The tension this astonishing revelation caused was relieved by a laugh from the Archbishop.

“My dear Hildegunde, you are forgetting your own ancestors.  I venture that no woman of the House of Sayn talked thus when the Emperor Rudolph marched Count von Sayn to the scaffold.  You would probably sing another song if asked to restore the millions amassed by Henry III. of Sayn and his successors; all accumulated by robbery as cruel as any that the Red Margrave has perpetrated.”

“My Lord,” said the Countess proudly, “you had no need to ask that question, for you knew the answer to it before you spoke.  Every thaler I control shall be handed over to Prince Roland, to be used for the regeneration of his country.”

Again the Archbishop laughed.

“Surely I knew that, my dear, and I should not have said what I did.  I suppose you will not allow me to vote against his Highness at the coming Election.”

“Indeed, you shall vote enthusiastically for him, because you know in your own heart he is the man Germany needs.”

“Was there ever such a change of front?” cried the Archbishop.  “Why, my dear, the charges you so hotly made against his Highness are as nothing to what he has himself confessed; yet now he is the savior of Germany, when previously—­Ah, well, I must not play the tale-bearer.”

“Prince Roland,” cried the girl, “my kinsman, Father Ambrose, said he met you in Frankfort, although now I believe him to have been mistaken.”

“Oh no; I encountered the good Father on the bridge.”

“There now!” exclaimed the Archbishop, “what do you say to that, my lady?”

She seemed perplexed by the admission, but quickly replied to his Lordship: 

“’Twas you said that could not be, as he was a close prisoner in Ehrenfels.”  She continued, addressing the Prince:  “Father Ambrose asserted that you were a companion of drinkers and brawlers in a low wine cellar of Frankfort.”

“Quite true; a score of them.”

The girl became more and more perplexed.

“Did you imprison Father Ambrose?”

“Yes; in the lowest wine cellar, but only for a day or two.  I am very sorry, Madam, but it was a stern necessity of war.  He was meddling with affairs he knew nothing of, and there was no time for explanations.  He, a man of peace, would not have sanctioned what there was to do even if I had explained.”

“He says,” continued the girl, “that he saw you rob a merchant of a bag of gold.”

“That is untrue!” cried the Prince.

“My dear Hildegunde, what is the robbing of a bag of gold from a merchant when he admits having stolen gold by the castle full?”

“I robbed no merchant,” protested the Prince.  “How could Father Ambrose make such a statement?”

“He mounted an outside stairway on the Fahrgasse, and through lighted windows on the opposite side saw you place the point of your sword at the throat of an unarmed merchant, and take from him a bag of gold.”