Without a moment’s delay, he dashed through the woods, striving to get home without the young girl’s perceiving him.  His movements in the underwood caught the Duke’s eye.

“Who is there?” exclaimed he, moving towards the spot from whence the rustling came.  There was no reply.  Surely he had not been mistaken.  Calling to Bruno, he strove to put him on the scent, but the dog showed no signs of eagerness.  He sniffed about for a time, and seemed to linger near one special spot.  The Duke moved towards it, and distinctly saw the impression of two knees upon the grass.

“Some one has been eavesdropping,” muttered he, much enraged at his discovery.  “Who can it be?  Has Norbert escaped from his prison?”

As he returned through the courtyard, he called one of the grooms to him.

“Where is my son?” asked he.

“Upstairs, your Grace,” was the answer.

The Duke breathed more freely.  Norbert was still in security, and therefore could not have been the person who had been listening.

“But,” added the lad, “the young master is half frantic.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he declared that he would not remain in his room an instant longer; so old Jean called for help.  He is awfully strong, and it took six of us to hold him.  He said that if we would let him go, he would return in two hours, and that his honor and life were involved.”

The Duke listened with a sarcastic smile.  He cared nothing about the frantic struggles of his son, for his heart had grown cold and hard from the presence of the fixed idea which had actuated his conduct for so many years, and it was with the solemn face of a man who was fulfilling a sacred duty that he ascended to the room in which his son was imprisoned.  Jean threw open the door, and the Duke paused for a moment on the threshold.  The furniture had been overturned, some of it broken, and there were evident signs of a furious struggle having taken place.

A powerful laborer stood near the window, and Norbert was lying on the bed, with his face turned to the wall.

“Leave us,” said the Duke, and the man withdrew at once.

“Get up, Norbert,” he added; “I wish to speak to you.”

His son obeyed him.  Any one but the Duke would have been alarmed by the expression of the young man’s face.

“What is the meaning of all this?” asked the old nobleman in his most severe voice.  “Are not my orders sufficient to insure obedience?  I hear that absolute force has had to be used towards you during my absence.  Tell me, my son, what plans you have devised during these hours of solitude, and what hopes you still venture to cherish.”

“I intend to be free, and I will be so.”

The Duke affected not to hear the reply, uttered as it was in a tone of derision.

“It was very easy for me to discover, from your obstinacy, that some woman had endeavored to entrap you, and by her insidious counsels inducing you to disobey your best friend.”