Yes, it was no illusion!  Yes, the door opened, and there stood the White Lady in her long, flowing robes!  The soldier did not shriek, for horror had frozen the scream upon his lips.  He tore open the door, and rushed into the corridor, and his deadly pale and terrorstricken face imparted with greater rapidity than words to the two sentinels there the dreadful tidings.  All three ran down the corridor together to the front door, down the steps, across the wide court, and into the guardroom.

“The White Lady! the White Lady!” they gasped.

“Where is she?  Who has seen her?” inquired a form emerging from the rear of the room and approaching them; and now, as the lamplight fell upon this form, the soldiers recognized it very well—­it was the Stadtholder in the Mark himself who stood before them, and behind him they saw his Chamberlain von Lehndorf and the police-master Brandt.

“Which of you has seen the White Lady?” asked Count Schwarzenberg once more.

“I, gracious sir,” stammered one of the three with difficulty.  “I was stationed before the Electoral Prince’s rooms, and I saw the White Lady enter through the little door between the two presses.”

“And whither went she?”

“That I did not see, your excellency, for—­”

“For you ran away directly,” concluded Count Schwarzenberg for him.  “And you two others!  You stood in the great corridor; did you see the apparition, too?”

“No, your excellency, we did not see her.  She did not come through the great corridor.”

“You did not see her.  Why did you run away then?”

“Your excellency, we ran away because—­because—­we do not know ourselves.”

“Well, I know,” cried the count, shrugging his shoulders.  “You ran away because you are cowards!  Hush!  No excuses now!  We shall talk about it early to-morrow morning.  Stay here in the guardroom.  I myself will go up and see what folly has frightened you hares.  Lehndorf and Brandt, both of you stay here and await my return.”

“But, most gracious sir,” implored the chamberlain, “I beg your permission to accompany you.  Nobody can know—­”

“Whether the White Lady may not stab and throttle me, would you say?  No, Lehndorf, I fear no woman’s shape, be she clothed in white or black.  I am well armed, and methinks the White Lady will find her match in me.  All of you stay here; but if I should not return in an hour, then you may mount the stairs and see whether the White Lady has borne me off through the air.—­Which of you,” he said, turning to the soldiers—­“which of you stood guard before the princely apartments?”

“It was I, your excellency.”

“Whence came the White Lady?”

“She came through the little door between the two presses in the vestibule.”

“It is well!  You will all stay here.  And, as I said, Lehndorf, if I return not in an hour, then come.”

He nodded kindly to the chamberlain and strode out of the room.