The Archbishop waved his hand.

“Nothing you could do would surprise me, since your interview with the Court of Archbishops.  I am on my way to Frankfort.”  Then, more seriously, to Prince Roland:  “You heard of your father’s death?”

“I learned it only this morning, my Lord.  I shall return to Frankfort when I am assured that this gentlewoman is in a place of safety.”

“Ah, Countess, there will be no lack of safety now!  But will you not ease an old man’s conscience by admitting he was in the right?”

The Countess looked up at Roland with a smile.

“Yes, dear Guardian,” she said.  “You were in the right.”

XVII

“FOR THE EMPRESS, AND NOT FOR THE EMPIRE”

While the long line of troops stood at salute in single file, the Archbishop turned his horse to the north and rode past his regiments, followed by the Countess and Roland.  His Lordship was accompanied to the end of the ranks by his general, who received final instructions regarding the march.

“You will encamp for the night not at Schloss Martinsburg, as I had intended, but a league or two up the Lahn.  To-morrow morning continue your march along the Lahn as far as Limburg, and there await my arrival.  We will enter Frankfort by the north gate instead of from the west.”

The Archbishop sat on his horse for some minutes, watching the departing force, then called Roland to his right hand, and Hildegunde to his left, and thus the three set out on the short journey to Sayn.

“Your Highness,” began the Archbishop, “I find myself in a position of some embarrassment.  I think explanations are due to me from you both.  Here I ride between two escaped prisoners, and I travel away from, instead of towards, their respective dungeons.  My plain duty, on encountering you, was to place you in custody of a sufficient guard, marching you separately the one to Pfalz and the other to Ehrenfels.  Having accomplished this I should report the case to my two colleagues, yet here am I actually compounding a misdemeanor, and assisting prisoners to escape.”

“My Lord,” spoke up Roland, “I am quite satisfied that my own imprisonment has been illegal, therefore I make no apology for circumventing it.  Before entering upon any explanation, I ask enlightenment regarding the detention of my lady of Sayn.  Am I right in surmising that she, like myself, was placed under arrest by the three Archbishops?”

“Yes, your Highness.”

“On what charge?”

“High treason.”

“Against whom?”

There was a pause, during which the Archbishop did not reply.

“I need not have asked such a question,” resumed the Prince, “for high treason can relate only to the monarch.  In what measure has her ladyship encroached upon the prerogative of the Emperor?”

“Your Highness forgets that there is such a thing as treason against the State.”