“I’ll fight him,” murmured Chase, wiping his brow.

“Deuce take it, man, he won’t fight you,” said Baggs.  “He’s a prince, you know.  He can’t, you know.  It’s a beastly mess.”

“Perhaps—­perhaps you’d better go at once,” said the Princess, rather pathetically.  “My father will not overlook the indignity to—­to my—­to his future son-in-law.  I am afraid he may take extreme measures.  Believe me, I understand why you did it and I—­again I thank you.  I am not angry with you, yet you will understand that I cannot condone your kind fault.”

“Forgive me,” muttered the hapless Chase.

“It would not be proper in me to say that I could bless you for what you have done,” she said, so naively that he lifted his eyes to hers and let his heart escape heavenward.

“The whole world will call me a bungling, stupid ass for not knowing who he was,” said Chase, with a wretched smile.

Her face brightened after a moment, and an entrancing smile broke around her lips.

“If I were you, I’d never confess that I did not know who he was,” she said.  “Let the world think that you did know.  It will not laugh, then.  If you can trust your friend to keep the secret, I am sure you can trust me to do the same.”

Again Chase was speechless—­this time with joy.  She would shield him from ridicule!

“And now, please go!  It were better if you went at once.  I am afraid the affair will not end with to-night.  It grieves me to feel that I may be the unhappy cause of misfortune to you.”

“No misfortune can appal me now,” murmured he gallantly.  Then came the revolting realisation that she was to wed the little musician.  The thought burst from his lips before he could prevent:  “I don’t believe you want to marry him.  He is the Duke’s choice.  You—­”

“And I am the Duke’s daughter,” she said steadily, a touch of hauteur in her voice.  “Good-night.  Good-bye.  I am not sorry that it has happened.”

She turned and left them, walking swiftly among the trees.  A moment later her voice came from the shadows, quick and pleading.

“Hasten,” she called softly.  “They are coming.  I can see them.”

Baggs grasped Chase by the arm and hurried him through the gate, past the unsuspecting sentry.  They did not know that the Princess, upon meeting the soldiers, told them that the two men had gone toward the palace instead of out into the city streets.  It gave them half an hour’s start.

“It’s a devil of a mess,” sighed Baggs, when they were far from the walls.  “The Duke may have you jugged, and it would serve you jolly well right.”

“Now, see here, Baggs, none of that,” growled Chase.  “You’d have done the same thing if you hadn’t been brought up to fall on your face before royalty.  It will cost me my job here, but I’m glad I did it.  Understand?”

“I’m sure it will cost you the job if nothing else.  You’ll be relieved before to-morrow night, my word for it.  And you’ll be lucky if that’s all.  The Duke’s a terror.  I don’t, for the life of me, see how you failed to know who the chap really is.”