The Wager of the Marquis de Mérosailles.
In the year 1734, as spring began, there arrived at Strelsau a French
nobleman of high rank and great possessions, endowed also 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 M. de Mérosailles--for such was his name--most
graciously, and sent a guard of honour 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 M. 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 towards the gardens; for the new _château_
that now stands on the site of these gardens was not then built. And one
night M. 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
shewed 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 honour, 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 M. 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."
The Marquis, being no less merry, and knowing that Rudolf had not the
regard for his dignity that a Prince should have, threw out carelessly:
"A kiss is more, sir."
"It is a great deal more," laughed the Prince, tugging his moustache.
"Are you ready for a wager, sir?" asked M. de Mérosailles, leaning
across the table towards 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 that 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 device could M. 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.
Therefore 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 armoury that the Marquis de Mérosailles did not
practise in the endeavour 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.
Then, one day, M. 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 his 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: the longer the face of
the rascally physician grew the more sad the Princess became: 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 his 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
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.
[Illustration: THE PHYSICIAN RECEIVES PRINCESS OSRA.--_Page 56._]
Deceived by this appeal, Princess Osra agreed to go; moved by some
strange impulse, she put on her choicest array, dressed her hair most
splendidly, and came into the 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 was 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 compunction and pity, that M. 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, 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. Then I shall die in peace."
At that the Princess blushed still more, and her eyes were wet, and
shone, for she was deeply touched at his misery and at the sad prospect
of the death for love of so gallant a gentleman. Thus she could scarcely
speak for emotion; and the Marquis seeing her emotion was himself deeply
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; he felt her eyelashes, which were wet with
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 M. de Mérosailles had won one of his three kisses; yet, strange to
tell, there was no triumph in him, but now he 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; nothing would serve his turn but to confess to the Princess
what he had done, humbling himself in the dust before her, and
entreating her to pardon him and let him find forgiveness.
Impelled by these feelings, after he had lain still a few moments
listening to the Princess weeping, he leapt suddenly out of bed, showing
himself fully dressed under the bed-gown 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
that unless she forgave him he should in very truth die; nay, that he
would not consent to live unless he could win from her pardon for his
deceit. And in all this he was now 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
half way 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 finished his confession, and she understood the trick that had been
played on 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 on her, and that there was no more
truth or honesty in his present protestations than in those which went
before, she fell into great shame and into a great rage; her eyes
flashed like the eyes of her father himself, as she rose to her feet and
looked down on M. 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 her gesture) and she picked her steps daintily round him, for
fear she should happen to come in contact with so foul a thing. Thus she
walked to 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. He started up to follow her, but dared
not; he flung himself on the bed in a paroxysm of shame and vexation,
and now of love also, and he cried out loud:
"Then my death shall blot it out, since nothing else will serve!"
He was in a desperate mood. For a long time he lay there, and then,
having risen, dressed himself in a sombre suit of black, and buckled his
sword by his side, and, having put on his riding boots and summoned 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 M. de Mérosailles dressed
all in black from the feather in his hat 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. "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 of many a better reason, then," answered the Prince.
By now the Prince had dismounted, and he stood by M. 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. But 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 now she 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 M.
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; 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 the 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:
"M. de Mérosailles has taken his leave then?"
"Even so, madame," 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
Rudolf must 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 daresay 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; 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-humour 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 M. de Mérosailles, and had no
patience with men who let love make dead bones of them.
The Princess Osra, being left alone, sat for a little time in deep
thought. There rose before her mind the picture of M. 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 marks of the hoofs of M. 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 M. de Mérosailles sitting on the
ground, his drawn sword lying beside him; and his back was towards her.
She held her breath and waited 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. But Osra, fearing that the deed would be done immediately, called
out eagerly, "My lord, my lord!" and M. 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:
[Illustration: "SHE SAW M. DE MÉROSAILLES SITTING ON THE
GROUND."--_Page 66._]
"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, madame?" 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 on the ground. "I pray you, madame, 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 the 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. 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, madame," said he.
"Of heaven, my lord?"
"Of heaven, madame. For of heaven I dare to ask it."
The bough swayed up and down; 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," he said, wondering.
"And," she said, "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 which 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."
M. 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; through them the eyes of Osra gleamed: 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
were 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 cannot do 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 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 heaven, it is true!" And again he pointed his sword at his heart,
and he swore on his honour 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----"
"Sheathe 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. "Madame, is there no
token of forgiveness?"
In the silence that followed his eyes spoke, at last she said:
"Why did you swear on your honour?"
"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 M. de
Mérosailles. And he laughed loudly 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 M. 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 M. 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 M. 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 M. 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 afterwards! 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 derisively. "Come in
with me, and I will give you your livery!"
When the Prince and M. de Mérosailles came out again on the drawbridge
the evening had fallen, and it was dark; 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 M. 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; but
the Princess ran a little 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 M. 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 M. 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, M. 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, leapt up; and they rode
out, and turning their faces towards the forest, set spurs to their
horses and vanished at a 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.
"Madame, 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 M. 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. So the captain came again to the Princess, who still stood
at the end of the bridge, and said:
"Madame, he is not in the castle."
"Is he not?" said she, and 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, madame?" 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, madame."
"You do well to conclude that that was my brother," said Osra, smiling a
little.
"And to the other, madame, 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 M. 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 M. 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. 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 into the castle.
But, 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.