"She is a stubborn jade," he mumbled. "It would be an excellent lesson for her. She needs to be taught that I am her king," and then as though his conscience required a sop, "I shall be very good to her. Afterward she will be happy." He turned toward Zellerndorf. "You think it can be done?""Most assuredly, your majesty. We shall take immediate steps to fetch the Princess Emma to Blentz," and the Aus-trian rose and backed from the apartment lest the king change his mind. Prince Peter and Maenck followed him.
Princess Emma von der Tann sat in her boudoir in her father's castle in the Old Forest. Except for servants, she was alone in the fortress, for Prince von der Tann was in Lustadt. Her mind was occupied with memories of the young American who had entered her life under such strange circumstances two years before--memories that had been awakened by the return of Lieutenant Otto Butzow to Lutha.
He had come directly to her father and had been attached to the prince's personal staff.
From him she had heard a great deal about Barney Custer, and the old interest, never a moment forgotten dur-ing these two years, was reawakened to all its former in-tensity.
Butzow had accompanied Prince Ludwig to Lustadt, but Princess Emma would not go with them. For two years she had not entered the capital, and much of that period had been spent in Paris. Only within the past fortnight had she returned to Lutha.
In the middle of the morning her reveries were inter-rupted by the entrance of a servant bearing a message. She had to read it twice before she could realize its purport;though it was plainly worded--the shock of it had stunned her. It was dated at Lustadt and signed by one of the palace functionaries:
Prince von der Tann has suffered a slight stroke. Do not be alarmed, but come at once. The two troopers who bear this message will act as your escort.
It required but a few minutes for the girl to change to her riding clothes, and when she ran down into the court she found her horse awaiting her in the hands of her groom, while close by two mounted troopers raised their hands to their helmets in salute.
A moment later the three clattered over the drawbridge and along the road that leads toward Lustadt. The escort rode a short distance behind the girl, and they were hard put to it to hold the mad pace which she set them.
A few miles from Tann the road forks. One branch leads toward the capital and the other winds over the hills in the direction of Blentz. The fork occurs within the boundaries of the Old Forest. Great trees overhang the winding road, casting a twilight shade even at high noon. It is a lonely spot, far from any habitation.
As the Princess Emma approached the fork she reined in her mount, for across the road to Lustadt a dozen horse-men barred her way. At first she thought nothing of it, turning her horse's head to the righthand side of the road to pass the party, all of whom were in uniform; but as she did so one of the men reined directly in her path. The act was obviously intentional.
The girl looked quickly up into the man's face, and her own went white. He who stopped her way was Captain Ernst Maenck. She had not seen the man for two years, but she had good cause to remember him as the governor of the castle of Blentz and the man who had attempted to take advantage of her helplessness when she had been a prisoner in Prince Peter's fortress. Now she looked straight into the fellow's eyes.
"Let me pass, please," she said coldly.
"I am sorry," replied Maenck with an evil smile; "but the king's orders are that you accompany me to Blentz--the king is there."For answer the girl drove her spur into her mount's side.
The animal leaped forward, striking Maenck's horse on the shoulder and half turning him aside, but the man clutched at the girl's bridle-rein, and, seizing it, brought her to a stop.
"You may as well come voluntarily, for come you must,"he said. "It will be easier for you."
"I shall not come voluntarily," she replied. "If you take me to Blentz you will have to take me by force, and if my king is not sufficiently a gentleman to demand an account-ing of you, I am at least more fortunate in the possession of a father who will.""Your father will scarce wish to question the acts of his king," said Maenck--"his king and the husband of his daughter.""What do you mean?" she cried.
"That before you are many hours older, your highness, you will be queen of Lutha."The Princess Emma turned toward her tardy escort that had just arrived upon the scene.
"This person has stopped me," she said, "and will not permit me to continue toward Lustadt. Make a way for me;you are armed!"
Maenck smiled. "Both of them are my men," he explained.
The girl saw it all now--the whole scheme to lure her to Blentz. Even then, though, she could not believe the king had been one of the conspirators of the plot.
Weak as he was he was still a Rubinroth, and it was difficult for a Von der Tann to believe in the duplicity of a member of the house they had served so loyally for cen-turies. With bowed head the princess turned her horse into the road that led toward Blentz. Half the troopers pre-ceded her, the balance following behind.
Maenck wondered at the promptness of her surrender.
"To be a queen--ah! that was the great temptation," he thought but he did not know what was passing in the girl's mind. She had seen that escape for the moment was im-possible, and so had decided to bide her time until a more propitious chance should come. In silence she rode among her captors. The thought of being brought to Blentz alive was unbearable.
Somewhere along the road there would be an opportunity to escape. Her horse was fleet; with a short start he could easily outdistance these heavier cavalry animals and as a last resort she could--she must--find some way to end her life, rather than to be dragged to the altar beside Leopold of Lutha.
