It seems one needs more a.s.surance than the honor of a lady-in-waiting!"
"Your highness may recall," said d.i.c.k, "that her promise was made on your a.s.surance that a certain person was dead. Did that lie, and the plot by which her brother was tricked into his peril, comport with the honor of a sovereign prince? But this is wasting time and talk.
Mademoiselle de St. Valier and I intend to leave this palace unhindered and unpursued. It rests with you as to the state in which you shall be left behind."
The Landgrave looked bewildered. It seemed incredible that a ruling prince should be so helplessly placed, in his own palace, but a second glance a.s.sured him that this was no dream,--that the locked door, the sword in d.i.c.k"s hand, and the expression on d.i.c.k"s face, were very actual facts.
"Mademoiselle de St. Valier shall never go," his highness said at last.
"As for you, I will let you pa.s.s out free. I cannot forget the service you rendered the Landgravine."
d.i.c.k gave a short laugh of derision. "Can I not get it through your thick skull," he said, "that I am the one in position to offer terms?
You sovereign princes of Germany, we are told, have absolute power, but you seem to be very stupid. In my country, we are quicker to grasp a situation. It is a country, too, that has recently declared all men to be, in their rights, created equal. So you see that, to me, the blood of a prince is no more sacred than another man"s!"
At this moment there came from the door one of those creaking or straining sounds that seem to occur unaccountably.
The Landgrave gave a start of elation, as if this sound betokened an interruption. But d.i.c.k instantly flashed his sword before the Landgrave"s eyes, and said:
"If any one breaks in while I am here, he will find something stretched on the floor, and to-morrow the people will cry "Long live the Landgrave!" for your son. You see that each moment we lose is as dangerous to you as to me, because it brings the possibility of interruption."
The noise at the door proved to signify nothing; whereupon the Landgrave, who had given a shudder at d.i.c.k"s picture of the possible morrow, now showed as much relief as he had first shown pleasure.
"Then what do you request?" asked the Landgrave, trying to conceal, by his best pretence of dignity, his inward rage and chagrin.
"I request nothing," said d.i.c.k. "I demand nothing. I merely offer to leave without harming you, on condition that you will not give any alarm of our departure, or orders for our pursuit."
"Very well, I agree," said the Landgrave, with a readiness that made d.i.c.k laugh again.
"Of course you do, for you think you can break the condition, and have us stopped by your guards before we are out of the city, or even out of the palace. I must provide against that."
"I give you my word of honor, neither to leave this room nor to make any alarm, till daybreak."
"It seems, one needs better a.s.surance than the honor of a sovereign prince," said d.i.c.k, imitating the Landgrave"s own words with a slight alteration. He then took from his pocket a phial given him at the riverside by Romberg, who had provided himself, on hearing of the trick played on the conspirators, with means of self-destruction in case of capture. d.i.c.k quickly took up a pitcher of water from the table, poured some of it into a gla.s.s, uncorked the phial with his teeth, and dropped a small portion of the liquid into the water. Meanwhile, Catherine, foreseeing d.i.c.k"s plans, put on a hooded cloak, and gathered up her purse and what small things of value she desired to retain.
"Drink this," said d.i.c.k to the Landgrave, from whom he had not for an instant taken his eyes.
"What do you mean?" said the Landgrave, turning pale.
"To make it easier for you to keep your princely word, your highness!
Don"t be afraid. It takes more than this quant.i.ty to kill a man. What is here will merely enable you to pa.s.s the few hours till daybreak in sleep. It would be a pity so great a prince should suffer from insomnia or ennui during that length of time! Drink, man! I am becoming a little bored with this place, myself."
An impatient movement of the sword--which weapon d.i.c.k had so managed as to check every one of his highness"s numerous impulses to rush upon him--ended Frederick"s hesitation. He petulantly drank the contents of the gla.s.s, and handed it back to d.i.c.k, who motioned him to put it on the table and to go to the couch.
"Call Antoine," said d.i.c.k to Catherine, following the Landgrave close to the couch on which the latter dropped.
Noiselessly Catherine unlocked the door and let in the two servants.
