Clementina

his back among the dead leaves, and looking upwards at the stars, caught as it seemed in a lattice-work of branches, floated back into consciousness. He mo

e lackey with the knife in his breast hopping with both feet horribly across the floor,-the horror of these recollections swept in upon him and changed him from a man into a timorous child. He lay and

e came to the borders of a wide, smooth lawn, and on the farther side stood the house,-a long, two-storeyed house with level tiers of windows stretching to the right and the left,

door of the stove stood open, and Wogan could see the logs blazing merrily. A chill wind swept across the lawn, very drear and ghostly. Wogan crept closer to the window. A great boar-hound rose at the old man's feet and growled; then the old man

word to his hound,

ith a thrill not of fear but

life, who would gladly sit for a few minute

tered from head to foot with mud, his clothes were torn, his eye

t I have gone through so much these last three nights that I can barely stand;" and drop

n closed t

n, and in my house you ar

t as he felt the spirit warming his blood, he became aware of the great difference between his battered appearance and that of the old gentleman with the rich dress and the white linen who stooped so hospitably above him, and he began to wonder at the re

ld. I plump in upon you in the dark of the morning, as I take it to be,

ached neither their ears nor mine." And he drew up a chair and sat down opposite to Wogan, bending forward with his hands upon his knees. The firel

or your plate, and no particular scruples as to a

ount

and he smiled rather sadly. "I let him in and he talked to me for an hour of matters strange and dreamlike, and enviable to me. I have never forgotten that hour, nor to tell the truth have I ever ceased to envy the man who talked to me during it, though

rief, passionate, guilty life and mysterious end had made so much noise in the world, had crossed that l

t Philip von K?nigsmarck no d

gsmarck told me only that he had snatched a breathing space from the wars in the Low Countries and was bound thither again. Rumour told me afterwards of his fatal attachment. He sat where you sit, Chevalier, wounded as you are, a fugitive from pursuit. Eve

n, with a smile, "they have

ng a lamp from a table by th

few days, the fatigue of his arduous journey, the fever of his wounds, no doubt, had their effect upon him. He felt that K?nigsmarck was at his side; his eyes could almost discer

. For love of a queen all my short life I lived. For love of a queen I died most horribly;

imprisoned; he had once caught a glimpse of her driving in the dusk

that corner of his life might await him. He was the victim of illusions, he assured himself, at which to-morrow safe in Schlestadt he would laugh. But to-night the illusions were r

over the fire. The Count carried a basin of water in his hand and a sponge and som

will restore you." He went from the room again and brought back a tra

gsmarck himself come back as mysteriously as he disappeared. I did not think that if he came back now his hair would be as white, his shoulders as bent, as mine. Indeed, one cannot think of

no words more distressi

y an example of how little I merit a comparison with that courtly nobleman. Let me repair it by telling you, since you are willing to hear, of my night's adventure." And as he at

g at each danger that sprang upon Wogan, exclaiming in wonder at the shift by which he escap

ndeavour," he mused and broke off. "See, I own a sword, being a gentleman. But it is a toy, an ornament; it stands

e pinch comes, they are one's only servants. It woul

he said timidly, "It was for a woman, no

woman

d his hands and

persuade them, the thoughts which their eyes conceal,-all these qualities make them beings of another world to me. I do envy men

such men?"

h as Count K?nigsm

up his hand

k prove it? As for myself, not even in that respect can I be ranked with K

sk you ran; you told

no, no, no!" he exclaimed with surprisin

e, "you have never had a more grate

s born of many long solitary evenings, and like most timid and uncommuni

n to his earth. The next he could not conceive any man should be such a witless ass as to stake his happiness on the steadiness of so manifest a weathercock as a woman's favour. It was all very strange talk; it opened to me, just as when a fog lifts and rolls down again, a momentary vision of a world of colours in which I had no share; and to tell the truth it left me with a suspicion which has recurred again and again, that all my so

ing Wogan to follow him, unlatched the

her I might be yet deeper in you

down and took a sword fr

might well prove a serviceable weapon. The blade is

could not but think that over his books he had fallen into a sickly way of thought. He was quite ready,

y, "a very useful thing is a pistol

setting the lamp down, "if you can wait th

ntly generous to tell Count Otto that he need not hurry.

u now fo

re him into the air and sp

; but there is just one thing more useful on an oc

to shook

er, I doubt if

icking up a carving-knife from th

s no s

go so far as to ask even his dearest friend for a sheath.

I need is a sound, swift, thoroughbr

he fourth time t

me?" he said fo

ouse until he came to a long, low building surmounted by a cupola. The

"Flavia is a mare who, I fanc

that she had no complaint to make of Mr. Wogan. Count Otto laid his hand upon the bridle a

at my books are the true happiness after all. But to-night-well, to-night I would fain be twenty years of age, that I might fling my books over the hedge and ride out with you, my sword

d by the old gen

in remembrance of your great goodwill to a strang

And which

stood straining his eyes after him. There was something pathetical in his discontent with his secluded life which touched Wogan to the heart. Wogan was not sure that in the morning the old man would know that the part he had chosen was, after all, the best. Besides, Wogan had between his knees the most friendly and intelligent beast which he had ridden since that morning when he met Lady Feather