“He is very hard and determined,” said Weber.  “In my secret work for France I have seen him more than once, and I know his character and family history thoroughly.  An immense pride of birth and blood.  Great courage and resolution and a belief that he, as a prince of the old stock, entitled to what he wishes.”

“Out of place in our day.”

“It may be.  But war favors his beliefs, and now he holds the whip hand.  The beautiful Mademoiselle Julie was his prisoner for a short time before, and you will pardon me for telling you, what you must have surmised, Mr. Scott, that her youth, her marvelous beauty and her courage and spirit, so befitting one who bears the name of Lannes, have made a great appeal to His Highness.  That is why, under the cover of storm and battle, he has carried her away.”

“The monster!”

“Not so bad as that, Mr. Scott.  There are some things that even a prince would not dare in this comparatively mild age of ours.  The Prince of Auersperg is a widower with no children.  He will offer her a morganatic marriage.”

“A morganatic marriage!  And what is that?  Neither the one nor the other.  It’s a disgrace for any woman!  A mere halfway marriage!”

“It would be legal, and she’d have a title.”

“A title!  What would that amount to?”

“I’ve heard that you Americans are fond of titles, and that your rich women bring their daughters to Europe to marry them!”

“An infinitesimal minority, Weber.  It’s true that we have such foolish women, but the rest of us regard them with contempt.”

“He could offer her vast wealth and even as a morganatic wife a great position.”

“I think you’re testing me.  Weber, trying to see what I will say.  Well, I will say this.  I don’t believe that Julie would accept Auersperg on any terms, not if he were to make her a real princess of the oldest princely house in the world, not if he were to lay the fortunes of the Rothschilds at her feet.  She is of good French republican stock, and she is a thorough republican herself.”

Weber smiled a little.

“Your faith in Mademoiselle Lannes is great,” he said, “and I can see that it proceeds, in part at least, from a just and pure emotion.”

John reddened.  He saw that he had laid bare his soul, but he was not ashamed.  Once more he strengthened his heart and now he resolved upon a plan.

“The snowfall is decreasing fast,” he said.  “Auersperg and his troop can’t be far from here.  The traveling is too hard for them to travel swiftly, even if they have automobiles.  I shall go to the hospital camp, raise a force and search the country.  The commandant will give me soldiers readily, because it would be worth while to capture such a man as Auersperg—­behind our lines, too.”

“I don’t wish to discourage you,” said Weber, “but I doubt whether you can find him.”

“Maybe so and maybe not,” said John, and then he remembered the automobile in which Julie and the Picards had come.  Doubtless it was safe behind the cathedral where they had left it, and he could force it through the snow much faster than he could walk.