There was more anger and less despondency than was often heard in his voice.  Wogan raised himself again on tiptoes and noticed that the Chevalier’s face was flushed and his eyes bright with wrath.

“Sir,” pleaded Hay, “the Princess’s mother would not abate a man.”

“Well, you reached Ratisbon.  And there?”

“There the English minister came forward from the town to flout us with an address of welcome in which he used not our incognitos but our true names.”

“From Ratisbon then no doubt you hurried?  Since you were discovered, you shed your retinue and hurried?”

“Sir, we hurried—­to Augsburg,” faltered Hay.  He stopped, and then in a burst of desperation he said, “At Augsburg we stayed eight days.”

“Eight days?”

There was a stir throughout the room; a murmur began and ceased.  Wogan wiped his forehead and crushed his handkerchief into a hard ball in his palm.  It seemed to him that here in this room he could see the Princess Clementina’s face flushed with the humiliation of that loitering.

“And why eight days in Augsburg?”

“The Princess’s mother would have her jewels reset.  Augsburg is famous for its jewellers,” stammered Hay.

The murmur rose again; it became almost a cry of stupefaction.  The Chevalier sprang from his chair.  “Her jewels reset!” he said.  He repeated the words in bewilderment.  “Her jewels reset!” Then he dropped again into his seat.

“I lose a wife, gentlemen, and very likely a kingdom too, so that a lady may have her jewels reset at Augsburg, where, to be sure, there are famous jewellers.”

His glance, wandering in a dazed way about the room, settled again on Hay.  He stamped his foot on the ground in a feverish irritation.

“And those eight days gave just the time for a courier from the Emperor at Vienna to pass you on the road and not press his horse.  One should be glad of that.  It would have been a pity had the courier killed his horse.  Oh, I can fashion the rest of the story for myself.  You trailed on to Innspruck, where the Governor marched out with a troop and herded you in.  They let you go, however.  No doubt they bade you hurry back to me.”

“Sir, I did hurry,” said Hay, who was now in a pitiable confusion.  “I travelled hither without rest.”

The anger waned in the Chevalier’s eyes as he heard the plea, and a great dejection crept over his face.

“Yes, you would do that,” said he.  “That would be the time for you to hurry with a pigeon’s swiftness so that your King might taste his bitter news not a minute later than need be.  And what said she upon her arrest?”

“The Princess’s mother?” asked Hay, barely aware of what he said.

“No.  Her Highness, the Princess Clementina.  What said she?”

“Sir, she covered her face with her hands for perhaps the space of a minute.  Then she leaned forward to the Governor, who stood by her carriage, and cried, ’Shut four walls about me quick!  I could sink into the earth for shame.’”