“The horsemen you saw were my brother the prince and his groom,” said Osra.  “But if you think that Monsieur de Merosailles 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 Merosailles’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 Merosailles 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.

MISS TARBELL’S LIFE OF LINCOLN.