Gretel, as soon as she saw what was up, begged to be taken along, and found a cloak for herself in the room. Antoine, at d.i.c.k"s whispered direction, took coverings from the bed in the alcove, and knotted them together so as to form a means of descent from the balcony. Meanwhile, Catherine had relocked the door and possessed herself of the phial, which d.i.c.k had placed on the table.
"Come," said d.i.c.k, taking Catherine"s hand and leading the way towards the open window, when at last the Landgrave slept. "Put out the light, Antoine, and let us hasten. In a few hours, that old snoring rascal will be a prince again!"
CHAPTER XXI.
"THE ROAD TO PARIS."
d.i.c.k descended first, then came Catherine, Gretel next, Antoine last.
While the four were speeding, in the darkness, from the open grounds of the palace, Antoine bethought him that he had not yet dismissed the horse on which he had come from Spangenberg. He therefore went and got the animal, in sight of the guards at one of the doors, who supposed he had left the palace by another exit. He then rode boldly out of the town, crossing the bridge to take the Melsungen road. As he not only knew the pa.s.sword for all guards and patrols, but was also known to have been riding on the Landgrave"s business, he was not detained a moment on the bridge. He rode on to a place that d.i.c.k had named as a rendezvous.
Meanwhile, d.i.c.k and the two women joined Romberg at the riverside, silently got aboard the boat, and rowed up the Fulda to a point some distance out of the city. Here they disembarked and found the two horses where the gentlemen had left them. In a few minutes they, too, were pressing forward on the Melsungen road, Catherine mounted behind d.i.c.k, Gretel behind Romberg.
"What road is this?" asked Catherine, whose sense of locality and direction had been confused by the darkness and the haste.
"It leads first to Melsungen," said d.i.c.k, "but for us it is merely the first stage of the road to Paris; we shall not stop, except to eat and sleep and change horses, till we arrive there."
d.i.c.k felt certain he could now return to Paris without incurring danger there. He would make himself known at once to the American commissioners, and so establish connections that would not allow of his being imprisoned again without inquiry. As a citizen of a country now France"s ally in war, he would have little, if anything, to fear from Necker, as long as he should act prudently. As for the secret Brotherhood, perhaps it no longer existed. Now that he had not four armed men at his elbows, he felt he could take care of himself. But he trusted most to the likelihood of his being unrecognized after such a lapse of time.
Meanwhile, he was yet several days" journey from Paris, and far from being out of the dominion of his friend, Frederick II. of Hesse-Ca.s.sel.
When the four riders, on the two horses, neared the place where Antoine was to have waited, they heard a horse coming towards them from ahead, and soon the dark figure that loomed up on its back proved to be his.
"Monsieur," he said to d.i.c.k, "there is a body of hors.e.m.e.n approaching from the direction of Melsungen. They must be the troops that the Landgrave sent in search of you after your escape yesterday." Antoine had been informed of recent occurrences by the messenger whom he had accompanied to Spangenberg.
"Shall we turn back and take the by-road we pa.s.sed awhile ago?" asked d.i.c.k, of Romberg, who was better acquainted with the country.
"It is the only thing to do," said Romberg, suiting action to the word by turning his horse.
When the party had moved a few rods back towards Ca.s.sel, there came from the direction of the city a sullen boom, breaking with startling effect the silence of the night.
"The alarm-gun," said Romberg, checking his horse.
"That is fired for deserters, is it not?" said d.i.c.k, following his example.
"But deserters might have robbed gentlemen, and taken their clothes and horses, with which to escape," said Romberg. "That gun warns the country to look out for fugitives of any kind."
"The Landgrave must have awakened too soon and given the alarm," said d.i.c.k. "I let him off with too small a dose."
At that instant there was heard a distant hollow sound like thunder, but less uneven.
"Hors.e.m.e.n galloping over the bridge at Ca.s.sel," said Romberg.
"A pursuing party, without any doubt," said d.i.c.k. "Hang my thoughtlessness! The guards saw which way Antoine came. Well, we must reach the by-road before they do."
"That is impossible," said Romberg. "We should meet them before we arrived there."
"But if we wait here they will be upon us in a few minutes. And, if we resume our way towards Melsungen, we shall meet the party that Antoine discovered. Hark, I can hear that party now!"
Romberg looked around, scanning the dark country on both sides of the road. Here the land was quite clear of trees, and every object was now and then made visible by the appearance of the moon through cloud-rifts.