“Undoubtedly, my Lord.”

“This is a matter to which we three Electors have given the weightiest consideration, finally agreeing on one whom we believe to possess the necessary qualifications; a lady highly born, deeply religious, enormously wealthy, and exceedingly beautiful.  She is related to the most noble in the land.  I refer to Hildegunde Lauretta Priscilla Agnes, Countess of Sayn.  If there is any reason why your preference should not coincide with ours, I beg you quite frankly to state it.”

“There is no reason at all, your Lordships,” cried Roland, with a deep sigh of relief on learning that his fears were so unfounded.  “I shall be most happy and honored to wed the lady at any time your Lordships and she may select.”

“Then,” said the Archbishop of Mayence, rising to his feet and speaking with great solemnity, “you are chosen as the future Emperor of our land.”

X

A CALAMITOUS CONFERENCE

The prelate and his ward were met at the doors of Stolzenfels by the Archbishop of Treves in person, and the welcome they received left nothing to be desired in point of cordiality.  There were many servants, male and female, about the Castle, but no show of armed men.

The Countess was conducted to a room whose outlook fascinated her.  It occupied one entire floor of a square tower, with windows facing the four points of the compass, and from this height she could view the Rhine up to the stern old Castle of Marksburg, and down past Coblentz to her own realm of Sayn, where it bordered the river, although the stronghold from which she ruled this domain was hidden by the hills ending in Ehrenbreitstein.

When she descended on being called to mittagessen, she was introduced to a sister of the Archbishop of Treves, a grave, elderly woman, and to the Archbishop’s niece, a lady about ten years older than Hildegunde.  Neither of these grand dames had much to say, and the conversation at the meal rested chiefly with the two Archbishops.  Indeed, had the Countess but known it, her presence there was a great disappointment to the two noblewomen, for the close relationship of the younger to the Archbishop of Treves rendered it impossible that she should be offered the honor about to be bestowed upon the younger and more beautiful Countess von Sayn.

The Archbishop of Mayence, although a resident of the Castle, partook of refreshment in the smallest room of the suite reserved for him, where he was waited upon by his own servants and catered for by his own cook.