is true!" and again he pointed his sword at his heart,
and he swore on his honor that unless she gave him a token he would
still kill himself.
"Oh," said the princess, with great petulance, "I wish I had not
come!"
"Then I should have been dead by now--dead, unforgiven!"
"But you will still die!"
"Yes, I must still die, unless--"
"Sheath your sword, my lord. The sun strikes it, and it dazzles my
eyes."
"That cannot be; for your eyes are brighter than sun and sword
together."
"Then I must shade them with the leaves."
"Yes, shade them with the leaves," he whispered. "Madam, is there no
token of forgiveness?"
An absolute silence followed for a little while. Then Osra said:
"Why did you swear on your honor?"
"Because it is an oath that I cannot break."
"Indeed, I wish that I had not come," sighed Princess Osra.
Again came silence. The bough was pressed down for an instant; then it
swayed swiftly up again; and its leaves brushed the cheek of Monsieur
de Mérosailles. And he laughed loud and joyfully.
"Something touched my cheek," said he.
"It must have been a leaf," said Princess Osra.
"Ah, a leaf!"
"I think so," said Princess Osra.
"Then it was a leaf of the Tree of Life," said Monsieur de
Mérosailles.
"I wish some one would set me on my horse," said Osra.
"That you may ride back to the castle--alone?"
"Yes, unless you would relieve my brother's anxiety."
"It would be courteous to do that much," said the Marquis.
So they mounted, and rode back through the forest. In an hour the
Princess had come, and in the space of something over two hours they
returned; yet during all this time they spoke hardly a word; and
although the sun was now set, yet the glow remained on the face and
in the eyes of Princess Osra; while Monsieur de Mérosailles, being
forgiven, rode with a smile on his lips.
But when they came to the castle, Prince Rudolf ran out to meet them,
and he cried almost before he reached them.
"Hasten, hasten! There is not a moment, to lose, if the marquis
values life or liberty!" And when he came to them, he told them that
a waiting-woman had been false to Monsieur de Mérosailles, and, after
taking his money, had hid herself in his chamber, and seen the first
kiss that the princess gave him, and having made some pretext to gain
a holiday, had gone to the king, who was hunting near, and betrayed
the whole matter to him.
"And one of my gentlemen," he continued, "has ridden here to tell me.
In an hour the guards will be here, and if the king catches you, my
lord, you will hang, as sure as I live."
The princess turned very pale, but Monsieur de Mérosailles said,
haughtily, "I ask your pardon, sir, but the king dares not hang me,
for I am a gentleman and a subject of the king of France."
"Man, man!" cried Rudolf. "The Lion will hang you first and think of
all that afterward! Come, now, it is dusk. You shall dress yourself as
my groom, and I will ride to the frontier, and you shall ride behind
me, and thus you may get safe away. I cannot have you hanged over such
a trifle."
"I would have given my life willingly for what you call a trifle,
sir," said the marquis, with a bow to Osra.
"Then have the trifle and life, too," said Rudolf, decisively. "Come
in with me, and I will give you your livery."
When the prince and Monsieur de Mérosailles came out again on the
drawbridge, the evening had fallen, and it was dark; and their horses
stood at the end of the bridge, and by the horses stood the princess.
"Quick!" said she. "For a peasant who came in, bringing a load of
wood, saw a troop of men coming over the crown of the hill, and he
says they are the king's guard."
"Mount, man!" cried the prince to Monsieur de Mérosailles, who was now
dressed as a groom. "Perhaps we can get clear, or perhaps they will
not dare to stop me."
But the marquis hesitated a little, for he did not like to run away;
and the princess ran a little way forward, and, shading her eyes with
her hand, cried, "See there; I see the gleam of steel in the dark.
They have reached the top of the hill, and are riding down."
Then Prince Rudolf sprang on his horse, calling again to Monsieur de
Mérosailles: "Quick! quick! Your life hangs on it!"
