Clementina

would be at once an end to his small chances. The old man would take alarm; he might punish the offender, but he would none the less

ess. He must play cards with her and Prince Constantine in the evening; he must take his coffee in her

confusion and corrected himself quickly. "At leas

alf an hour before a man came riding by in hot haste. The man wore the Countess's livery of green and scarlet; Wogan decided not to travel by way of Prague, and returned to the castle content with his afternoon's work. He had indeed more reason to be content with it than he knew, for he happened to have remarked the servant's face as well as his livery, and so at a later time was able to recognise it again. He had no longer any doubt that a servant in the same livery was well upon his way to Vienna.

e a rap upon his door, and when he opened it he saw the Prin

s has hinted to me his desires; he has moulded

has bidden yo

e speech. His Highness did most prettily entreat me with a fine gentleness of condescension befitting a Sunday or a New Year's Day to bring and p

reasurer to enter and be seated

any raw-head or bloody-bones. The cruel, irrevocable moments pass. I could consu

ot doubt it,

ating with your most particular and inestimable treasures this jewel, this

cket. It was of the size of an egg. He place

take it,

quoise, Mr. Warner. Jewellers have delved in it. It has b

not ta

rescue and enlarge it from its slavery to the Grand Vizier of Tur

the treasu

for his kindness, and you will say furthermore these words: 'Mr. Warner cann

easurer had no words to answer him. He stood

every circumstance of me trembles," and shaking hi

olicits your company to a solitary dinner. You shall dine with him alone. His presence

h a day, and he was not mistaken; for as soon as the Prince was served in a little room,

your honour. I trust myself entirely to your discretion; I confide my beloved daughter to your care. Take from my hands the gi

and. That very night he received the letter giving him full powers, and the next morning he drove off in a carriage of his Highness drawn by six Polish horses towards the town of Strahlen on the road to Pr

Countess of Berg and Lady Featherstone had the advantage of him by some four days. There would be no lack of money to hinder him; there would be no scruple as to the means. Wogan reme

er to Schlestadt. The paper became a talisman in his thoughts,-a thing endowed with magic properties to make him invisible like the cloak or cap of the fairy tales. Those few lines in writing not a week back had seemed an unattainable prize, yet he had them; and so now they promise

the monotony of the plain's appearance, that though he had had the village within his vision all that while, he came upon it unawares. The dusk was gathering, and already through the tiny windows the meagre lights gleamed upon the road and gave to the falling rai

here a traveller m

forage for his horse. The last house-but

iend, that you should ta

About twenty yards farther a house stood by itself at the roadside, but there were only lights in one or two of the upper windows, and it held out no promise of hospitality. In front of it, however, the man stopped; he opened the door and halloaed into

anced at that mo

rse to the stable;" and the fellow wh

ogan. "Ah!" And he followed

ad been newly painted, for in the narr

are wet. It will be best if you stand st

doorway, and Wogan caught a glimpse of a brick-floored kitchen and a great open chimney and one or two men on

so that a traveller on a rainy night may not miss his bed should at l

ewly painted too. He had, at all events, no such scruples about the kitchen door, for he seized the handle and flung it open quickly. He was met at once by a cold draught of wind. A door opposite an

ried after him as he turned from the

" at once said a woman who was reac

ards the passage and sa

sir," said he, lookin

on that account," said Wogan as he took

pot swung over the fire by a chain, and the lid danced on the top and allowed a savoury

e, and his wife was his very complement. "You laugh at my paint, but it is, after all, a very important thing. What is a great lady without

phy in the compar

n a tub because the follies of his fellows so angered him was the greatest fool of them all. He should have kept an in

the fireplace and lift

r is ready

ou are eating it you can t

already," said Wogan, "a

said the landlord, and while Wogan drew a cha

from floor to ceiling; his last words bade me pinch and save until I could paint. Well, here is the house painted, and I am anxious for a new device and name which shall obliterate the memory of the other

tarted ever

his thoughts ran, "the sooner you reach Schlestadt the better. Here are you bleating like a sheep at a mere cha

nied him up the stairs to bed. Other men of his age were now seated comfortably by their own hearths, while he was hurrying about Eur

great canopied bed and little other furniture. There was not even a curt

of your new paint on yo

ked the door," said hi

ith a yawn; "the door

n a comparison." The landlord raised and

," said Wogan, and he drew off his boots. The landlo

ly, having a host of friends whom he had merely to seek out; he took the charges from his pistol lest they should be damp, and renewed them and placed the pistols by the candle. He had even begun to pity himself for his loneliness, and pity of that sort, he recognised, was a discreditable quality; the matter was altogether very disquieting. He propped his sword against the chair and undressed. Wogan cast back in his memories for the first sen

ood that his loneliness came upon him with the respite from his difficulties, and concluded that, after all, it was as well that he had not a comfortable fireside whereby to sun himself. He

e was hanged would groan and creak, and the populace, mistaking that groaning for his cries, scoffed at him and ridiculed his King for sending to rescue the Princess Clementina a marrowless thing that could not die like a man. Wogan stirred in his sleep and waked up. The rain had ceased, and a ligh

r his inn." He propped the board against the left side of his bed, since that was nearest to the window,

his face towards the door, dreamily considering that the landlord, for all his pride in his new paint, had employed a bad wor

of the eyes such as he had known to have befallen him before when he had stared for a long while on any particular object: the strip of blac

did he betray that he was awake. He had not locked the door of his room; that widening strip of black ran vertically down from the lintel to the ground and

ed. The strip of black ceased to widen, there was a slight scuffling sound upon the floor which Wogan w

which might be hiding in the pockets. But here Wogan was wrong. For he saw a dark thing suddenly on the counterpane at the edge of the bed. The dark thing travelled upwards very softly; it had four fingers and a thumb. It was, no doubt, travelling towards the pillow, and as soon as it got t

and the hand disappeared. As if in his sleep, he flung out his left arm and felt for the sign-board standing beside his bed. The bed was soft. Wogan wanted somethin

he bed. It seemed that he could not rest on his left side, for he flung over again to his right and pulled the bedclothes over as he turned. The sign-board now lay flat upon the bed, but on the rig

HIS HUNTING KNIFE DOWN INTO T

eded. He sat up, and with his right arm he drove his hunting knife down into the back of the hand and pinned it fast to the board; with his left he felt for, found, and gripped a mouth already open to cry out. He dropped his hunting knife

house was quite silent, quite dark. Wogan shut the door gently-there was no key in the lock-and bending over the bed looked into the face

and had guided him to the inn; there was still a third who had gone out of the

ped the letter from under his pillow into a pocket, strapped his saddle-bag and lowered it from the window by a blanket. He had already one leg on the sill when a convulsive movement

by but will stop to inquire the reason of so conspicuous a sign;" and Wogan climbed out of the window, lowered himself till he hung at the full length of his arms from the stanchion, and dropped on the ground. He picked up his saddle-bag and crept ro

ut without much c

door handle." Certainly Wogan needed Misset if he was to succeed in his endeavour. He was sunk in humiliation; his very promise to rescue the Princess shrank from its grandeur and became a me