Then at last the marquis, though he was most reluctant to depart, was
about to spring on his horse, when the princess turned and glided back
swiftly to them. And--let it be remembered that evening had fallen
thick and black--she came to her brother, and put out her hand, and
grasped his hand, and said:
"My lord, I forgive your wrong, and I thank you for your courtesy, and
I wish you farewell."
Prince Rudolf, astonished, gazed at her without speaking. But she,
moving very quickly in spite of the darkness, ran to where Monsieur
de Mérosailles was about to spring on his horse, and she flung one arm
lightly about his neck, and she said:
"Farewell, dear brother--God preserve you! See that no harm comes to
my good friend Monsieur de Mérosailles." And she kissed him lightly
on the cheek. Then she suddenly gave a loud cry of dismay, exclaiming,
"Alas, what have I done? Ah, what have I done?" And she hid her face
in her two hands.
Prince Rudolf burst into a loud, short laugh, yet he said nothing to
his sister, but again urged the marquis to mount his horse. And the
marquis, who was in a sad tumult of triumph and of woe, leaped up, and
they rode out, and, turning their faces towards the forest, set spurs
to their horses, and vanished at breakneck speed into the glades.
And no sooner were they gone than the troopers of the king's guard
clattered at a canter up to the end of the bridge, where the Princess
Osra stood. But when their captain saw the princess, he drew rein.
"What is your errand, sir?" she asked, most coldly and haughtily.
"Madam," said the captain, "we are ordered to bring the Marquis
de Mérosailles alive or dead into the king's presence, and we have
information that he is in the castle, unless indeed he were one of the
horsemen who rode away just now."
"The horsemen you saw were my brother the prince and his groom," said
Osra. "But if you think that Monsieur de Mérosailles is in the castle,
pray search the castle from keep to cellar; and if you find him, carry
him to my father, according to your orders."
Then the troopers dismounted in great haste, and ransacked the castle
from keep to cellar; and they found the clothes of the marquis and the
white powder with which he had whitened his face, but the marquis they
did not find. And the captain came again to the princess, who still
stood at the end of the bridge, and said:
"Madam, he is not in the castle."
"Is he not?" said she, and she turned away and, walking to the middle
of the bridge, looked down into the water of the moat.
"Was it in truth the prince's groom who rode with him, madam?" asked
the captain, following her.
"In truth, sir, it was so dark," answered the princess, "that I could
not myself clearly distinguish the man's face."
"One was the prince, for I saw you embrace him, madam."
"You do well to conclude that that was my brother," said Osra, smiling
a little.
"And to the other, madam, you gave your hand."
"And now I give it to you," said she, with haughty insolence. "And if
to my father's servant, why not to my brother's?"
And she held out her hand that he might kiss it, and turned away from
him, and looked down into the water again.
"But we found Monsieur de Mérosailles's clothes in the castle!"
persisted the captain.
"He may well have left something of his in the castle," said the
princess.
"I will ride after them!" cried the captain.
"I doubt if you will catch them," smiled the princess; for by now the
pair had been gone half an hour, and the frontier was but ten miles
from the castle, and they could not be overtaken. Yet the captain
rode off with his men, and pursued till he met Prince Rudolf returning
alone, having seen Monsieur de Mérosailles safe on his way. And Rudolf
had paid the sum of a thousand crowns to the marquis, so that the
fugitive was well provided for his journey, and, travelling with
many relays of horses, made good his escape from the clutches of King
Henry.
But the Princess Osra stayed a long time looking down at the water in
the moat. And sometimes she sighed, and then again she frowned, and,
although nobody was there, and it was very dark into the bargain, more
than once she blushed. And at last she turned to go in to the castle.
And, as she went, she murmured softly to herself:
"Why I kissed him the first time I know--it was in pity; and why I
kissed him the second time I know--it was in forgiveness. But why
I kissed him the third time, or what that kiss meant," said Osra,
"Heaven knows."
And she went in with a smile on her lips.